We're going to wrap up our live blog coverage of the House intelligence committee hearing.

NSA chief Keith Alexander said the agency's surveillance programs had helped stop more than 50 terror plots in more than 20 countries, including a "little over 10" plots with a "domestic nexus." FBI deputy director Sean Joyce outlined four of those "domestic nexus" plots, two of which involved sending money overseas, and only one of which represented an attack on US soil past a "nascent" stage.

Committee chairman Mike Rogers said that the exposure of the NSA programs has aided America's enemies and set the country at a crossroads where "our enemies within become almost as damaging as our enemies on the outside" – an attitude that would seem to invite more domestic surveillance.

The witnesses said no intelligence agent may access Americans' data without first establishing "reasonable articulable suspicion." Only 22 people within the NSA are qualified to approve such access, Alexander said. To collect the information in the first place the agencies must seek the approval of Fisa courts which are not, Alexander asserted, merely rubber-stamp operations.

Edward Snowden came in for harsh treatment, his actions variously described as criminal, felonious and irreversibly damaging to national security. Alexander said Snowden drew his information from "what we'll call the public web forums that the NSA operates," established after 9/11 to improve information sharing.

The witnesses took few – maybe two – directly challenging questions. Rep. Jim Himes said the programs were ripe for abuse by someone seeking delicate information on US citizens: "If a capability exists from time to time it will be used." Rep. Jan Schakowsky challenged the DNI office, which Alexander said had oversight in the matter, to declassify more Fisa court opinions.