U.S. Intelligence Officials Defend Surveillance Programs as Preventing ‘Over 50’ Attacks
A pair of controversial National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs that collect phone metadata and user data from online services have helped prevent “potential terrorist events over 50 times since 9/11,” NSA Director Keith Alexander told a House Intelligence Committee hearing Tuesday. At least 10 of those threats involved U.S. targets, though Alexander and other intelligence officials only disclosed details of two new cases Tuesday. The programs are “immensely valuable for protecting our nation and securing the security of our allies,” Alexander said. Most members of the committee defended the programs Tuesday, with Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., a former FBI agent, inviting Alexander and other officials to dispel the “laundry list” of “incomplete information” that has circulated since news of the programs leaked earlier this month.
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Ranking Member Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., also defended the programs, saying Tuesday’s hearing was meant to “set the record straight and the American people can hear directly from the intelligence community as to what is allowed -- and what is not -- under the law.” Ruppersberger told us Monday that the hearing was also meant to educate his fellow Democrats on the need for the programs. A Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last week intended to examine implementation of President Barack Obama’s cybersecurity executive order instead mainly focused on grilling Alexander on the programs (CD June 13 p1).
Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, lamented that the leaks that disclosed details about the programs did not “talk about the big picture” and asked intelligence officials to discuss two cases declassified specifically to justify the programs’ anti-terrorism goals. The surveillance programs helped stop plans to blow up the New York Stock Exchange and to identify a San Diego man who was planning to give financial support to terrorists in Somalia, said Deputy FBI Director Sean Joyce. Officials had previously justified the programs by noting their role in investigations of planned suicide bombings in New York and an arrest in connection with the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. Information on other cases will be available through classified briefings to members of Congress set for Wednesday, Alexander said.
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., also used her time to get Alexander and other officials to dispel some of the rumors about the program’s scope. The government does not have databases that store the contents of citizens’ phone calls, emails or text messages, Alexander said. The NSA must destroy any data five years after they are collected, said NSA Deputy Director Chris Inglis. The NSA doesn’t spy on citizens without a court-ordered warrant, he said.
The real problem was that former Booz Allen contractor Edward Snowden “broke laws and chose to declassify highly sensitive classified information” on the NSA programs, Bachmann said. “It seems to me that’s where our focus should be -- on how there could be a betrayal of trust and how a traitor could do something like this to the American people,” she said. Snowden’s leaks caused “irreversible and significant damage” to U.S. intelligence capabilities, Alexander said. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., also defended the programs, but pressed Alexander to further detail how often each program was used in each of the more than 50 cases. Ninety percent of the more than 50 cases where the programs had prevented attacks involved the collection of user data from non-U.S. citizens under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, while “just over 10” cases involved collection of phone metadata under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, Alexander said.
Other committee Democrats were more critical of the NSA programs. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., said the “erosion of trust” caused by disclosures about the programs could have been avoided if there had been a public discussion about the programs when they were being planned. The intelligence community is working to declassify more opinions from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court like the one that compelled Verizon Communications to allow collection of phone metadata, said Robert Litt, Office of the Director of National Intelligence general counsel. Declassifying those orders has been difficult because classified information is interwoven with legal discussions, making some redacted versions of the orders incomprehensible, he said. Now that some of the information is public following the leaks, it may be possible to issue less redacted versions, Litt said. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said he plans to introduce a House version of a Senate bill that would require the attorney general to declassify any “substantive legal interpretations” of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court orders (CD June 12 p1).
Schiff “strongly” encouraged officials to look at restructuring the phone metadata collection program so the telecom companies would retain the metadata and intelligence officials would only request the metadata on specific cases. Restructuring that program would be desirable because U.S. citizens might be “much more comfortable” about the programs with the telecom company firewall, he said. Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the Department of Justice and FBI are looking at the programs’ structure. They plan to give Congress, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and the White House recommendations about possible changes.