In his statement defending the NSA telephone surveillance program, President Obama said that every member of Congress had been briefed. That statement was challenged by one Democratic Senator who said he had to get special permission in order to view the details because he wasn't on the intelligence committee. The Hill: Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on Friday disputed a claim President Obama made at a press conference only moments earlier, when the president said that every member of Congress had been briefed on the National Security Agency's (NSA) domestic phone surveillance program.Merkley said only select members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees had been briefed on the program, and that he was only aware of it because he obtained "special permission" to review the pertinent documents after hearing about it second-hand. "I knew about the program because I specifically sought it out," Merkley said on MSNBC. "It's not something that's briefed outside the ...(Read Full Post)