Denis McDonough, appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation" program, also said he did not know the whereabouts of Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who said he was the source of reports in Britain's Guardian newspaper and The Washington Post about the agency's monitoring of phone and Internet data at big companies such as Verizon Communications Inc, Google Inc and Facebook Inc. The disclosures have sparked debate and legal action against the Obama administration by privacy activists who say the data collection goes far beyond what was intended when expanded counterterrorism measures were authorized by Congress after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Describing the surveillance overseen by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Udall said, "I just don't think this is an American approach to a world in which we have great threats.
– The NSA would like you to know that, while it may have data on millions of phone calls from US carriers, it only sought detailed information on less than 300 phone numbers. That's according to an (unclassified) government memo making the rounds, reports Reuters, in an apparent attempt to underscore that the spying was limited in scope. But the spying apparently paid big dividends, breaking up "dozens of potential terrorist plots here in the homeland and in more than 20 countries around the world." Notable among them was a 2009 plot to bomb the New York City subway, adds Fox News. American intelligence officials say they're working to declassify more cases to prove the merit of the system.