The House Intelligence Committee heard a defense of the government's sweeping surveillance program today. General Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, told the committee, "In the 12 years since the attacks on 9/11, we have lived in relative safety and security as a nation. That security is a direct result of the intelligence community's quiet efforts to better connect the dots and learn from the mistakes that permitted the attacks to occur in 9/11." Ken Dilanian is national security correspondent for the Los Angeles Times.