Leaders of the US Senate and House Intelligence committees have defended the National Security Agency's phone and internet surveillance programmes, saying it has been critical in thwarting potential terrorist attacks and also to track the 2008 Mumbai attacks' convict David Headley.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein said the NSA phone surveillance programme revealed in reports last week was limited in scope to viewing phone records, not listening to private conversations.
Feinstein said the phone programme had helped disrupt a 2009 plot to bomb New York City's subways. "Feinstein said the programme also helped to track the case of David Headley, a Pakistani-American who travelled to Mumbai to scope the Taj Mahal Hotel for an attack," ABC News reported.
Headley was arrested by the US security agencies in October 2009 for scouting the targets of the Mumbai terror attack for terror organisation Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). He has confessed to his role and has managed a deal with the US authorities under which he escaped a death penalty.
