Really? — That’s where you need to start?

JUNE 9, 2013 — NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell sat down with Director of National Intelligence James Clapper yesterday for an exclusive wide-ranging interview to discuss recent revelations about government surveillance programs and the impact of leaks on national security. […]

ANDREA MITCHELL: Why do you need every telephone number? Why is it such a broad vacuum cleaner approach?

JAMES CLAPPER: Well, you have to start someplace. If– and over the years that this program has operated, we have refined it and tried to– to make it ever more precise and more disciplined as to which– which things we take out of the library. But you have to be in the– in the– in the chamber in order to be able to pick and choose those things that we need in the interest of protecting the country and gleaning information on terrorists who are plotting to kill Americans, to destroy our economy, and destroy our way of life.