U.S. Spy Chiefs Say Expiring Program Key to Stopping Threats
- The provision expires in December unless Congress renews it
- Critics want limits on information picked up about Americans
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Top U.S. national security officials called on Congress to quickly renew a counterterrorism program that lets intelligence agencies intercept the communications of tens of thousands of suspected foreign terrorists living abroad.
“It has become an indispensable tool by which we can determine and game information about threats to the United States, about threats to our troops, about weapons of mass destruction, proliferation, about cyberattacks -- about any number of things that threaten the American way and the American people,” Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said Friday at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. “So the reauthorization of this authority is incredibly critical.”