The Magical Ever Expanding Marvel of the Foiled Terror Plots and Why Americans Should Be Grateful They Violated The Constitution. For Our Own Good Of Course ! ;)

NSA Chief: Spying Foiled 50 Terror Plots

BoazGuttman

 


*******************************************************************************

The Hill

NSA chief: Spying foiled terror plots

By Carlo Muñoz and Justin Sink - 06/12/13 08:27 PM ET

Classified National Security Agency programs have prevented dozens of terrorist plots, the agency’s director told a Senate panel Wednesday. Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee, NSA chief Keith Alexander cited Najibullah Zazi’s plot to bomb New York’s subways in 2009 as one of many foiled attacks on the nation.

“It’s dozens of terrorist events that these have helped prevent, from my perspective,” Alexander said, referring to the agency’s recently disclosed domestic surveillance programs.Two previously unknown NSA programs were revealed last week in leaks by 29-year-old defense contractor Edward Snowden. Wednesday’s Appropriations Committee hearing was Alexander’s first public appearance since the programs became public. The NSA director said intelligence officials caught wind of the New York subway plot thanks to the PRISM program, which pulls data from tech companies on foreign Internet users. PRISM “was the one that allowed us to know it was happening,” Alexander said. The second program, which allows the NSA to sweep all cellphones on the Verizon network, played a key role in the federal manhunt for Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the brothers accused of bombing the Boston Marathon. Alexander’s claims are in sharp contrast with Sen. Mark Udall’s (D-Colo.) remarks last week. Udall, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said there is no proof that the NSA’s collection of phone records has helped thwart any terror plots. Alexander and U.S. intelligence officials are in the midst of compiling details of all the terror plots foiled by both programs, and they plan to send that report to Congress. “What we need to do is bring as many facts out as possible to the American people … to have this very public debate,” Alexander added.

Read More and Watch Video Here


******************************************************************************

Image source Image Source

*****************************************************************************

Senators Wyden And Udall Say They've Seen No Evidence That NSA Surveillance Stopped Dozens Of Terrorist Attacks

from the because-it-probably-didn't dept

During a cybersecurity hearing yesterday in the Senate, NSA boss General Keith Alexander was asked a bunch of questions about the NSA surveillance scandal. At one point, he claimed that he didn't have an exact number of cases in which the dragnet of information collected had stopped terrorist activity, but that it was "dozens" and that he would provide more info in a classified session (held today). However, Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall -- both on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and both paying close attention to these issues -- have put out a statement today saying that they've seen no evidence of this and they'd like General Alexander to clarify.

"We have not yet seen any evidence showing that the NSA's dragnet collection of Americans' phone records has produced any uniquely valuable intelligence. Gen. Alexander's testimony yesterday suggested that the NSA’s bulk phone records collection program helped thwart 'dozens' of terrorist attacks, but all of the plots that he mentioned appear to have been identified using other collection methods. The public deserves a clear explanation," Udall and Wyden said. "We look forward to reviewing the analysis that the general has promised to provide showing how the intelligence community arrived at these numbers. 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."

There's a big distinction in there that many defenders of the program -- both politicians and press -- keep glossing over. The question is not whether the data itself was ever used in terrorist investigations, but whether or not this particular dragnet program was necessary to obtain that information. Law enforcement has had legal means of getting specific information for decades without having to resort to collecting all information to sift through later.

*****************************************************************************

Number of Plots Thwarted by NSA Spying Suddenly Changed

TheYoungTurks

Published on Jun 18, 2013

 

"Some of the most senior intelligence and law enforcement officials in the United States strongly defended the National Security Agency's broad surveillance efforts on Tuesday, saying they had disrupted more than 50 terrorist plots around the world."*

NSA Director Keith Alexander seems to be wavering on his answer when speaking about the extent of the NSA surveillance programs and how useful this program actually is. What are the real answers, and did Alexander perjure himself? Cenk Uygur and Sam Seder (Host, Majority Report) discuss. *Read more from The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/... Support The Young Turks by Subscribing http://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungt... Like Us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tytnation Follow Us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks Support TYT for FREE by doing your Amazon shopping through this link (bookmark it!) http://www.amazon.com/?tag=theyoungtu... Buy TYT Merch: http://theyoungturks.spreadshirt.com/ Support The Young Turks by becoming a member of TYT Nation at http://www.tytnetwork.com/member-opti.... Your membership supports the day to day operations and is vital for our continued success and growth. In exchange, we provided members only bonuses! We tape a special Post Game show Mon-Thurs and you get access to the entire live show at your convenience in video, audio and podcast formats.

*****************************************************************************

Related articles

• Sens. Wyden & Udall: We Have Seen No Evidence NSA Surveillance Has Prevented 'Dozens Of Terrorist Events' (mediaite.com)
• Greenwald: NSA Director is 'Misleading' the Public (philosophers-stone.co.uk)
• NSA chief: 'Dozens' of terrorist plots foiled by NSA programs (thehill.com)
• Senators Wyden And Udall: We've Seen No Evidence That NSA Surveillance Stopped Dozens Of Terrorist Attacks (patdollard.com)
• The Senate is broken when it comes to oversight, too (dailykos.com)
• NSA to release details of attacks it claims were foiled by surveillance (wikileaks-forum.com)
• The NSA's Phone Record Database Is 'Essential,' but We Can't Cite a Single Case Where That Was True (reason.com)
• US cyber spying foiled over 50 terror plots worldwide, including India (ibnlive.in.com)
• Senators Challenge NSA's Claim to Have Foiled 'Dozens' of Terror Attacks (dailyqueernews.wordpress.com)
• FBI: Surveillance thwarted bombings of NYC stock exchange and subway (kstreet607.com)