The head of the National Security Agency (NSA) General Keith Alexander Tuesday denied media reports that the agency collected millions of European phone calls.
“Tthe assertions by reporters in France -- Le Monde -- Spain -- El Mundo -- and Italy -- L'Espresso -- that NSA collected tens of millions of phone calls are completely false. They cite as evidence screen shots of the results of a Web tool used for data management purposes. But both they and the person who stole the classified data did not understand what they were looking at,” said Alexander, head of the NSA, while speaking at a House Select Intelligence Committee hearing on potential reforms to America’s intelligence guidelines.
The hearing comes as some US lawmakers have called for changes to America’s intelligence guidelines.
Alexander added, “To be perfectly clear, this is not information that we collected on European citizens. It represents information that we and our NATO allies have collected in defense of our countries and in support of military operations.”
Media reports from Le Monde, El Mundo and L’Espresso each claim that the NSA collected massive troves of phone calls in their respective countries.
James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, responded to the reports, saying, “These disclosures are threatening our ability to conduct intelligence and to keep our country safe. There's no way to erase or make up for the damage that we know has already been done, and we anticipate even more as we continue our assessment and as more revelations are made.”
Responding to a question regarding the espionage activities of America’s allies, Clapper said that the Washington’s allies "absolutely" have been, and continue to be engaged in intelligence activities against the US.
He insisted that “there is no other country on this planet that has the magnitude of oversight over our intelligence enterprise as we do.”
Both Clapper and Alexander defended US intelligence efforts, saying that they have helped thwart terrorist activities.
Following a question on Al Qaeda’s ability to use global networks, including those in Europe, to facilitate terrorist operations, Alexander said the group “could absolutely” use them. He added that information gathered on these networks would be shared with US allies.
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