The administration has been amping up stats about foiled plots to bolster support for mass surveillance.<\/i><\/p>\n
In so many words, NSA director Keith Alexander admitted Wednesday [2 Oct 2013] that the Obama administration had issued misleading information about terror plots and their foiling to bolster support for the government\u2019s vast surveillance apparatus.<\/p>\n
During Wednesday\u2019s hearing, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy pushed Alexander to admit that plot numbers had been fudged in a revealing interchange:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no evidence that [bulk] phone records collection helped to thwart dozens or even several terrorist plots,\u201d said Leahy. The Vermont Democrat then asked the NSA chief to admit that only 13 out of a previously cited 54 cases of foiled plots were genuinely the fruits of the government\u2019s vast dragnet surveillance systems:<\/p>\n
\u201cThese weren\u2019t all plots, and they weren\u2019t all foiled,\u201d Leahy said, asking Alexander, \u201cWould you agree with that, yes or no?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d replied Alexander.<\/p>\n
Proof positive of what many of us have long posited: that under the flimsy guise of a targeted War on Terror, the surveillance state has established itself with little regard for an honest relationship with the American public.<\/p>\n
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Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com. <\/i><\/p>\n