Senior US officials, fighting to forestall a push to end the bulk collection of Americans’ phone data, told a Senate panel they would be “failing” the country if the controversial surveillance practice ceased, and suggested that a congressional move to stop it would not be the final word on the matter.National Security Agency director Keith Alexander, in an indication of the political crisis roiling his agency, compared the bulk collection on Wednesday to “holding a hornet’s nest,” but said he did not know how to detect future domestic terrorist attacks without swooping up the phone records of every American.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/11/nsa-chiefs-keith-alexander-senate-surveillance