Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security...
Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency (NSA), needs to clarify a claim he made Wednesday that a pair of NSA programs that collect phone metadata and data from online services had thwarted “dozens” of terrorist attacks, said…
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Sens. Mark Udall, D-Colo., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/19vlR8R). Alexander defended the programs Wednesday during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, claiming they safeguarded U.S. security and respected citizens’ civil liberties. Though Alexander declined to disclose detailed information on the programs during Wednesday’s hearing, he said he would provide that information to senators and wanted to also disclose information to the public, if possible (CD June 13 p1). Udall and Wyden told Alexander Thursday “we have not yet seen any evidence showing that the NSA’s dragnet collection of Americans’ phone records has produced any uniquely valuable intelligence. ... In our view, a key measure of the effectiveness of the bulk collection program will be whether it provided any intelligence that couldn’t be obtained through other methods.” Alexander was among the officials who spoke at a classified Senate Intelligence Committee-organized briefing Thursday afternoon.