Such information is "a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats to the United States," the official said, speaking on the condition of not being named.
"It allows counter terrorism personnel to discover whether known or suspected terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be engaged in terrorist activities, particularly people located inside the United States," the official added.
According to NBC's Chuck Todd, the White House says insists no "call content" was obtained and:
[B]oth Congress and the judiciary branch, as well as the executive branch, it’s all three branches of government have a say-so on this.”
That may be true in that Congress passed and reauthorized the Patriot Act and FISA, judges have upheld the statutes, and a FISA judge granted the request Verizon records. Does that mean Congress or any judge other than a FISA judge knew the scope of records requests the FBI was seeking?
The order granted a request under the "business records provision" of the Patriot Act, known as Section 215 (access to records and other items under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, 50 USC Section 1861.)
At a hearing in March, 2011, Todd Hinnen, Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security, told Congress the records requests were being used for a sensitive data collection program.
[215 orders] have also been used to support important and highly sensitive intelligence collection operations, on which this committee and others have been separately briefed.
The data-mining has also been alluded to by Senators Mark Udall and Ron Wyden who last year said Americans would be shocked if they knew how DOJ was interpreting Section 215 (apparently there's a secret memo). The ACLU has an FOIA case pending seeking more documents. Here is the June 2012 version of the FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (partially redacted.)
NBC reports a leaks investigation will occur to determine how the Guardian got the secret FISA order.
