Telephone data instrumental to prevent attacks - FBI director

       
The data in a massive U.S. government database of daily telephone records has been instrumental in identifying people who sought to harm Americans, FBI Director Robert Mueller said on Thursday.

Speaking to members of the U.S. House of Representatives  Judiciary Committee, Mueller defended the recently revealed surveillance program as collecting "no content whatsoever" beyond data such as numbers called and the time and length of calls.

He also said  that the  government's surveillance programs comply in full with U.S. law and with basic rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

Mueller told a hearing of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee that the government is taking all necessary steps to hold accountable the person responsible for recent leaks to Britain's Guardian newspaper and the Washington Post.

On another note, China's Foreign Ministry offered no details on the National Security Agency contractor who revealed the U.S. government's top-secret monitoring of phone and Internet data and who is in hiding in Hong Kong.          

Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying reiterated that China was one of the biggest victims of hacking attacks.         

"I'm very sorry I have no information to give you on this at present," she told a regular briefing.          

The contractor, Edward Snowden, told Hong Kong's South China Morning Post that the U.S. government had been hacking into Hong Kong and mainland Chinese computers for years.        

The former British colony has an extradition agreement with the United States that has been exercised on numerous occasions, but so far Snowden has not been publicly charged and the United States has not filed for his extradition.            


REUTERS