Gen. Alexander

Washington, June 18 (Agencies): The director of the National Security Agency said today the US government’s sweeping surveillance programmes have foiled some 50 terrorist plots worldwide, including one directed at the New York Stock Exchange, in a forceful defence of spy operations .

Justifying the programmes that were disclosed by an NSA leaker earlier this month, Gen. Keith Alexander said he would give lawmakers classified details of all of the thwarted incidents within 24 hours.

Alexander, speaking at a hearing before sympathetic members of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, had last week given an estimate of “dozens” of foiled attacks.

Sean Joyce, deputy FBI director, offered information on two of the cases — a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange and the provision of financial assistance to a terrorist group in Somalia that conducted suicide bombings.

The disclosure of the programs by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden ignited a political furore, with civil liberties groups and privacy advocates blasting the surveillance as government overreach that lacked proper independent oversight.

But Alexander said Snowden had endangered national security by revealing the US phone and Internet data tracking programmes and said they were legal, closely supervised and crucial to defending America.

“I would much rather be here today debating this point than trying to explain how we failed to prevent another 9/11,” Alexander told the committee in his second public appearance before Congress since the programmes were exposed.

“In recent years these programmes, together with other intelligence, have protected the US and our allies from terrorist threats across the globe to include helping prevent ... potential terrorist events over 50 times since 9/11,” he said.

NYPD lawsuit

The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit today against the New York Police Department over its surveillance of Muslim communities, accusing the police of trampling on religious freedoms and constitutional guarantees of equality.

The surveillance by the NYPD’s intelligence division has extended beyond New York City’s five boroughs into neighbouring New Jersey and other nearby states. The police department said that surveillance of Muslims is legal under an earlier federal court order.

The lawsuit is the latest skirmish in an ongoing battle between the NYPD and civil liberties advocates over the department’s aggressive policing tactics — including its stop-and-frisk practices, which are the subject of a separate federal lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks to put an end to the NYPD’s surveillance of Muslims.