NSA Cites Case As Success Of Phone Data-Collection Program

[Purveyor]

He was a San Diego cab driver who fled Somalia as a teenager, winning asylum in the United States after he was wounded during fighting among warring tribes. Today, Basaaly Moalin, 36, is awaiting sentencing following his conviction on charges that he sent $8,500 to Somalia in support of the terrorist group al-Shabab.

Moalin’s prosecution, barely noticed when the case was in court, has suddenly come to the fore of a national debate about U.S. surveillance. Under pressure from Congress, senior intelligence officials have offered it as their primary example of the unique value of a National Security Agency program that collects tens of millions of phone records from Americans.

Officials have said that NSA surveillance tools have helped disrupt terrorist plots or identify suspects in 54 cases in the United States and overseas. In many of those cases, an agency program that targets the communication of foreigners, including e-mails, has proved critical.

But the importance of the phone logs in disrupting those plots has been less clear — and also far more controversial since it was revealed in June.

Across a dozen years of records collection, critics say, the government has offered few instances in which the massive storehouse of Americans’ records contained the first crucial lead that cracked a case — and even those, they say, could have been obtained through a less intrusive method.

MORE...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-cites-case-as-success-of-phone-data-collection-program/2013/08/08/fc915e5a-feda-11e2-96a8-d3b921c0924a_story.html

There now...you see!!!

[usGovOwesUs3Trillion]

1. Edward Snowden is a modern day Paul Revere with a thumb drive full of news that Tyranny is coming!

Edward Snowden's Dad Calls Him 'Modern Day Paul Revere'
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/edward-snowdens-dad-calls-modern-day-paul-revere/story?id=19554337

Hmmm... who knew how influential a DU meme could be

This can not be over stated.

[leveymg]

2. This is the pitifully weak evidence in support of an Agency run for 10 yrs at a cost of $80 Billion.

I thought I was reading The Onion.

[grasswire]

3. THe ROI here stinks

Trillions of dollars to nab a cabbie who sent 6 grand to a radical group overseas.

Trillions of dollars.

And the shredding of the 4th amendment.

[Catherina]

5. +1 n/t

[PSPS]

4. LOL. Yes! 300 million lose the constitution over a cab driver! Yes! USA!

In reality, though, I doubt the veracity of this story. It's more likely they "fixed the evidence" in an effort to support their unsupportable position.

[Wilms]

6. ^