NSA spy programmes thwarted potential terrorist plots in 20 nations: Officials
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| 20 Nations at Threat |
WASHINGTON: Top US intelligence officials have said that information gleaned from two controversial data-collection programmes run by the National Security Agency thwarted potential terrorist plots in the US and more than 20 other countries and that gathered data is destroyed every five years.
Last year, fewer than 300 phone numbers were checked against the database of millions of US phone records gathered daily by the NSA in one of the programmes, the intelligence officials said in arguing that the programmes are far less sweeping than their detractors allege.
Last year, fewer than 300 phone numbers were checked against the database of millions of US phone records gathered daily by the NSA in one of the programmes, the intelligence officials said in arguing that the programmes are far less sweeping than their detractors allege.
No other new details about the plots or the countries involved were part of the newly declassified information released to Congress on Saturday and made public by the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Intelligence officials said they are working to declassify the dozens of plots NSA chief General Keith Alexander said were disrupted, to show Americans the value of the programmes, but that they want to make sure they don't inadvertently reveal parts of the US counterterrorism playbook in the process.
Intelligence officials said they are working to declassify the dozens of plots NSA chief General Keith Alexander said were disrupted, to show Americans the value of the programmes, but that they want to make sure they don't inadvertently reveal parts of the US counterterrorism playbook in the process.
Inside 'Prism' Success: Even Bigger Data Seizure
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| EVEN BIGGER DATA SEIZURE |
WASHINGTON — In the months and early years after 9/11, FBI agents began showing up at Microsoft Corp. more frequently than before, armed with court orders demanding information on customers.
Around the world, government spies and eavesdroppers were tracking the email and Internet addresses used by suspected terrorists. Often, those trails led to the world's largest software company and, at the time, largest email provider.
The agents wanted email archives, account information, practically everything, and quickly. Engineers compiled the data, sometimes by hand, and delivered it to the government.
Often there was no easy way to tell if the information belonged to foreigners or Americans. So much data was changing hands that one former Microsoft employee recalls that the engineers were anxious about whether the company should cooperate.
Inside Microsoft, some called it "Hoovering" – not after the vacuum cleaner, but after J. Edgar Hoover, the first FBI director, who gathered dirt on countless Americans.
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