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When Ouazzani was first identified, Joyce told the intelligence committee members Tuesday, “We went up on electronic surveillance and identified his co-conspirators.
“And this was the plot that was in the very initial stages of plotting to bomb the New York Stock Exchange,” he said. “We were able to disrupt the plot, we were able to lure some individuals to the United States, and we were able to effect their arrest. And they were convicted for this terrorist activity.”
In the second newly declassified plot, Joyce said federal authorities were able to identify a San Diego man who intended to financially support a terrorism group in Somalia.
Joyce said the FBI investigated the man shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks but didn’t find any connection to terrorist activity.
“Several years later . . . the NSA provided us a telephone number only in San Diego that had indirect contact with an extremist outside the United States,” Joyce said.
With further electronic surveillance, approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Joyce said the FBI was able to identify the man’s co-conspirators “and we were able to disrupt this terrorist activity.”
Tuesday’s witnesses testified to a largely sympathetic committee. Prior to the hearing, lawmakers who support the surveillance programs implored the NSA to declassify materials and provide examples to the public showing how they were keeping the nation safe.
Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., the committee chair, described the unusual open hearing as a “cleanup on aisle nine” in the aftermath of Snowden’s leaks. President Barack Obama also engaged in NSA damage control in a Monday night PBS interview with Charlie Rose.
“What I can say unequivocally is that if you are a U.S. person, the NSA cannot listen to your phone calls, and the NSA cannot target your emails,” he told Rose. “. . . And have not.”
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