NSA leaksNSA director: surveillance programs prevented “dozens” of terror attacks

Gen. Keith Alexander, the director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, told lawmakers yesterday (Wednesday) that the NSA’s electronic surveillance programs have been indispensable in thwarting “dozens” of terrorist attacks on targets in the United States and abroad.

Fox News reports that Gen. Alexander specifically referred to two intelligence collection programs – one collecting metadata on Verizon customers’ phone calls, the other collecting metadata on Internet communications using the servers of the seven leading U.S. ISPs.

Gen Alexander, testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee, gave as examples the cases of Najibullah Zazi, an Afghan American who pleaded guilty to planning suicide attacks in New York, and Pakistani American David Headley, who conducted surveillance in support of the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India, which killed more than 160 people.

Alexander said that in both cases, the Internet data-mining program was essential in unraveling the plots.

He told the senators that securing a “cyber arena” could be done without infringing upon the privacy rights of Americans. “We do not see a tradeoff between security and liberty,” Alexander said, later adding, “We are trying to protect Americans.”

Alexander told the lawmakers that his agency will, within days, make public records showing the success of the phone program in preventing attacks.

“I don’t have those figures today,” he said. “Over the next week it will be our intent to get those figures out…I want the American people to know we’re being transparent here.’’

Alexander said that his officials would brief the Senate Intelligence Committee behind closed doors before any other information became public.

He said, though, that some details would remain classified and shared only with lawmakers, not the public, “because if we tell the terrorists every way that we’re going to track them, they will get through and Americans will die.”

He added that he would rather be criticized by people who believed he was hiding something “than jeopardize the security of this country.”

Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) asked whether it was true or false that the NSA could, as Snowden had claimed, “tap into virtually any American’s phone calls or e-mails” including the U.S. president’s.

“False,” Gen. Alexander responded. “I know of no way to do that.”

Lawmakers pointed out during the hearings that the order that allowed for the NSA collection of phone records of millions of Americans was based on Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows law enforcement to obtain a broad variety of “business records,” including calling records. The program collects customer “metadata,” including the phone numbers dialed and the length of calls, which is used by intelligence analysts to detect patterns and personal connections, on every phone call made or received by U.S. customers of major American phone companies.

The Washington Post reports that a senior intelligence official said Wednesday that the CIA has opened an internal investigation to determine what Snowden was involved in when he worked there. Separately, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has ordered a damage assessment following Snowden’s disclosures.

“Obviously, Mr. Snowden’s actions over the past week-plus are generating a lot of activity on the part of the intelligence community and the CIA (in terms of taking) a look back and seeing what we can learn about just what he may have been involved in, and also see if there are some lessons we can learn,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing inquiry, told the Post.

Alexander can expect similar questions and concerns to those he heard on Wednesdaywhen he testifies Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee.