Resolved: The benefits of domestic surveillance by the NSA outweigh the harms.

What would happen without the NSA? Simply put, terrorism would be more present in the United States, and this round will show you why. This is why, we affirm the resolution resolved: The benefits of domestic surveillance by the NSA outweigh the harms. NSA director: Programs disrupted dozens of attacks Donna Cassata and Connie Cass, Associated Press, June 12, 2013 WASHINGTON (AP) -- The director of the National Security Agency vigorously defended once-secret surveillance programs as an effective tool in keeping America safe, telling Congress on Wednesday that the information collected disrupted dozens of terrorist attacks without offering details. In plain-spoken, measured tones, Alexander answered senators' questions in an open session and promised to provide additional information to the Senate Intelligence Committee in closed session on Thursday. The director of national intelligence has declassified information on two thwarted attacks — one in New York, the other in Chicago — and Alexander said he was pressing for more disclosures. But he also warned that revelations about the secret programs have eroded agency capabilities and, as a result, the U.S. and its allies won't be as safe as they were two weeks ago. Members of the House and Senate Intelligence panels and key leaders have been briefed on the programs and have expressed their support for the operations as a valid tool in the terrorism fight. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Wednesday that the programs are constitutional and "very important to the security of the American people and they help us in a big way to address the terrorist threat that does in fact remain." FBI director: Surveillance programs might have prevented 9/11 Lucy Madison, CBS News, June 13, 2013 Amid ongoing debate about the propriety of U.S. government programs tracking private citizens' phone and internet use, FBI Director Robert Mueller said Thursday that the government might have prevented the 9/11 terrorist attacks had similar surveillance programs been in place in 2001. Mueller, addressing the House Judiciary Committee just months before the end of his 12-year tenure, outlined a sequence of intelligence data that was collected leading up to the attacks, and argued that the controversial programs, which collect telephone numbers and metadata, could have helped national security experts connect the dots relating to the plan -- and even "derailed" it entirely. "Before 9/11 there was an individual by the name of Khalid Almihdhar who came to be one of the principal hijackers. He was being tracked by the intelligence agencies... They lost track of him," Mueller said. "At the same time, the intelligence agencies had identified an al Qaeda safe house in Yemen. They understood that that al Qaeda safe house had a telephone number but they could not know who was calling into that particular -- that particular safe house." Almihdhar was in San Diego and had been calling the al Qaedasafehouse in Yemen. "If we had the telephone number from Yemen, we would have matched it up to that telephonenumber in San Diego, got further legal process, identified Almihdhar... The 9/11 Commission itself indicated that investigations or interrogationsof Almihdhar once he was identified could have yielded evidence of connections to other participants in the 9/11 plot. The simple fact of their detention could have derailed the plan. In any case, the opportunity was not there."Also, because the resolution states "outweigh the harms", we must realize that the benfits "saving American lives" out weigh the supposed harms "intrusion of privacy".For these reasons, I urge a pro ballot.