Republican attacks Glenn Greenwald for NSA reporting: 'He doesn't have a clue'

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) said whoever leaked information about the U.S. National Security Agency's telephone surveillance program should be prosecuted.

Near the end of an interview on ABC's This Week, the congressman also attacked the person who first reported the story: Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald.

"I absolutely believe that someone did not have authorization to release this information," Rogers said. "And why that's so important, George, is because they didn't have all of the information.  I know your reporter that you interviewed, Greenwald, says that he's got it all and now is an expert on the program.  He doesn't have a clue how this thing works.  Nether did the person who released just enough information to literally be dangerous."

Greenwald, who has long been a civil liberties and human rights advocate, obtained a secret court order that authorized the NSA to collect the telephone records of millions of Verizon customers. On Wednesday, he reported that the court order revealed the agency was amassing telephone records indiscriminately.

Rogers said whoever leaked the court order to the press had other "methods" to get the information out.

"He could come to the committees, if they had concern," he claimed. "We have IGs that they can go to in a classified way if they have concern.  Taking a very sensitive classified program that targets foreign person on foreign lands, and putting just enough out there to be dangerous, is dangerous to us, it's dangerous to our national security and it violates the oath of which that person took.  I absolutely think they should be prosecuted."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who was also interviewed, agreed that whoever leaked the information should be prosecuted.

Watch video, uploaded to YouTube, below: