Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Top security officials said Tuesday they disrupted more than 50 terrorist plots using government surveillance, The New York Times reports. Trying to fend off fierce criticism about the recent disclosure of government surveillance, national security officers told the House Intelligence Committee that investigators used the private information to prevent terrorist attacks. One…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com At least 27 accused terrorists were prosecuted since 2007 using evidence obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Reuters reports. The FISA cases vary from murder to an 18-year-old American trying to join an al-Qaeda-linked group in Syria. As early as today, the U.S. government plans to disclose how many terrorist attacks…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Former Vice President Dick Cheney said the NSA database of phone and Internet records that were recently disclosed by a self-proclaimed whistleblower would have been useful in the fight against terrorism, NECN reports. “We might have been able to prevent 9/11,” said Former Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney is among those…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Hoping to quell criticism of the National Security Agency’s widespread telephone data surveillance programs, federal officials plan to announce Monday the number of terror plot foiled by monitoring, Reuters reports. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, announced the agency’s plans after NSA Chief General Keith Alexander said dozens of…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The FBI is intensifying the hunt. Director Robert Mueller said the agency is stepping up efforts to arrest the defense contractor responsible for leaking information about the federal government’s sweeping surveillance programs, Reuters reports. Mueller, who confirmed an investigation is underway, said the leak damaged U.S. national security. “We are taking all…
By GINGER GIBSON Politico WASHINGTON — FBI Director Robert Mueller defended the amassing of widespread phone records, before a House Committee, saying had it been in place before the Sept. 11 attacks, the attacks could have been “derailed” and that it was used to track a friend of the Boston Marathon bombers. Monitoring calls between…
Steve Neavling ticklthewire.com FBI Director Robert Mueller is expected to undergo tough questions today as he nears the end of his 12 years at the helm, the Associated Press reports. In what likely will be his final appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, Mueller likely will be grilled about the Boston Marathon bombings investigation, the…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The director of the National Security Agency forcefully defended the surveillance programs Wednesday that kept tabs on Internet activity and collected millions of telephone records, the Associated Press reports. The once-secret programs, which was disclosed this month to an incensed public, were invaluable tools in the fight against terrorism, said NSA Director…
