0 a.m. eastern, so set your alarms and start your day with cnn. that's it for "the lead." i'll be back at 6:00 p.m. eastern to fill in for wolf. but now i turn you over to brianna keilar, filling in for wolf in the first half of "the situation room." tens of millions could files powerful storms including the terrifies and high-speed winds known as a derecho. 10-year-old sarah is getting a new set of lungs. wolf blitzer is off today. i'm brianna keilar, you're in "the situation room." a top sblel jens official is -- the director of the national security agency says the details are still classified, but he tells lawmakers that phone records were critical in foiling numerous terror threats. >> it's dozens of terrorist events that these have helped prevent. i want the american people to know we're being transparent in here. while u.s. authorities build a case against the man who blew the lid off those survaluance programs, edward snowden has dropped another bombshell, the self-declared nsa leaker hiding out in hong kong, tells a newspaper there the u.s. has been hacking chinese computers for years. meantime, vowing to fight any extradition attempt, he continues those. let's go live to andrew stevens in hong kong. revelations today, andrew, what did snowden say? >> absolutely. this is just fanning the flames. what happened is there was an hour-long interview with edward snowden by the "south china morning post." the big revelation, the headlines was he said the nsa has been carrying out about 61,000 hacks internationally. hundreds of those are on chinese and hong kong targets. we don't specifically know what targets they are, about you they talks about network backbones. these are basically big essentially huge routers linked to hundreds of we don't have specification evidence. it looked at targets like the chinese university here in hong kong and some institutions. no sign, though, that any military institutions have been hagged by the nsa. it brings us to this perplexing question, why did he choose hong kong? i want to read a couple devotes from that interview. he says people who think i made a mistake in picking hong kong as a location misunderstand my intentions. i'm not here to hide from justice. i'm here to reveal criminality, and all i can do is rely on my training and hoping that the world governments refuse to be bullied by the u.s. into persecuting people and seeking political refuge. he was very clear he thought the u.s. government was indeed bullying hong kong into an early extradition. had el was asked to describe himself. this was interesting, he said i'm not a traitor, not a hero, i am an american. >> do you think that authorities will be helping him fight extradition? >> reporter: this is a key question, what will hong kong do? hong kong provides itself in the rule of law as distinct from the mainland china rule of law. it has its own mini-constitution. what's been hinted at byfuler head of security here yesterday was that he will be given due course, due process, if you like. the hong kong government will follow any extradition request. remember, none has been made as of the moment, and follow the letter of the law. he will get defense, court hearings, and he will be entitled to appeals, so the process according to a senior expert could takes monthsing to through. the big question is what is china's role? china has said nothing, and china can block it, override the local constitution it hasn't donum times as all, but at this stage, edward snowden could be facing several months, at least, after official charges have been laid in the u.s. >> hong kong is a semiautonomous region, but technically part of china. andrew stevens is there for us. so what will it take? the first may be getting the charges right. joe johns is looking into that. joe, have authorities decided what the charges will look like? what we have found for the united states to get him back here to face any kinds of charges, it could be a long and involved process. the soul-searching over suspected edward senatorening is only beginning. >> i do have concerns about the process. i have great concerns over that. the access that he is. >> reporter: laws enforcement sources said the department of justice was still preparing charges. it's seemingly an open-and-shut case. >> probable cause here is one of the shortest putts in the world, a gimme in any golf game, because the guy admitted it to the whole world on camera. >> reporter: getting the charges right is potentially complicated, because he's tried to position himself as a political dissenter, entitled to protection. >> if they want to get you, they'll get you. >> an extradition lawyer says the leaks might actually qualify. >> if an individual commits a nonviolent crime that's directed solely against a government, such as espionage or treason or sedition, traditionally these crimes, horrific as they may be, have been viewed as exempt from extradition. >> reporter: one possible solution, charge him with theft of government property, which sounds more nonpolitical than disclosure of classified information, but the harder part at the moment is just getting snowden into custody. the second important choice after snowden is charged, when to revoke his passport so he's not free to leave the country he's in. related to that, filing for what's called a red notice issued by interpol, a red notice would say to the suspect is wanted by the united states. >> red notice tells the country that interpol believes these are sufficient charges to warrant that country making an arrest action detaining the individual, and holding them until the rest of the process can catch up. >> reporter: a fourth option, probably less likely in a make case such as this, getting foreign immigration police to toss the suspect across a border. >> informal rendition, bakley they find him, pick him up and push through the fence, hand him to the fbi and he's back on the way to the united states. >> reporter: in recent cases have mostly been about financial crimes, various scam artists mixed in with the occasional gang member. right now we're told the authorities don't even nowhere edward senatoren is. joe johns for us, we appreciate it. tens of millions of americans could now be in the path of powerful storms, including the rare and terrifying derecho. let's get the latest from chad. >> it's a long-lived event from chicago through indianapolis, maybe columbus, cleveland, even cincinnati, and even into d.c. if it keeps going. that likely scenario right centered at chicago at this hour. a lot of weather beginning to poppy up. tornado watch already in effect here west of chicago. i think we have a close tornado on the ground not that far west of rockford. rockford, if you are listening, take cover right now, it is that serious. the weather is rotating in that cell right there. i can see so much of a funnel on the storm, but it's lost a lot of its rotation. it could come back, don't get me wrong, but right now i think you're in the clear. we have our chaser tv cameras up, i-map. i see a funnel right there. that's the storm headed to rockford. these are moving rather quickly tonight. if you're in the rockford area or anywhere west of rockford, take cover right now. it's that serious. >> it is so serious, and there are so many major cities, chad potentially affected. it's very alarming. thank you, chad. now next, her family fought to get her on the transplant list. sarah is getting a new set of lungs. our doctor has the details on that. coming up, the hunt is on for a well-dressed suspect who made off with $100,000 in jewelry. 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