No Stopped Terrorist Plots
TechDirt notes:
Feinstein goes on to make … claims that have already been debunked:
Working in combination, the call-records database and other NSA programs have aided efforts by U.S. intelligence agencies to disrupt terrorism in the U.S. approximately a dozen times in recent years, according to the NSA. This summer, the agency disclosed that 54 terrorist events have been interrupted—including plots stopped and arrests made for support to terrorism. Thirteen events were in the U.S. homeland and nine involved U.S. persons or facilities overseas. Twenty-five were in Europe, five in Africa and 11 in Asia.
[The NSA chief himself admits the numbers are wildly inflated, and there were only "one or two" terrorist plots foiled. The NSA’s deputy director says that – at the most – one (1) plot might have been disrupted by the bulk phone records collection alone.]
Note the all important “and other NSA programs” language here. Also the use of “terrorist events” not plots. And, remember, those “thirteen events… in the U.S. homeland,” have since been whittled down to only one that actually relied on the call records program that she’s defending — and that wasn’t a terrorist plot but a cab driver in San Diego sending some cash to a Somali group judged to be a terrorist organization.
Specifically, the cab driver and 3 other men raised a total of $8,500 and sent it to Somalia.
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