Spying scandal creates unlikely US alliance, uniting far left, far right

American liberals and libertarians rarely see eye to eye - but they have united behind demands for more transparency following the revelations of vast and secretive US surveillance.

The unlikely alliance has brought together the Democratic Party's far left and the ultraconservative Republican "tea party", both of which are suspicious of the surveillance programmes, which US officials insist are needed to prevent terror attacks.

During hearings last week with the directors of the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, both sides took to task their parties' congressional leaders, who had long known about the spying programmes.

"The mere fact that some members may have been briefed in a classified setting does not indicate our approval or support of these programmes," said John Conyers, one of the most liberal Democrats in the House of Representatives. "It's not a partisan concern and it is one that applies both to the present administration and to the last one, as well. It's my fear that we are on the verge of becoming a surveillance state, collecting billions of electronic records on law-abiding Americans every single day."

The hearings came after government contractor Edward Snowden leaked details of a programme to mine telephone logs and another that acquired data from internet giants, including Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook.

Hours after Conyers spoke, Republican Rand Paul, a "tea party" favourite and fan of libertarian philosopher Ayn Rand, said he was filing a lawsuit against the NSA for abuse of power.