The NSA does not need a court order to search the database it maintains of the call data surrendered by the nation’s telecommunications firms, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein told reporters on Thursday. Feinstein spoke to reporters after a briefing on NSA monitoring by top Obama administration national security officials. She echoed an explanation given by NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander when he appeared before a Senate panel on Wednesday, including the specific legal hurdle NSA says it must clear before it can look into the data it collects.
