A 'fun' bit of weasel-wording by the chairman of the House intelligence committee: "He's lying. It's impossible for him to do what he was saying he could do." They seem to be denying it, but all they're really denying is that Snowden had access to the system personally.
They mean he didn't have the "capability" to "collect" that data, which in NSA newspeak means he had the technical means, but not the legal authorization to do so.
