Snowden's "I had the authorities to wiretap anyone" wasn't a lie

While I think the outrage at the NSA's snooping is more than just a little late (most of the broad strokes of the NSA's signals intelligence programs were public over four years ago) it's fascinating how new details keep emerging most notably from UK's The Guardian newspaper, the paper that Edward Snowden leaked the NSA documents to in the first place.

One of the most interesting os these new details is a system the NSA apparently calls "XKeyscore" and its revelation supports one of Snowden's claims that most people found hard to believe:

    I had the authorities to wiretap anyone - you, a federal judge, to even the president if I had a personal email.

In fact, US officials denied Snowden's claim and the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Rogers, actually said: "He's lying. It's impossible for him to do what he was saying he could do."