US Intelligence Director Michael McConnell told a Senate Homeland Security Committee today that wiretaps contributed significantly to the arrest last week of German Al Qaeda members who were plotting to kill thousands. National Counterterrorism Director John Reed told reporters that the wiretapping program also assisted in last week's arrest of eight suspected terrorists in Denmark. From the BBC:

Mr McConnell said the surveillance programme had made "significant contributions" in discovering and breaking up a suspected plot in Germany to bomb US installations. "It allowed us to see and understand all the connections to al-Qaeda," Mr McConnell told a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

The programme also contributed to the arrests in Denmark of eight Muslims, with suspected links to al-Qaeda, on suspicion of planning a bomb attack, National Counterterrorism Centre Director John Redd told reporters later. 

The New York Times reported that Mr. McConnell "might have misspoken," citing an anonymous government official. 

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