Brussels, 16/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - The US National Security agency (NSA) has had to face criticism since the revelations made by Edward Snowden at the beginning of June and it appears that it has significantly overestimated the number of attacks thwarted in the world thanks to its espionage programmes. Answering questions put to him by the US Senate intelligence committee, NSA Chief Keith Alexander admitted on 15 October that the number of potential attacks that had been outsmarted was considerably less than initially announced, according to a report by AFP, quoting the specialist State Weekly site. Shortly after the initial revelations made by Snowden, the NSA claimed to have uncovered 54 “plots or incidents” in 20 different countries in the world, mainly down to its telephone bugging operations. Alexander informed senators from the Democrat Party, however, that only one or two plots had really been uncovered. Since September this intelligence committee has been preparing a law aimed at limiting the bugging of telephone conversation exchanges whilst keeping NSA programmes in place. (SP/trans.fl)