NSA lies? Agency lacks evidence it thwarted 54 terrorist attacks

(RT) Is the United States government’s use of broad surveillance authorities as effective of a counterterrorism tool as its advocates make it out to be? A new report suggests remarks made by high power figures to defend the spy powers are largely exaggerated.

Influential members of Congress and the intelligence community alike continue to contend the secretive National Security Agency tactics made public by Edward Snowden earlier this year, with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) — the chairwoman of the Senate’s committee on intelligence — defending those programs as recently as this week in a highly-read USA Today op-ed. As supporters of the NSA initiatives continue to make statements meant to justify those spy programs, however, hard evidence confirming their claims remain absent and should be questioned more thoroughly, a new report suggests.

That report — penned by ProPublica’s Justin Elliott and Theodoric Meyer and published by the independent, investigative journalism site on Wednesday — recalls a number of admissions made by Feinstein’s peers on Capitol Hill and the NSA since Mr. Snowden’s first revelations were printed this past June. And although lawmakers and government officials of all sorts have time and time again told the public that the collection of telephone metadata and Internet surveillance programs disclosed by the former intelligence contractor are necessary tools in the war against terror, ProPublica’s examination of the evidence provided thus far paints a compelling argument that suggests otherwise.

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