US spy chief: Snowden's disclosures cause profound damage

Director of the US National Intelligence James Clapper affirmed Wednesday that Edward Snowden's disclosures of National Security Agency (NSA) spying activities have caused, and continue to cause, "profound damage." Clapper told hearing by the Senate Select Intelligence Committee that as a consequence of those disclosures "the nation is less safe and its people are less secure." "What Snowden has stolen and exposed has gone way, way beyond his professed concerns with so-called domestic surveillance programs," he stressed. He noted that as a result, "we've lost critical foreign intelligence collection sources, including some shared with us by valued partners." He added that "terrorists and other adversaries of this country are going to school on US intelligence sources, methods and tradecraft, and the insights that they are gaining are making our job much, much harder. And this includes putting the lives of members or assets of the intelligence community at risk, as well as our armed forces, diplomats and our citizens." "Snowden claims that he's won and that his mission is accomplished. If that is so, I call on him and his accomplices to facilitate the return of the remaining stolen documents that have not yet been exposed, to prevent even more damage to U.S. security," Clapper remarked. Meanwhile, Clapper affirmed that NSA's job "is not to target the emails and phone calls of US citizens. The agency does collect foreign intelligence. The whole reason NSA has existed since 1952, performing critical missions that I'm sure the American people want it to carry out." He affirmed that the effects of the unauthorized disclosures "hurt the entire intelligence community, not just NSA," as "critical intelligence capabilities in which the United States has invested billions of dollars are at risk or likely to be curtailed or eliminated either because of compromise or conscious decision."