Photo: Charles Dharapak 
 
 In response to Edward Snowden’s leaks, the government has tried to calm Americans by declaring that when it comes to online communications, “only non-U.S. persons outside the U.S. are targeted.” The rest of the world still found that information pretty unsettling, and now the New York Times reports that it’s not exactly true for Americans anyway. The NSA is sifting through most e-mail and text communications in and out of the country, and their search isn’t limited to Americans who deal directly with foreign targets. According to a document leaked by Snowden, the NSA is also looking for “communications about the target that are not to or from the target.” If you mention a terrorist’s e-mail address or phone number to a friend overseas, the NSA intends to find out. 
 
 The line was included in a list of rules about how the NSA can apply a 2008 law in which Congress approved warrantless eavesdropping, as long as the “target” was a foreigner abroad, and it was the only rule marked “top secret.” The document was posted online in June, but the line was mostly overlooked at the time. 
 
 The Times reports that the NSA conducts surveillance on communications that cross the border by temporarily copying the data, then having a computer search for keywords that flag content for humans to examine. One senior intelligence officer argued that the process doesn’t amount to bulk data collection, since the search process takes seconds and the data isn’t stored. The official wouldn’t comment on how much data is processed, but computer scientists said that due to the way the messages are transmitted, the government would have to collect and reconstruct nearly all information crossing the border to make sense of it. 
 
 Timothy Edgar, a former intelligence official in the Bush and Obama administrations, said there’s also “an ambiguity in the law about what it means to ‘target’ someone.” The government isn’t allowed to target Americans, but the conversation is fair game as long as one of the participants is a noncitizen outside the U.S. Even if the agency is examining communication from the American, technically the foreigner is the target. And thus, the president feels more comfortable declaring, “We don’t have domestic spying,” on the Tonight Show. ||||| 3 years ago 
 
 (CNN) - In a hearing Tuesday with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the director of the National Security Agency, Keith Alexander, said that since 9/11, there have been more than 50 terror plots thwarted with the help of NSA surveillance programs. 
 
 Four of those incidents were detailed at the hearing, including thwarted plots to bomb the New York subway system and the New York Stock Exchange by linking known suspects in Pakistan and Yemen to contacts in the United States. 
 
 NSA officials are set to disclose information about the other cases in a private session with lawmakers on Wednesday. 
 
 Still, there is a debate within the intelligence community about what can be revealed to prove these programs work versus what should stay classified for fear of burning sources and methods. 
 
 Check back here for updates from the hearing. 
 
 1:06 p.m. ET –– House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Michigan, wrapped up the hearing. 
 
 "I know this has been difficult to come and talk about very sensitive things in a public way. In order to preserve your good work and the work on behalf of all the patriots working to defend America, I still believe it was important to have a meeting where at least in some way discuss and reassure the level and oversight and redundancy of oversight on a program that we all recognize needed extra care and attention and lots of sets of eyes. I hope today in this hearing we were able to do that." 
 
 12: 40 p.m ET - 
 
 Rep. Rooney: "What's next for Mr. Snowden?" FBI deputy director: "Justice." #NSAhearing — Ashley Killough (@KilloughCNN) June 18, 2013 
 
 12:35 p.m. ET - Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota, asks how damaging the leaks are. 
 
 "I think it was irreversible and significant damage to this nation," Alexander said. 
 
 "Has this helped America’s enemies?" Bachmann asked. 
 
 "I believe it has and I believe it will hurt us and our allies," he said. 
 
 12:27 p.m. ET - Rep. Jim Himes, D-Connecticut, asked how many of those 50 episodes would have been thwarted without the use of phone records. "How essential–not just contributing to–but how essential are these authorities to stop terrorist attacks?" 
 
 Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who first reported the leaks, asked a similar question on Twitter Tuesday morning. 
 
 When officials claim that "Bulk Surveillance Program X" stopped Terror plots, must ask: could you have stopped it with narrower program? — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 18, 2013 
 
 Responding to Himes, Alexander said the surveillance programs are vital to preventing terrorism. 
 
 "Going back to 9/11, we didn't have the ability to connect the dots. This adds one more capability to help us do that," Alexander said in response. "What we're doing here, with the civil liberties and privacy oversight, does help connect the dots." 
 
 Alexander said 90% of the more than 50 plots were prevented in part because of the online surveillance–not phone records collection–of suspects overseas. "In 50%, I believe they were critical," he said. A little more than 10 of the 50 had a domestic nexus and were thus targeted using phone records. 
 
 Sean Joyce, deputy director of Federal Bureau of Investigation, also jumped in with a response to Himes. 
 
 "I think you ask an almost impossible question to say how important each dot was. What I can tell you is post 9/11, I don't recognize the FBI I came into 26 years ago. Our mission is to stop terrorism, to prevent it, not after the fact, to prevent it before it happens in the United States. I can tell you every tool is essential and vital," Joyce said. "You ask: How can you put the value on an American life? And I can tell you it's priceless." 
 
 12:20 p.m. ET - Robert S. Litt, general counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said NSA leaker Edward Snowden "wasn't nearly as familiar with these programs as he's portrayed himself to be." 
 
 "This is what happens when somebody who sees a tiny corner of things thinks it gives him inside (understanding) into the whole program," he said. 
 
 12:01 p.m. ET - Rep. Devin Nunes, R-California, brought up other controversies plaguing the Obama administration–the IRS scandal, "Fast and Furious," Justice Department leak investigations, and the U.S. consulate attack in Benghazi–and asked NSA officials to offer assurance that the agency is not leaking information itself. 
 
 Responding, Alexander said all the information the NSA disseminates is "100% auditable" and they have "not seen one of our analysts willfully do something wrong." The only mistakes he has seen are "honest mistakes," listing a typo as an example. 
 
 Nunes further pressed officials, asking them to explain the seriousness of the leaks. 
 
 Sean Joyce, deputy director of Federal Bureau of Investigation, said they're conducting a "criminal investigation" and repeatedly described the leaks as "egregious." 
 
 "We are revealing in front of you today methods and techniques. I have told you, the examples I gave you how important they have been. The first core al Qaeda plot to attack the United States post 9-11 we used one of these programs. Another plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange we used these programs. And now here we are talking about this in front of the world. So I think those leaks affect us," he said. 
 
 New CNN/ORC Poll: A slight majority of those questioned in the poll disapprove of the actions of the man who leaked sensitive information about the NSA program. And a similar amount say Edward Snowden, who fled to Hong Kong, should be brought back to the U.S. and prosecuted 
 
 Snowden: Obama expanded program 
 
 11:36 a.m. ET - Reached by CNNMoney, the New York Stock Exchange declined to comment on the thwarted bomb plot. 
 
 Yahoo: What gov. wanted from us 
 
 11:35 a.m. ET - Asked if they plan to release the court opinions on NSA requests for phone and Internet intelligence gathering, Robert S. Litt, general counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said they are looking into that. 
 
 11:17 a.m ET - Elaborating further on the disrupted terrorist attacks, Sean Joyce, deputy director of Federal Bureau of Investigation, said federal agencies used Internet surveillance–known as PRISM or Section 702 of the Patriot Act–to identify an extremist who was communicating with an individual in Kansas City. They were in the "very early stages" of plotting to bomb the New York Stock Exchange, he said. 
 
 Asked if their intention to bomb the NYSE was "serious," Joyce said, "The jury considered it serious since (the suspects) were all convicted." 
 
 In another instance, Joyce said they used phone records–Section 215–to identify an individual in San Diego who had "indirect contact" and who was providing financial support to an extremist outside of the United States. 
 
 11:13 a.m ET - Democratic Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, ranking member on House Intelligence Committee, asked Alexander if he feels like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is a rubber stamp in the sense that it approves all requests from the NSA to pursue investigations. 
 
 Alexander said he does not think the court acts in such a manner and praised the the federal judges on the court as "superb," adding that they "go back and forth to make sure we do this exactly right." 
 
 11:12 a.m. ET - New CNN/ORC Poll: Just over six in ten Americans say they believe that government is so large and powerful that it threatens the rights and freedoms of ordinary Americans. 
 
 Obama: I'm no Dick Cheney 
 
 11:10 a.m. ET - House Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers asks if the NSA has the ability to "flip a switch" and listen to Americans' phone calls or read emails 
 
 Alexander said they do not have the authority or technology to do that. 
 
 11:04 a.m. ET - Deputy Attorney General James Cole said that because of the leaks, the government runs the risk of losing its capability to operate the collection programs. He did not say why but said they won't know for several months how the leaks affected the agency's surveillance abilities. 
 
 10:57 a.m. ET - Alexander said the NSA does not unilaterally collect information from Internet companies under Section 702. The companies are compelled to provide that information by law, he said. 
 
 Facebook, Microsoft disclose information on user data requests 
 
 10:55 a.m. ET - NSA official says phone record data collected under Section 215 must be destroyed five years after acquired. 
 
 10:45 a.m. ET - Sean Joyce, deputy director of Federal Bureau of Investigation, said the surveillance programs–specifically the program that gathers intelligence from Internet companies–helped stop a plot to bomb the office of the Danish newspaper that came under heat for publishing a cartoon of Mohammed in 2006. 
 
 In the United States, the program also helped them thwart a plan to bomb the New York City subway system and a plan to bomb the New York Stock Exchange, he said. 
 
 Read the full accounts from Joyce below. 
 
 New York City subway: "In the fall of 2009, NSA using 702 authority intercepted an email from a terrorist located in Pakistan. That individual was talking with an individual located inside the United States talking about perfecting a recipe for explosives. Through legal process that individual was identified as Najibullah Zazi. He was located in Denver, Colorado. The FBI followed him to NYC. Later we executed search warrants with the NY joint terrorism task force and NYPD and found bomb making components in backpacks. Zazi later confessed to a plot to bomb the NY subway system with backpacks. Also working with FISA business records the NSA was able to provide a previously unknown number of one of the co-conspirators Adis Medunjanin. This was the first core al Qaeda plot since 9-11 directed from Pakistan." 
 
 New York Stock Exchange: "NSA utilizing 702 authority was monitoring a known extremist in Yemen. This individual was in contact with an individual in the United States named Khalid Ouazzani. Ouazzani and other individuals that we identified through a FISA that the FBI applied for through the FISC, were able to detect a nascent plotting to bomb the NYSE. Ouazzani had been providing information and support to this plot. The FBI disrupted and arrested these individuals." 
 
 Danish newspaper: "David Headley, a U.S citizen living in Chicago. The FBI received intelligence regarding his possible involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks responsible for the killing of over 160 people. Also, NSA through 702 coverage of an al Qaeda affiliated terrorist, found that Headley was working on a plot to bomb a Danish newspaper office that had published the cartoon depictions prophet Muhammad. In fact, Headley later confessed to personally conducting surveillance of the Danish newspaper office. He and his co-conspirators were convicted of this plot." 
 
 FBI probe: "Lastly, the FBI had opened an investigation shortly after 9-11. We did not have enough information nor did we find links to terrorism so we shortly thereafter closed the investigation. However, the NSA using the business record FISA, tipped us off that this individual had indirect contacts with a known terrorist overseas. We were able to reopen this investigation, identify additional individuals through the legal process and were able to disrupt this terrorist activity." 
 
 10:40 a.m. ET - For Section 702 of the Patriot Act, which permits the collection and surveillance of information from Internet companies, Cole said only those living outside of the United States can be targeted. 
 
 10:30 a.m .ET - Cole said that the Fourth Amendment does not apply to Section 215, the part of the Patriot Act that permits the collection of phone records. 
 
 He said people should not expect privacy on such metadata, which includes the phone numbers, the time at which phone conversations took place and the duration of those calls. 
 
 10:25 a.m. ET - Deputy Attorney General James Cole listed some of the criteria for an NSA analyst to access phone conversations. As part of the oversight process, the NSA must get permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. 
 
 While requesting permission, they must prove that person they want to investigate is involved with some sort of terrorist organization. To prove affiliation, the NSA must have independent evidence aside from personal writings, statements, etc, from the person they want to investigate that the individual is linked to an organization. 
 
 "You have to have additional evidence beyond that that indicates there is reasonable suspicion," he said. 
 
 Read more: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers said Sunday that the NSA was "not listening to" Americans' phone calls. 
 
 10:22 a.m. ET - Alexander said they will bring classified documents to Capitol Hill Wednesday that detail all 50 cases in which the NSA programs helped prevent a terror plot. As reported already on CNN, he will present two of those publicly Tuesday. 
 
 However, they will not publicly release all of the cases, saying that would give away the NSA's secrets in how it tracks suspected terrorists. 
 
 "Too much is at risk for us and our allies," he said. 
 
 Alexander described the programs as "critical" for the government's counterterrorism efforts. If they had the phone surveillance program–known as Section 215 under the Patriot Act–before the September 11, 2001 attacks, he argued, they may have been able to track phone conversations between one of the hijackers living in San Francisco and a co-conspirator in Yemen. 
 
 10:20 a.m. ET - "In recent years these programs, together with other intelligence, have protected the U.S. and our allies from terrorist threats across the globe to include helping prevent the potential terrorist events over 50 times since 9-11," Alexander said. 
 
 10:19 a.m. ET - In his opening statements, Alexander said the leaked information about the phone records and Internet data sparked "considerable debate" in recent days, but the debate has been fueld by "incomplete and inaccurate information." 
 
 "Today we will provide additional detail and context on these programs to help inform that debate," he said. 
 
 10:16 a.m. ET - New CNN/ORC Poll: Americans are split on the controversial National Security Agency anti-terrorism program to record metadata on U.S. phone calls, but they support the NSA program that targets records of internet usage by people in other countries. 
 
 10:08 a.m. ET - House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Michigan, made his opening remarks. 
 
 "I look forward to hearing from all of the witnesses about the extensive protections and oversight in place for these programs. General Alexander, we look forward to hearing what you’re able to discuss in an open forum about how the data that you obtain from providers under the Business Records provision is used; and Deputy Attorney General Cole, we look forward to hearing more about the legal authorities themselves, and the state of the law on what privacy protections Americans’ have in business records," he said, according to his prepared remarks. 
 
 "General Alexander, you and I have talked over the past week about the need to be able to publicly elaborate on the success stories these authorities have contributed to without jeopardizing ongoing operations," he added. "I place the utmost value in protecting sources and methods, but I also recognize that when we are forced into the position of having to publicly discuss intelligence programs due to irresponsible, criminal behavior that we also have to carefully balance the need for secrecy with educating the public." ||||| In response to claims by Edward Snowden that he raised concerns about NSA spying in emails sent to the spy agency's legal office, the NSA released a statement and a copy of the only email it says it found from Snowden. 
 
 That email, the agency says, asked a question about legal authority and hierarchy but did not raise any concerns. 
 
 "NSA has now explained that they have found one e-mail inquiry by Edward Snowden to the Office of General Counsel asking for an explanation of some material that was in a training course he had just completed," the NSA said in a statement. "The e-mail did not raise allegations or concerns about wrongdoing or abuse, but posed a legal question that the Office of General Counsel addressed. There was not additional follow-up noted. 
 
 "There are numerous avenues that Mr. Snowden could have used to raise other concerns or whistleblower allegations," the statement continued. "We have searched for additional indications of outreach from him in those areas and to date have not discovered any engagements related to his claims." 
 
 But Ben Wizner, Snowden’s legal advisor and director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said the NSA is being disingenuous. 
 
 “Snowden raised many complaints over many channels," he said in a statement today. "The NSA is releasing a single part of a single exchange after previously claiming that no evidence existed.” 
 
 The email, dated April 5, 2013, which was sent shortly before Snowden departed Hawaii for Hong Kong and released thousands of NSA documents to journalists, asks a question about the agency's mandatory USSID 18 training and Executive Orders – orders that come from the president. 
 
 In his email, Snowden asked about the hierarchy for such presidential orders, asking whether these have the same precedence as law. 
 
 "My understanding is that EOs may be superseded by federal statute, but EOs may not override statute. Am I correct in this?" he wrote. He also wanted to know which of Department of Defense regulations and regulations from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence have greater precedence. 
 
 There is no mention of a concern about how the NSA is using these regulations or overstepping its legal bounds. This does not, however, rule out that other emails from Snowden exist that the NSA has not found or is not releasing. 
 
 Snowden said in an interview with NBC Nightly News, aired last night, that he registered his concerns about the government's surveillance via official and unofficial NSA channels on a number of occasions. 
 
 “The NSA has records, they have copies of emails right now to their Office of General Counsel, to their oversight and compliance folks, from me raising concerns about the NSA’s interpretations of its legal authorities,” he said. 
 
 “I reported that there were real problems with the way the NSA was interpreting its legal authorities, and the response more or less in bureaucratic language was, ‘You should stop asking questions,’” he said. “These are recent records; this isn’t ancient history. One of my final official acts in government was continuing one of these communications with a legal office.” 
 
 Snowden told the Washington Post previously that he had raised concerns with the NSA more than 10 times before he resorted to leaking documents to journalists. 
 
 He also says he raised his concerns with supervisors and colleagues, many of whom were shocked by the programs and agreed with him that the NSA might be going too far but warned him that he would be destroyed if he made an issue of it.* 
 
 The NSA continues to insist, however, that Snowden did not raise concerns. 
 
 In the one email the NSA did release, Snowden's question about Executive Orders is a relevant and important one, however, even if he did not directly register his concerns. This is because the NSA used Executive Order 12333 to collect foreign intelligence abroad in a manner that doesn't require it to seek permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. 
 
 The NSA has called EO 12333 a "foundational authority by which NSA collects, retains, analyzes and disseminates foreign signals’ intelligence information" that primarily targets “communications by foreign persons that occur wholly outside the United States.” Such collection, however, is a concern because it can also vacuum up the communication of U.S. citizens, whether inadvertently or not, without oversight from the FISA Court. 
 
 In its response to Snowden's April inquiry, the NSA's Office of General Counsel wrote that Executive Orders "have the force and effect of law" but that they do not override statute. 
 
 With regard to the reference in Snowden's email to his USSID 18 training, this refers to United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 — an NSA rule that bars overseas surveillance of Americans without authorization and probable cause. 
 
 Generally, when incidental interception of American communications occurs, there are procedures for handling these intercepts. Under USSID 18, recordings of such calls are supposed to be abandoned and destroyed when a U.S. citizen is identified. The only exceptions to this rule are when the attorney general affirms that the surveillance target is believed to be an agent of a foreign power, or the purpose of the collection is to acquire "significant foreign intelligence information." 
 
 William Weaver, who worked in the U.S. Army signals intelligence for eight years in Berlin and Augsberg, Germany, told Wired in 2010 that USSID 18 training was taken very serious. 
 
 "The way USSID 18 was treated by us was that it came down from God and was sacrosanct," said Weaver, now an assistant professor of political science at the University of Texas, El Paso. "We were told at training and many times after that, that if you violated USSID 18 you could spend the rest of your life in prison. The mindset was that you do not intercept U.S. citizens. And the minute you recognized that you intercepted, you immediately reported up the chain of command." 
 
 Some of Snowden's revelations over the last year, however, have indicated that the government is not careful about the collection and handling of U.S. communications. 
 
 The ACLU's Wizner says the issue around the email the NSA released is "a red herring." 
 
 "The problem was not some unknown and isolated instance of misconduct," he said in his statement. "The problem was that an entire system of mass surveillance had been deployed – and deemed legal – without the knowledge or consent of the public." 
 
 * UPDATE 5.30.14: Snowden, in an exchange with the Washington Post, called the NSA's release of a single email "tailored and incomplete." He said that the release "does not include my correspondence with the Signals Intelligence Directorate’s Office of Compliance, which believed that a classified executive order could take precedence over an act of Congress, contradicting what was just published. 
 
 "It also did not include concerns about how indefensible collection activities - such as breaking into the back-haul communications of major US internet companies - are sometimes concealed under E.O. 12333 to avoid Congressional reporting requirements and regulations." 
 
 He added that '[u]ltimately, whether my disclosures were justified does not depend on whether I raised these concerns previously. That’s because the system is designed to ensure that even the most valid concerns are suppressed and ignored, not acted upon. The fact that two powerful Democratic Senators - Ron Wyden and Mark Udall - knew of mass surveillance that they believed was abusive and felt constrained to do anything about it underscores how futile such internal action is – and will remain – until these processes are reformed."
– The NSA is poring over pretty much all emails and texts sent across the border by Americans to look for information that might raise red flags, the New York Times reports. The revelation means that the NSA's surveillance of Americans is broader than was previously known: It's not just direct communication between an American and foreign targets that will be intercepted; it's any email or text about a such a target. As New York puts it, "If you mention a terrorist's email address or phone number to a friend overseas, the NSA intends to find out." The NSA temporarily copies most cross-border communications, the Times notes, and scans them. The expanded surveillance was mentioned, but largely overlooked, in information released by Edward Snowden in June. The ACLU calls it "dragnet surveillance" that will cause ordinary people to hesitate before discussing sensitive topics or visiting controversial websites for fear they will be monitored. “Individually, these hesitations might appear to be inconsequential, but the accumulation of them over time will change citizens’ relationship to one another and to the government.” A former NSA general counsel cites an example of how it could be useful: Say intel officials knew al-Qaeda was using a particular phone number for a specific plot. “If someone is sending that number out, chances are they are on the inside of the plot, and I want to find the people who are on the inside of the plot."