NSA: "Dozens of attacks" prevented by our snooping
The National Security Agency has defended its slurping of phone records and other business data on the grounds the information contained has helped it fight terrorism.
In a congressional hearing on cybersecurity and government surveillance on Tuesday, NSA Director General Keith Alexander said the NSA's data slurping had let it avert terror attacks.
"It's dozens of terrorist events that these have helped prevent," Alexander said. He said it was the NSA's "intent" to get specific figures on the number of attacks prevent out in the next week. The phone records were crucial for "disrupting or contributing to the disruption of terrorist attacks" both in the US and abroad, Alexander said,.
