Rand Paul Slams Surveillance State 'Drunk With Power'

Sen. Rand Paul delivered a blistering critique of America's spy agencies on Wednesday, likening the surveillance state to the "dystopian nightmares" of literature and arguing that a growing number of his colleagues on Capitol Hill now fear an intelligence apparatus that is "drunk with power."

"If you have a cell phone, you are under surveillance," Paul warned an auditorium of more than 350 at the University of California (Berkeley), adding, "I believe what you do on your cell phone is none of their damned business."

He demanded stronger oversight, calling for a new, bipartisan select committee to monitor the nation's intelligence agencies. "It should watch the watchers," he said.

Paul said the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency have run amok. The intelligence world, he said, had wrongly interpreted that "equal protection means Americans should be spied upon equally."