prevent for both here and abroad in disrupting or contributing to the disruption of terrorist attacks. automatic of those million, dozens have been critical. that s correct. reporter: most of the details he says are classified, but alexander was more than willing to admit this intelligence helped stop a plot to attack the new york subway system. leading to suspect pleading guilty to terror related charges in 2010. so it was the one that allowed us to know it was happening. reporter: but the target of the investigation, former nsa contractor snowden, remains defiant, believed to be in hong kong, telling the south china morning post, i would rather stay and fight the united states government in the courts. he accuses the u.s. of hacking network backbones like huge internet routers, targeting hong kong and china, and proclaims he is neither traitor nor hero. but what to call him is less of
and disrupting or contributing to the disruption. out of those millions, dozens have been critical? that s correct. reporter: most of the details he says are classified, but alexander was more than willing to admit this intelligence helped stop a plot to attack the new york subway system, leading to suspect imaginajibul azazi i 2010. but the target of the investigation, former nsa contractor snowden remains defiant believed to be in hong kong telling the south china morning post i would rather stay and fight the united states government in the courts. cueses the u.s. of hacking network backbones like huge internet routers, targeting hong kong and china and proclaims he s neither traitor nor hero but what to call him is less of an issue than how a high school
shown some documents about all of this by snowden but could not verify them. a very interesting quote from edward snowden in the newspaper. i want to read it to you. he says quote, we hack network backbones. like huge internet routers basically. that give us access to the communications of hundreds of thousands of computers without having to hack every single one. would it be a surprise that the u.s. is interested in getting into chinese computers? probably not. a lot of competition between the u.s. and china economically, militarily. but the administration isn t ready to go there. they will not say specifically if this is true or not. the state department spokesman had this to say today. there is a difference between you know, going after economic data and financial information, that is pasht of these cyberattacks, or seems to be. and an issue which is the
not at all connected to these nsa scandals, shep. shepard: catherine herridge in washington tonight. the nsa director is also debunking one of snowden s previous claims. here, remember this? i sitting at my desk certainly have the authorities to wiretap anyone from you or your accountant to it a federal judge to even the president. false. i know of no way to do that. shepard: well now as i reported at the top of this newscast, ed snowden is apparently making new claims about the u.s. attacking chinese computers. quoting: we hack network back bones like huge internet routers that give us access to hundreds of thousands of computers without having to hack every single one of them. ed snowden says hundreds of those hacking targets are in hong kong and china s mainland including university students and public officials. the south china morning post newspaper reports snowden provided unverified documents to prove his story.