Jimmy Carter apparently can rest easy: the National Security Agency says it is not monitoring his emails.
During a
wide-ranging interview with NBC's Andrea Mitchell that aired during Sunday's "Meet the Press," the former president said he does not send emails to world leaders.
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"I have felt that my own communications were probably monitored," Carter said. "When I want to communicate with a foreign leader privately, I type or write the letter myself, put it in the mailbox and mail it . . . I believe if I send an email it will be monitored."
General Keith Alexander, the outgoing NSA director,
replied to the accusation in an interview with Bret Baier of Fox News.
"We're not [monitoring the emails]," Alexander said. "So, he can now go back to writing emails. The reality is, we don't do that. And if we did, it would be illegal and we'd be . . . held accountable and responsible."
Alexander said a review that included lawmakers and other government agencies revealed there were 12 cases in which the NSA had captured email communications. "And we had already reported those," he said.
President Barack Obama is revamping the NSA in the wake of those revelations and top-secret documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. To start, Obama is reportedly
putting a stop to the agency's bulk collection of phone data.
Alexander, a four-star Army general, is due to retire this week to make way for a new chief at the spy agency. Vice Admiral Michael Rogers is Obama's nominee.
Alexander said the NSA does not collect emails,
contrary to several reports.
"It's just numbers. It's just the call detail records," Alexander told Fox News. "Think of this in the old phone bills that you used to get that would list all the numbers that you called. Take off your name off the top, put the two phone numbers, put those in a database, that's what we have. That's it."
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