'Tip of the Iceberg': Senators Warn Far More Data May Not Be Safe [View all]

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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/06/13-0


During Wednesday's hearing, NSA Chief Keith Alexander was reluctant to divulge further details in public about the agency's dragnet surveillance practices. (Photo: Charles Dharapak/AP)

Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee took the opportunity Wednesday during a previously scheduled hearing to challenge the director of the National Security Agency about the extent of the agency's domestic surveillance, during which it was made clear that what has been revealed thus far is just the "tip of the iceberg."

Responding specifically to questions regarding whether "e-mail contacts" are being "vacuumed" by the Obama administration's clandestine interpretation of the Patriot Act's surveillance powers, NSA Chief Keith Alexander responded, "I don't want to make a mistake" and reveal too much. He added that disclosing such details may cause "our country to lose some sort of protection."

Alexander followed up by saying the topic of e-mail and other metadata surveillance is best discussed in a "classified session" which senators are scheduled to attend Thursday.

The two programs in question, which were revealed last week in a series of breaking stories by the Guardian—which had obtained the information by Edward Snowden, an employee of the contracted security firm Booz Allen—are supposedly distinct and are theoretically justified by different laws.