[Infowarrior] - DIRNSA admits 'attacks foiled' stats are misleading

[Richard Forno]

NSA chief admits figures on terror plots foiled by snooping are misleading
By Shaun Waterman

The Washington Times

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/2/nsa-chief-figures-foiled-terror-plots-misleading/print/

The Obama administration issued misleading figures about terrorist plots foiled by the National Security Agency's warrantless mass-collection of records of Americans' every phone call, NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander admitted to lawmakers Wednesday.

"There is no evidence that [bulk] phone records collection helped to thwart dozens or even several terrorist plots," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, told Gen. Alexander of the 54 cases that administration officials have cited as the fruit of the NSA's controversial domestic snooping.

"These weren't all plots, and they weren't all foiled," he said.

The Vermont Democrat asked the general to admit that only 13 of the 54 cases had any connection at all to the United States, "Would you agree with that, yes or no?"

"Yes," replied Gen. Alexander, who is both director of NSA and commander of the U.S. military's Cyber Command. In response to a follow-up question, Mr. Alexander also acknowledged that only one or two of the cases cited by senior officials at previous hearings had actually been foiled by the NSA's vast database.

"The American people are getting left with an inaccurate impression of the effectiveness of NSA programs," Mr. Leahy said.

He added that details of the 54 cases, even those provided to lawmakers in special classified briefings, were "unconvincing."

"We get more from the newspapers than we do in the classified briefings that you give us," he told Gen. Alexander.

"And we get a crossword puzzle, too," he added.

"The government has not made its case that bulk collection of domestic phone records is an effective counterterrorism tool, especially in light of the intrusion on Americans' privacy," the senator concluded.

The NSA's bulk collection program uses a provision of the USA Patriot Act to acquire telephone company records of the time, duration and numbers calling and called of every single phone call made in the United States. It was exposed in documents leaked by former NSA contract computer technician Edward J. Snowden.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who testified alongside Gen. Alexander, told the hearing that the number of plots foiled should not be the only metric by which the success of the program is measured. "I think there's another metric here that's very important. ... I would call it the peace-of-mind metric."

He explained that they could also use the database to satisfy themselves that global terrorists abroad did not have connections or associates in the United States.


Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/2/nsa-chief-figures-foiled-terror-plots-misleading/#ixzz2gbZdQVjK 
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

---
Just because i'm near the punchbowl doesn't mean I'm also drinking from it.