WASHINGTON: The National Security Agency plans to reveal details about terror plots it says were thwarted by surveillance, part of an effort to assuage concern about is secret online snooping.
In a rare move, the NSA wants to declassify what its director says were dozens of foiled plots, which could help justify its sweeping operations in the eyes of skeptics worried about the vast amount of data being scooped up.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee, said NSA chief General Keith Alexander had aimed to release the information Monday, but that she had yet to hear from his office.
"I think what they want is to be certain that they're correct" about the data they declassify, she told reporters.
Congressional officials announced that Alexander, who told a US Senate panel last week that restoring the American people's trust in the NSA was a "sacred requirement," will appear before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.
The hearing's title -- "How Disclosed NSA Programs Protect Americans, and Why Disclosure Aids Our Adversaries" -- raises the prospect that his revelations would come during that testimony.
The intelligence community offered a weekend primer on the two programs at the heart of the controversy: the NSA's collection of telephone "metadata" -- but not content -- on billions of calls; and PRISM, a program that gathers digital communications, such as emails, which helps target foreign terrorists.
Both were approved by Congress, but concern has been raised by some lawmakers that the programs are being abused under President Barack Obama's administration.
"In recent years, the intelligence gathered under them has contributed to the disruption of dozens of potential terrorist plots here in the homeland and in more than 20 countries around the world," according to the overview.
"We are working to be able to provide more information about this."
It also stressed that the phone program, authorized under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, is subject to strict oversight and "does not allow the government to listen to anyone's phone calls."
Such action would require a secret FISA Court, set up under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, to determine that there is reasonable suspicion to further monitor suspects.
"In 2012, less than 300 unique identifiers met this standard and were queried," the intelligence statement said.
Feinstein said that was "a very small number of times" to invoke the reasonable suspicion threshold in order to access the trove of phone metadata.
House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers, who like Feinstein backs the programs, said Americans would become stronger supporters of the surveillance once they learn of its successes.
"If you can see just the number of cases where we've actually stopped a plot, I think Americans will come to a different conclusion than all the misleading rhetoric I've heard over the last few weeks," Rogers said Sunday.
Republican former vice president Dick Cheney, who was involved in crafting a predecessor surveillance program during the Bush administration, stepped forward to express his support.
"I think it's good that it is in operation," he told Fox News Sunday. "I think it has, in fact, saved lives and kept us free from other attacks."
Cheney also said he believed the defense contractor who leaked classified data about the programs, Edward Snowden, is "a traitor" who committed crimes in revealing details about spy operations.
Several US lawmakers have been openly critical of the programs, including Senator Mark Udall.
"I don't think collecting millions and millions of Americans' phone calls... is making us any safer," the Colorado Democrat told NBC Sunday talk show "Meet the Press."
Udall said he will introduce legislation this week that narrows the reach of Section 215 to include only "those who have a link to terrorism."
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