The head of the National Security Agency denied Tuesday that the United States collected telephone and e-mail records directly from European citizens, calling reports based on leaks by Edward Snowden "completely false."
Read more: Spy chief: Reports U.S. collected data from allies 'completely false' - CNN.com
"To be perfectly clear, this is not information that we collected on European citizens. It represents information that we, and our NATO allies, have collected in defense of our countries and in support of military operations," Army Gen. Keith Alexander, the NSA director, told a House committee reviewing the agency's surveillance activities.
The statement by Alexander before the House Intelligence Committee came as a number of lawmakers called for changes to the way intelligence is collected.
The hearing, billed as a discussion of potential changes to the 35-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, commonly known as FISA, follows a report by the German magazine Der Spiegel that the NSA monitored German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cell phone. Some reports also suggest the United States carried out surveillance on French and Spanish citizens.
Read more: Spy chief: Reports U.S. collected data from allies 'completely false' - CNN.com
No comments:
Post a Comment