This makes an interesting read in the light of statements made before that committee this afternoon. In response to the query if it was justifiable to data mine millions of people just to get one or two little pieces of information, General Alexander suggested it was indeed justifiable. He mentioned that there were possibly "dozens" of instances when this data was used to foil plots in the US and abroad. Yet despite there being so few, he could only remember the much vaunted Zazi case. He also confirmed in answering this question that the mobile data and Internet data was used in unison, despite the separate court orders.
Even before Alexanders statement, there were appeals by the Obama administration to the Zazi case among their justification for PRISM.
Excuses, justifications, rationalization, scare-mongering. They just want the data.
Even before Alexanders statement, there were appeals by the Obama administration to the Zazi case among their justification for PRISM.
But court documents lodged in the US and UK, as well as interviews with involved parties, suggest that data-mining through Prism and other NSA programmes played a relatively minor role in the interception of the two plots. Conventional surveillance techniques, in both cases including old-fashioned tip-offs from intelligence services in Britain, appear to have initiated the investigations.
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