A National Security Agency surveillance program that electronically collects communications on cellphones and emails - known as intercepts - had helped gather intelligence about this threat, said Senator Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee

It was one of the NSA surveillance programs revealed by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden to media outlets.

Those programs "allow us to have the ability to gather this chatter," Chambliss said. "If we did not have these programs then we simply wouldn't be able to listen in on the bad guys."http://news.yahoo.com/u-lawmaker-says-qaeda-threat-most-serious-years-141738874.html

Psych!