NPR News 2013-06-13 加文本

NPR News 2013-06-13

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh.

The head of the National Security Agency says the nation’s surveillance programs have disrupted dozens of potential terrorist attacks. NPR's Craig Windham reports General Keith Alexander's testimony before a Senate panel is his first since information was leaked about the NSA’s sweeping Internet surveillance effort.

Members of the Appropriations Committee asked Alexander about Edward Snowden, the former contract worker for the NSA, who leaked word of the agency's Internet surveillance, in particular how was the 29-year-old high shool dropout given access to highly classified information.

“I have grave concerns over that, the access that he had.”

Alexander says there are clearly problems that must be addressed.

“We do have to go back and look at these processes, the oversight in those, where they went wrong and how we fix those.”

Alexander says he does not see a tradeoff between security and liberty. He says both must be protected simultaneously. Craig Windham, NPR News, Washington.

Meanwhile, Snowden is vowing to fight extradition from Hong Kong. That's where he's been since he came out last week as the source of the leak. The 29-year-old tells the South China Morning Post he is neither traitor, nor hero, but an American.

CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell has resigned. He will be succeeded by Avril Haines. Haines is currently deputy assistant to the president and legal advisor to the National Security Council.

Today President Obama said he wanted to keep going forward in an effort to slow climate change. NPR's Scott Horsley reports the president's comments came in Massachusetts where he was campaigning for Democratic Senate hopeful Ed Markey.

Congressman Markey has made climate change a top-tier issue in his bid to fill the Senate seat vacated by Secretary of State John Kerry. President Obama highlighted that during a campaign rally for Markey, saying the Massachusetts's Democrat would be helpful in the Senate in dealing with climate change in an honest and realistic way.

“We’ve got to double down on our investment in science and basic research. We can't just develop the energy sources of the past. We’ve got to develop the energy sources of the future.”

Obama renewed his pledge to deal with climate change during his second inaugural address five months ago. Since then both environmentalists and the energy industry had been watching for signals of how the president plans to make good on that promise. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

Communities from Iowa to the Washington DC area are in the path of massive line of thunderstorms. Forecasters say over the next 24 to 48 hours the storms may generate tornados, hail and potentially destructive winds. They may also spawn a derecho and unusual weather event that can produce damage over an area spanning at least 240 miles.

Before the closing bell, Dow was down 127 points at 14,995. This is NPR News.

Two Defence Department cargo planes have been dispatched to the site of massive firefighting efforts near Colorado Springs. As many as 100 homes may have been destroyed in Black Forest. NPR's Kirk Siegler is covering the latest.

The Black Forest fire is burning quite close to where the Waldo Canyon fire burned last summer. It's been almost a year since that happened. That was Colorado's most destructive wildfire and enormous evacuations there, so people here are, you know, getting pretty used to wildfires and evacuations and having to pick up and leave in a moment's notice.

NPR's Kirk Siegler. He says thousands of people have already been evacuated. 

A ten-year-old Pennsylvania girl at the center of a national debate over the allocation of lungs for transplants is undergoing a transplant today. As NPR's Rob Stein tells us, the girl's mother posted news of the development on her Facebook page.

Janet Murnaghan is asking the public to pray for her daughter Sarah and the family of the donor. Sarah Murnaghan needed a transplant because her own lungs have been destroyed by cystic fibrosis. Her plight drew national attention when a judge ordered the nation's organ network to make her eligible to receive a lung from an adult. Typically adult lungs are offered to other adults and adolescents first. No details have been released about who ended up being Sarah's donor. She's being treated at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where she had been in intensive care. In response to her case, the organ network this week announced a temporary process for children to be placed on the list for adult lungs as it reviews its policies. Rob Stein, NPR News.

I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News in Washington.