nsa on wednesday told congress that these methods of surveillance, in particular the prism program that, that may have helped prevent dozens of terrorist attacks? well, specifically one from 2009? section 702 clarkson was critical to discovery and disruption of the plot to bomb the new york city subway system; is that correct? that is correct. in fact not just critical, it was the one that developed the lead on it. well, snowden says that s also not true. in his online chat he wrote u.s. officials also provide misleading or directly false assertions about the value of these programs as they did just recently with the zazi case, which court documents show was not unveiled by prism. the last we knew about snowden s
suggested suggested. the law requires any such activity involving an american citizen, requires a warrant. as it should. and so you have inspector generals in the executive branch. you have the courts. and then you have the congress overseeing this. and you know, we should be vigilant about it because there are legitimate concerns. but i also the other experience i had, lawrence, was sitting there every day aware of real threats. and i was there, for example, when the zazi case was going on. the fellow in colorado who traveled to new york as part of a conspiracy to blow up the new york subway system. the only way he was detected was through the use of these of these programs. if not for these programs, he may well have been successful and we would have had the worst terrorist attack since 9/11. so i hear glenn. i hear what he s saying. but all of you know, there s no evidence that what the fbi
citizen, requires a warrant. as it should. and so you have inspector generals in the executive branch. you have the courts. and then you have the congress overseeing this. and you know, we should be vigilant about it because there are legitimate concerns. but i also the other experience i had, lawrence, was sitting there every day aware of real threats. and i was there, for example, when the zazi case was going on. the fellow in colorado who traveled to new york as part of a conspiracy to blow up the new york subway system. the only way he was detected was through the use of these of these programs. if not for these programs, he may well have been successful and we would have had the worst terrorist attack since 9/11. so i hear glenn. i hear what he s saying. but all of you know, there s no evidence that what the fbi was doing in the 60s is what s going on here. there s no evidence of any of this. there are safeguards that have been built in and more since this president took of
work. now americans are some of the decision-makers. among them a man who grew up in south florida said to be the chief of omar and the new mexico born cleric anwar al-awlaki is the operation planner are to the al qaeda affiliate in yemen. he identifies americans to carry out their plans. within the context of the home growns you have the zazi case. the shah sad case driven by pakistan taliban and other assortment of individuals that we screen over the last year and a half. this is not theoretical. it s real. to sum it up, the new followers are really like digital jihadists who get their inspiration and in some cases their training from the internet, shep. shepard: catherine herridge live in washington. thanks. a guy gets a new job at ast as a waiter on a cruise ship. now his girlfriend has other plans. she may be off to the jail. our top story as we go around
si zazi case, the shahzad case driven by pakistan taliban and then the assortment of other individuals we ve seen over the last year, year and a half. and so this is not theoretical, it s real. reporter: so if you had to sum it up, the bottom line is that the threat is more complex because, essentially, you have three different fronts. you have that core front in pakistan, you have these affiliates, and you also have these lone wolf operations primarily in the united states, gregg. gregg: is one of the biggest concerns, catherine, americans who are leading these groups? reporter: well, that s an excellent point because one of the big changes we ve seen in the last decade, and this was really confirmed in the csis report, is that you ve seen americans rise through the ranks to more of a leadership or operational role. and when you talk about americans who have done that, there are two who spring to mind, omar 40 ma ammy, and he s one of the central figures within this al-qaeda aff