NSA chief pleads for public's help amid push for spying restrictions

Gen. Keith Alexander, the director of the National Security Agency, called on the public to help defend his agency's powers as Congress mulls restrictions aimed at protecting privacy.

"We need your help. We need to get these facts out," Alexander said during a cybersecurity summit at the National Press Club. "We need our nation to understand why we need these tools." He warned that if Congress hampers the NSA's ability to gather information, it could allow for terrorist attacks in the United States similar to last week's massacre in a mall in Nairobi, Kenya. "If you take those [surveillance powers] away, think about the last week and what will happen in the future," he said. "If you think it's bad now, wait until you get some of those things that happened in Nairobi."