the nsa put simply, nsa is, nsa has basically two primary missions. it has a host of corollary missions and basically it does two things into things only. it is the nation's eavesdropper with which probably accounts to 60 to 70% of its effort and it's responsible for protecting the governments communications infrastructure whether it be computers, e-mails and how it does it? well, okay i will speak to it in general terms. nsa and i hearken to the fact that today i assume many of you have children or grandchildren who are enamored with cell phones and have the little registers in their hands at all times racking up huge bills. nsa, i will give you a very good example. in baghdad in 2007 general david petraeus was sent over to baghdad iraq security situation is failing rapidly. petraeus as i can fix fix it fou mr. president. he goes over to baghdad and the first thing he is confronted with is we knew very little about the organization of the iraqi insurgents and al qaeda in iraq. it turns out that nsa had come up with a couple of lovely devices which ba

person, the nsa cannot listen to our telephone calls and the nsa cannot target your emails. >> and have >> and have not. they cannot and have not by law , unless they -- the fbi -- go to a court and obtained a warrant and seek probable cause, the same way it always has spent. growing up, watching movies, you wanted to set up a wire time, you have to go to a judge and show probable cause. >> obama's comments came as to pull numbers showed his approval rating has dipped 8% since the nsa disclosures emerged early 26 ago. the drop was even higher among young voters. in his interview, president obama was asked about the extradition of whistleblower edward snowden. >> after going public as a source behind the nsa disclosures just over a week ago, edward snowden reemerged on monday after several days of quiet. and in on-line chat with the british to newspaper the guardian, snowden rejected what he called severe adverse to panama as a spy for china, saying his had no contact with the chinese government. he also defended his leaking of classified nsa documents, saying he deliberately chose not t

so nsa has an enormous industrial base, and a lot of what people assume nsa does is actually done by contractors. people that companies nobody's ever heard of or sitting there with earphones on listening just like the nsa people. >> rose: mr. snowden worked for a contractor didn't he. >> exactly. that's the way a lot of them do it. now we have this new phase, we have the contractors who are involved in cyber warfare. in writing the article the wired article about how you can look in these newspapers, these technical newspapers and there's adds for companies nobody's ever heard of that are advertising for signal or for computer attack specialists and computer exploitation specialists and so forth. because they're outsourcing the cyber war to the private industry. >> rose: are you surprised we haven't seen more disclosures like snowden. >> pretty much. but the point is, we have seen a number. there's been in the last eight years we've seen seven or eight years we've seen three to four cases like this. i mean we saw manning and we saw "the whistleblower" when it came to the warrantless

never acted directly employed by the nsa.s directly employed by the cia or he was stationed with diplomatic cover in geneva, switzerland for roughly 2.5 years. prior to that and after that was employed by a multitude of private contractors including allen anda dnt -- thdell. instructions and orders from supervisors at the nsa. it shows is interlinked world between private corporations and our most powerful and secretive intelligence agencies. it has all been privatized, or a great bulk of it has been privatized. that is all the more reason to be concerned with these extreme surveillance abilities are vested in these agencies because it is such as government officials to control it, but these private agencies that play a very substantial role in how it operates. booz allen in particular is one of the largest defense contractors. one of the primary officials is michael mcconnell who was the director of national intelligence under george bush. it is the type of prototypical defense contractor were there the prior officials go an

the nsa stores all this data.e know the story about this big utah datacenter that is just about to open. they download it there and then they can go back to it a day later or months later or years later. that is one of the things that mr. snowden talked about in his interviews, how they go back and analyze this data. about theto ask you garden in its reports calling the nsa contractor edward snowden who fed them information at a whistleblower. but this does hit a press says it would instead use terms like "source" or "leaker." in a memo sent to reporters it said -- what do you make of what the ap hossein? theirrse, they change definitions over time. we just saw them drop the word illegal when it comes to describing people. >> i think it is kind of semantics. he has blown the whistle on some actions the nsa is doing, programs the nsa is doing that may be unconstitutional. i think that is why daniel ellsberg has a much praise for every dish on the underside of the surveillance state. i think in that sense he is a ro

nsa is not saying. the speculation is just about any of that and perhaps even more. >> drake says americans should be concerned about letting the government go too far in the tame of security. >> the only way for perfect security is perfect surveillance. >> that is george kaufman. that is what that would look like. >> drake is not alone in feeling that way. >> whatever you did electronically they could capture. >> bill worked at the nsa for nearly four decades starting as a data analyst in the days before desktop computers. after 9/11 the nsa fee bega bea warrantless surveillance program started by president bush. >> the telcoms providing billing data records of people in the united states calling people in the united states. my estimate was they were collecting on the order of 3 billion a day. >> 3 billion phone records. >> just internal to the country. >> in simple terms nsa is spying on americans inseidenberg of this country. >> that's correct. >> binney thought it was wrong and quit in protest. some

that is the job of the nsa. they were at the forefront of the electronic eavesdropping era and is at the forefront of the cyber warfare era. the first thing you have to do when you are doing cyber warfare is discover how their systems work. you do that by inserting different kinds of viruses and malware into their systems. we have 14,000 more people who are going to be working for general alexander now in cyber command. this is a serious command. you have an army, navy, air force under him. this is the real thing. nsa directory, keith alexander said the american people had been misinformed about the extent of the agency's surveillance. >> i have been working with this committee for the past several years. they are very good about asking all the questions and providing tremendous oversight, as does the court and administration. this is not a program where we are out for free-wheeling. it is a well-overseen and very focused program. what we owe you the american people is now, how good is that, with some statistics

we've had these allegations since the nsa was born. reporting on all the secret things the nsa does. these revelations that periodically shock us about what they do they basically never the programs, even the review of the programs, the leaked programs, they don't go away. they just expand over time. if we are weirded out by the pow erp of the nsa, their power so far is something that only grows. so how does thatnd? -- how does that end? joining us tonight for the interview is james banford, the original and foremost historian of the nsa. his newest book about general keith went on line at wired.com at the top of the show. thanks for being here. >> great to be here again. >> in silent war, this article you published at wired. it seems like you are trying to convey the immense power that keith alexander has that is underappreciated. why do we not understand how powerful he is in the agencies he runs? >> he's the most powerful figure in the history of the united states. there's never been an official with this much power. he's head of th

i work as an analyst for nsa in hawaii. i sitting at my desk had the authorities to wire tap anyone from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president if i had a personal e- mail. >> snowden was the security contractor with top secret clearance until tuesday of this week when he was released of that fact. he triggered a federal man hunt after he had begun communicating vie e-mail with the "washington post" and the guardian. he told about the details of prism operated by the nsa. snowden sent a video. he claimed that he blew the whistle on the nsa to prompt a public debate about the program's legitimacy and propriety. he said that he had taken refuge in hong kong, the famed city and territory of the people's republic of china. he is resisting extradition to the united states so damage assessments are already under way in the nsa and the cia and the department of homeland security and in other federal agencies who secret's snowden is positioned to compromise. besides his decision to put himself under the jur

he first worked for the nsa as a security guard. he then got an information technology job with the cia. according to the "guardian," snowden worked at the nsa for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors including dell and booz allen hamilton where he last naid about $200,000 a year. this is the way edward snowden described why he decided to leak nsa material. >> when you're in positions of privileged access like a systems administrator for these sort of intelligence community agencies, you're exposed to a lot more information on a broader scale than the average employee. and because of that you see things that may be disturbing. but over the kofrs a nocourse o person's career you see one or two instances. when you see everything, you see them on a more frequent basis and you recognize that some of these things are actually abuses. and when you talk to people about them in a place like this where this is the normal state of business, people tend not to take them very seriously and move on from them. but ove

nsa is not saying.lation is just about any of that and perhaps even more. >> drake says americans should be concerned about letting the government go too far in the tame of security. >> the only way for perfect security is perfect surveillance. >> that is george kaufman. that is what that would look like. >> drake is not alone in feeling that way. >> whatever you did electronically they could capture. >> bill worked at the nsa for nearly four decades starting as a data analyst in the days before desktop computers. after 9/11 the nsa fee bega bea warrantless surveillance program started by president bush. >> the telcoms providing billing data records of people in the united states calling people in the united states. my estimate was they were collecting on the order of 3 billion a day. >> 3 billion phone records. >> just internal to the country. >> in simple terms nsa is spying on americans inseidenberg of this country. >> that's correct. >> binney thought it was wrong and quit in protest. someone leaked

let's start with the nsa story now.lexander was on capitol hill, and he was getting questioning, we which they're long overdue for. let's check that out and see first. >> the terrorist events that these have helped to prevent. >> now we collect millions and millions of records through 215 but dozens have proved critical, is that right? >> both here and abroad. >> cenk: all right i don't believe them. first of all, the nsa has been lying about this all throughout. the director of national intelligence james clapper he has lied in congressional hearings, and the senior intelligence official leaked that the 2009 subway bomber had been caught because of a phone program like the one with verizon, and that's how we find out who that terrible bomber was, and already prosecuted with that guy and in court documents it had nobody to do with his phones it had to do with his e-mails, and he had been e-mailing a guy who we knew was a terrorist, and we had-tracking under any and all circumstances. what they have been saying so far is

let's go back to the mission that nsa does. foreign intelligence, we are focused on counterterrorism. that is our mission is to protect this country from things like 9/11. >>> nation's intelligence chief told the journal today he stands by those comments. what i said the nsa does not go through citizens' emails. clapper indicated on he was referring to emails and they also said only when a phone number is deemed suspicious that the government goes back to the court and ask for permission to further scrutinize an individual. >> chris: thank you. opponent went on the road today to push his agenda. he is not a captive of the washington scandals. but the new nsa controversy followed him out of town. ed henry reports on the president trying to change the subject. >> if president obama thought a quick trip to north carolina would calm the controversies in washington. >> the middle-class has to be prospering, not just folks at the very top. >> reporter: it was all ground out by outrage from the right to left. nsa collecting the phone

nsa. >> the nsa knows what everyone is talking about. >> the head of the national security agency will be back on the hill today. >> the head of the nsa will testify in front of a senate appropriations committee this afternoon. >> i'm trying to look at the nsa background. >> i'm no different from anybody else. >> we keep hearing that snowden had special skills. >> i don't have special skills. >> the access he had, i think we all need to be concerned about it. >> there is a real disconnect up here about who knew, who didn't know. >> the aclu filed the first lawsuit toot. >> the aclu filed a lawsuit. >> to challenge the constitutionality of these programs. >> the revelation of these programs could lead to even more lawsuits. >> who are you suing? >> well, it is the constitutionality, or the civil libertarians are objecting. >> they are tracking calls, records, e-mails. >> it is very, very difficult to have a transparent debate. >> even our personalized birthday cakes. >> based upon secret in

a former nsa contractor gave us an idea who it's been targeting lately. >> the nsa targets the communicationyone. it ingests them by default. any analyze at any time can target anyone, any selector anywhere. i sitting at my desk certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone from you or your accountant to a federal judge or even to the president if i had a personal e-mail. >> john: in the past tweak 29-year-old edward snowden had exposed two top nsa programs, which he discussed on "the guardian" website. the government checks e-mails and collection logs and the ns axe gotsgot direct access from microsoft, yahoo, google facebook paltalk, skype youtube and apple. now so far facebook google, yahoo have actually denied at allowing the nsa access to their servers. james clapper condemned snowden snowden's leaks saying, quote: >> because it's so legal. snowden revealed a secret court quarter requiring verizon for information from the dates april april 25th through july july 19th including phone numbers, callers call times. before snowden revealed his role, they agreed that the leaker should go to

the nsa finally spoke. did congress choke? the judge calls the hearings a big joke. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] if you can't stand the heat, get off the test track. get the mercedes-benz you've been burning for at the summer event, going on now at your authorized mercedes-benz dealer. hurry, before this opportunity cools off. >>> does the nsa have the ability to listen to americans' phone calls or read their e-mails under these two programs? >> no, we to not have that authority. >> my friend the judge was watching that exchange today and he was hurling his lunch at the tv set, but what did you think of that? >> if it were in my courtroom, i would have said general, answer the question. question, does the nsa have the ability to listen to phone calls. answer, it is not in our authority. of course he doesn't have the legal authority to answer the phone calls. that's not the question asked. the question asked does he have the practical ability to do so and he couldn't answer that because the answer is yes, and the president and gene

that's nsa's charge. the first program executed under section 215 of the patriot act authorizes the collection of telephone metadata only. as you've heard before, the metadata is only the telephone numbers and contact, the time and date of the call and the duration of that call. this authority does not, therefore, allow the government to listen in on anyone's telephone call, even that of a terrorist. the information acquired under the court order from the telecommunications providers does not contain the content of any communications, what you're saying during the course of the conversation, the identities of the people that are talking or any cell phone locational information. as you also know, this program was specifically developed to allow the u.s. government to detect communications between terrorists operating outside the u.s. who are themselves communicating with potential operatives inside the u.s., a gap highlighted by the attacks of 9/11. the controls on the use of this data at nsa are specific,

he's the head of the nsa.back with much more. ♪ i'm in my work van, having lunch, next minute i'm in the back of an ambulance having a heart attack. the emts gave me bayer aspirin. it helped save my life. i was in shape, fit. i did not see it coming. my doctor recommends i take bayer aspirin to help prevent another heart attack. [ male announcer ] aspirin is not appropriate for everyone so be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. i've lived through a massive heart attack. i don't take life for granted. see your doctor and get checked out. ♪ >>> all right. you're looking at a live house hearing on capitol hill, and specifically you're looking at james cole. he's a deputy attorney general. he's explaining the rules under which the nsa is allowed to collect phone numbs, information from the internet and how it's overseen, but the real star of this nsa hearing, of course, is general keith alexandre, head of the nsa, he is expected to reveal and what all the fuss is about. i want to ask p

citizens, the people there at nsa.cting your civil liberties and privacy as the most important thing they do in securing this nation. and so when people just say they're going to have all this stuff at utah data center, that's baloney. that's ludicrous. i am not coming out to say here's what we're doing at utah, that would be ridiculous, too, it would give our adversaries a tremendous advantage. we're not going to do that. >> reporter: bill binney says alexander's protestations aren't the point. they will have a stunning capacity to collect, store and analyze anyone's data. >> it is a question if we get the wrong person in office or certain people set up their network internally in government, they could make that happen quickly. life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, balance those three virtues all the time. the question people like me ask the american people, so how much more do you want me to do? >> catherine herridge in part one of that series. >>> fox news learned within the past minutes that general alexander, the

that is being tipped from the nsa.we then go through the legal process here, the fbi does, regarding that u.s. person. we have to serve what is called a national security letter, much like a subpoena. if we want to pursue electronic surveillance, we have to make a specific application regarding that person with the fisa court here. >> thank you very much. i yield back. >> just to follow on and to clarify, because i want to make sure everything we say is exactly right -- as sean said, the nsa may not target phone calls or e-mails of any u.s. person anywhere in the world without individualized court orders. >> thank you. >> that is unimportant point we cannot make enough. >> thank you, mr. chairman. general -- general alexander and steam, thank you for helping closedrstand in so many sessions, and hopefully helping the nation understand, what we are doing, why we are doing it, and how we are doing it. i want to focus more on 702, if we could. general alexander, could you explain what happens if a target of surveillance i

the national security agency or nsa.ser look from cnn pentagon correspondent chris lawrence. >> jim, the jokes have been that it stands for no such agency or never say anything. there is a lot of mystery surrounding this agency. one thing is becoming very clear. for all of the information that the nsa has already collected, it's nothing compared to what it's about to be able to do. cia spies have their secrets. so do the men in special ops. but they can't compare to the national security agency. >> the nsa is the most secret agency in the country. it's far more secret than the cia. >> reporter: the nsa is headquartered in a highly secure section of fort meade army base in maryland and is building a new surveillance center in the middle of a utah desert. there, spread out over a million square feet of cables and computers, the nsa will capture everything from e-mails to internet searches, phone calls, and personal data. >> it's designed to hold an enormous amount of communications. >> reporter: author james banford estima

nsa leaker edward snowden is on the move. he has left hong kong. he boarded a commercial flight to moscow a few hours ago, final destination unknown, but he is expected to land in moscow in just a few minutes. the hong kong government issued a defiant statement claiming the u.s. extradition request did not fully comply with hong kong law. and wikileaks posted a statement just moments ago saying snowden is, quote, bound for a democrat theic nation via a safe route for the purposes of asylum and is being escorted by diplomats and legal advisers from wikileaks. that organization, as you know, responsible for other high-profile leaks of classified information. all of this as the u.s. has charged snoed within epps naj ad the threat of government property and they want him to face justice in the united states. many questions remain. we want to talk to the chairman of the house intelligence committee, mike rogers, with us this morning, in just a moment. but first i want to bring in the man who broke the nsa surveillance story for t"the guardian" newspaper

how do the giant tech companies at the heart of the nsa revelations recover from this?e'll discuss that coming up. plus, during an extremely contentious house hearing today one republican came this close to going full todd akin. republican male legislators talking about rape again. we will give you the grisly details. but we begin tonight with the unfolding spy novel that continues to play out in real life right before our eyes. today the battle lines over nsa leaks are being dramatically drawn, the rhetoric on all sides is heating up, and the stakes for everyone connected to this story are rising. after days of complete radio silence nsa leaker edward snowden surfaced today in hong kong with an explosive interview with the english-language newspaper "the south china morning post," in which he charged the u.s. government has been hacking hong kong and china for years. telling the paper that he believed there had been 61,000 nsa hacking operations globally, with hundreds of targets in hong kong and on the mainland. he also explained why he's in hong kong. "i am not here

[laughter] now i will refer to this as the nsa. it is a blockbuster development that we have the head of the intelligence community like roger feinstein saying this is legal and it is agreed to. the next top? >> the totalitarian state. what is legal is they have the ability to monitor of united states for place suspected terrorist activity did have the right to look at our e-mail, a subject line or searches. lou: the president says they are not. >> of course, we are the government to make sure we will protect you just trust us. i do not trust them at all. >> my issue is how is a guy working for three months with a ged a matter how smart he is get access if this is the nsa it is absurd they don't know who their own people are or what they might be doing. lou: we need to be clear he was not working directly for the nsa but booze allen hamilton. >> but everybody is a consultant now to have a top-secret clearance and somewhere you look at the document and you basically see what is the resonate will he be let in here with all of the top

of which the nsa is a part. the people on the right don't like it because they don't trust the obama administration. you put the two things together and there they are together, as we were talking about last night. you have dennis kucinich and rand paul basically side by side on this issue. >> speaking of -- >> a rare combination. >> it's made for the strangest bedfellows, this case, speaking of distrusting administration officials and distrusting the national security institution, our directors of national intelligence, james clapper, represents both, right? he's the head of the intel community, basically? >> he is. >> he's coming under fire in the weeks since the nsa scandal broke for testimony he gave to congress at best appears misleading. he was asked in march by democratic senator, ron wyden, the following. listen to his answer and i want to tell you what he said since then. here it is. >> does the nsa collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of americans? >> no, sir. >> it does

breakthroughs the nsa was becoming deaf. a shock that was loud enough for everyone to hear. the nsa got a bigger budget and a new anythings, stop next atta -- the new mission, stop the next attack. it leads us to things like a massive data collections center being built in the utah desert. >> it is really a turnkey situation where it could turn quickly and become a totalitarian state pretty quickly. >> how flexible are you with the government being able to know so much. that's next. [ larry ] younow throughout history, folks have suffered from frequent heartburn but now, thanks to treating with prilosec otc, we don't have to suffer like they used to. [ bell dings ] ♪ [ horse whinnies ] getting heartburn and then treating day after day is a thing of the past. block the acid with prilosec otc, and don't get heartburn in the first place. we've surcome a long way. ♪ [ le announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. she got a parking ticket... ♪ and she forgot to pay her credit card bill on time. good thing she's

, it's the justice department, it's nsa, trust them?g. remember the mentality afterwards. why did they together guardian. >> bill: somebody leaked it out. you are not for this, are you? >> you got the doj, nsa, i can't keep track. >> bill: its mass accumulation have information? >> i am on the fence where i like to be. i'll tell you why. >> bill: you can't decide whether you are for or against, at leers mcguirk is man. >> if you believe in the patriot act you can't be hypocritical. >> bill: you are a hypocrite. >> democrats were outraged at the patriot act and now dianne feinstein is developing it. >> i supported the patriot act because it was specific information not a general to pick anybody's information. >> bill: i want everybody to know he weaseled out of this. >> a woman is suing united airlines for $170,000 because some hot coffee was spilled on her on the flight which is owned by united now. she says she needs $170,000 because coffee was spilled on her. >> it's clearly frivolous and outrageous this is how sleaze boats like john

agents working for the nsa over here in the u.k.e also listening in on communications with then-russian president dmitri dmitry medvedev. he was at those summits as well. as you recall at that time, the obama administration was trying to reset relations with russia, jon. jon: we have the g8 now be, what's the mood among the delegates there as this information is breaking? >> reporter: well, the suspicion is, jon, at least some of the officials there might be a little more circumspect with their communications at this summit. current u.k. prime minister david cameron, in fact, was asked today if there's any kind of surveillance going on like this right now at the summit. he said he never comments on security and intelligence matters. now, some of the delegations that were specifically targeted back in 2009 including key u.s. ally turkey is actually asking questions as is russia. some officials there quite upset about these revelations. but, you know, it is widely suspected that there is a fair amount of surveillance at these summits,

i work for booth alan hamilton for nsa in hawaii. i certainly have the authorities to wiretap anyone from you or your accountant to a federal judge to the president if i had a personal e- mail. >> edward snowden was a security contractor with top secret clearance until tuesday when he was sacked. he triggered a federal manhunt after he communicated by e-mail with the washington post and guardian, a british newspaper. he disclosed details of a top secret surveillance -- prison operated by the national security agency, the nsa. he spoke to us by video in hong kong to explain his action. he denied any intent to harm security. he claims he blew the whistle to prompt a public debate about legitimacy and propriety. he had taken refuge in hong kong. snowden is resisting expedition to the united states. damage assessments are already under way in the nsa and cia, the central intelligence agency, and homeland security and other federal agencies whose secrets snowden is able to compromise. he's put himself under the jurisdiction of hong kong,

claims, or the nsa has simply ceased it as the company's claim. the nsa can go in at any time and either read messages that are stored in facebook or in real time surveil conversations and chats that take place on skype and gmail and all other forms of communication. it is an incredibly invasive search. >> there is a chart prepared by the nsa and the top-secret document you obtained that shows the breadth of the data it is able to obtain -- email, video and voice chat, videos, photos, skype chats, file transfers, and social networking details. talk about what this chart reveals. >> i think the crucial thing to realize is hundreds of millions of americans and hundreds of millions of and even billions of people around the world essentially rely on the internet exclusively to communicate with one another. very few people use landline phones. when you talk about things like online chat and social media messages and emails, what you're really talking about is the full extent of human communication. with the objective of the national security agency is,

meanwhile, nsa chief testified before congress on tuesday and made it clear that nsa programs have protected the u.s. from terrorist threats across the cloab -- the globe including 50 times since flien/11. >> in recent years these programs along with other intelligence has protected the u.s. and our allies across the globe to include helping prevent the terrorist -- the potential terrorist events over 50 times since 9/11. >> game over as they say. anyway, general alexzander refused to say why the nsa failed to protect this dog from this cat. >> when are we going to tackle pet bullying? this is happening everywhere across the country. i told you it was going to happen after gay marriage. cats were going to start bullying dogs because now they know they can get away with it, america. i'm right, you're wrong. dana, welcome to the program. thank you for coming. >> thank you. >> has this entire nsa story been blown out of proportion or is it time to impeach the president? >> i am going with the former. it is blown out of proportion, but it is partly the white house's fault. they couldn't do anyth