US spooks reveal top secret security measures

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, in an unusual late-night statement, insisted the efforts were legal, limited in scope and necessary to detect terrorist threats. He denounced the leaks of highly classified documents that revealed the programmes and warned that US security will suffer.

Mr Clapper called Thursday’s disclosure in The Washington Post and The Guardian of a second programme, which targets foreigners’ internet use, “reprehensible.” He also said the leak of a programme that lets the government collect Americans’ phone records would affect how US enemies behave and make it harder to understand their intentions.

“The unauthorised disclosure of a top secret US court document threatens potentially long-lasting and irreversible harm to our ability to identify and respond to the many threats facing our nation,” said Mr Clapper.

The Obama administration’s defence of the two programmes came as members of Congress vowed to change a programme they voted to authorise and civil liberties advocates were crying foul, questioning how President Barack Obama, a former constitutional scholar who sought privacy protections as a US senator, could embrace policies with strong echoes of President George W Bush, whose approach to national security he had pledged to abandon.

The disclosures triggered a fierce debate that cuts across party lines and could overshadow a two-day visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping. They came at a particularly inopportune time for Mr Obama, whose administration already faces questions over the federal tax agency’s improper targeting of conservative groups and the seizure of journalists’ phone records in an investigation into who leaked information to the media.

Mr Clapper said: “I believe it is important for the American people to understand the limits of this targeted counterterrorism program and the principles that govern its use.”.

He took the rare step of declassifying and publicly releasing the details – including that the powers are reviewed by a special court every three months and that the data can only be used when there’s reasonable suspicion, backed by facts, that the information is connected to a foreign terrorist group

A top-secret court order requires the communications company Verizon to turn over on an “ongoing, daily basis” the records of all landline and mobile telephone calls of its customers, both within the US and between the US and other countries. Experts said it’s likely the programme extends to other phone companies as well.

Another secret programme came to light when The Washington Post and The Guardian reported that the NSA and FBI can scour the main US internet firms, extracting audio, video, emails and other documents to help analysts track a person’s movements and contacts. Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple were all included. Most denied giving the government direct access.

Mr Clapper alleged that articles about the internet programme “contain numerous inaccuracies.” He did not specify what those inaccuracies might be.

The surveillance powers are granted under the Patriot Act, which was passed after the September 11, 2001, attacks and renewed in 2006 and 2011.