Intelligence Sources are Drying Up for the NSA Due to “Leaks”
The U.S. Army general who runs the National Security Agency, in charge of the government surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden, say the disclosures and the resulting fallout have greatly distorted how they actually work and have caused some intelligence sources to dry up.
“We have concrete proof that they have already, terrorists groups and others, are taking action, making changes, and it’s going to make our job tougher,” said Gen. Keith Alexander, in an interview at the Aspen Security Conference in Colorado.
Alexander said it would be impossible to listen to every phone call and read every e-mail even if the government wanted to, which it does not. Consider, he said, the sheer volume — 114 billion e-mails, 24 billion text messages, and over 12 billion phone calls worldwide every day.
“We’re a foreign intelligence agency, we don’t have the technical capabilities to do that. You’d have to have AT&T’s and everybody else’s networks, and we don’t. We couldn’t compel them to listen to those phone calls. That would require a warrant and a finding of probable cause.”
Alexander said the telephone and internet surveillance programs revealed in Snowden’s leaks were court-approved but kept secret for a valid reason.
“The purpose of these programs, and the reason we use secrecy, is not to hide from the American people, not to hide it from you, but to hide it from those who walk among you who are trying to kill you.”
