Gen. Keith Alexander, the director of the National Security Agency, told a Senate committee on Wednesday that the agency's phone surveillance programs have helped foil "dozens" of terrorist plots in the United States.
Under questioning from Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), Alexander defended the program by which the NSA obtains phone records, which was formerly a secret surveillance program. It has come under intense scrutiny over the past week following a series of leaks detailing the NSA's surveillance of phone records and online communications.
Alexander pledged that the NSA would be more transparent with the phone records program going forward. He said "dozens and dozens" of pieces of intelligence gathered by the NSA have been invaluable in disrupting or preventing terrorist events. The exact number, he said, is classified.
The Obama administration and key members of Congress have defended the program as essential to the U.S.'s national security efforts. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said it is "called protecting America." Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he was "glad" if the NSA is surveilling his phone records.
President Barack Obama, meanwhile, called the reaction to the program's new revelations all "hype."
"Some of the hype that we've been hearing over the last day or so," Obama said Friday during a press conference in San Jose, Calif. "... Nobody's listening to the content of people's phone calls."