US Intelligence directors testify on spying programs

National Intelligence Chief James Clapper affirmed Tuesday that the US intelligence gathering has been "lawful" and that the unauthorized disclosure of these programs had been "extremely damaging." Clapper, who is the Director of National Intelligence told the House Intelligence Committee that "all of us in the intelligence community are very much aware that the recent unauthorized disclosures have raised serious concerns that you alluded to both here in Congress and across the nation about our intelligence activities. "We believe we have been lawful and that the rigorous oversight we've operated under has been effective," he said. He added "it's also important that our citizens know that the unauthorized disclosure of the details of these programs has been extremely damaging," saying "these disclosures are threatening our ability to conduct intelligence and to keep our country safe. "I believe that most Americans realize the intelligence community exists to collect the vital intelligence that helps protect our nation from foreign threats. We focus on uncovering the secret plans and intentions of our foreign adversaries as we've been charged to do," he remarked. He reiterated "but what we do not do is spy unlawfully on Americans, or for that matter spy indiscriminately on the citizens of any country." He affirmed "we only spy for valid foreign intelligence purposes, as authorized by law, with multiple layers of oversight to ensure we don't abuse our authorities." Meanwhile, Clapper noted that "on occasion, we've made mistakes, some quite significant. But these are usually caused by human error or technical problems. And whenever we found mistakes, we've reported, addressed and corrected them." For his part, Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) Keith Alexander told the Committee "it is much more important for this county that we defend this country and take the beating than it for us to give up a program that would prevent this nation from being attacked." He stressed that "the assertions by reporters in France, Spain, Italy that NSA collected tens of millions of phone calls are completely false. "To be perfectly clear, this is not information that we collected on European citizens," he remarked. He noted "it represents information that we and our NATO allies have collected in defense of our countries and in support of military operations."