NSA is really looking into finding and prosecuting who-ever told on them for spying on the general population. I wonder how they can condemn people that are being spied on for spying on them? That national security thing gonna be used to prop it up again? That's getting a little over-use here lately.
The spying wasn't on the general population, it was on a high-risk segment of the population that received calls from certain locations overseas. It was probably the best tool to find sleepers in the US, and determine size of cells from cross referencing call logs. Foreign students all over the US getting calls from the same location in Europe would comer up on their screen, you getting one call from a buddy stopping over in London would not. When people leak information like this on classified operations, it makes it easier for the terrorists here in the US to hide, and harder to track them, they just use alternate means to communicate. What we will never know is, how many sleepers did NSA find with the program. The reason they are looking for who leaked the information, it almost never comes from the agency, they understand the importance of the operation they are running, and even if they don't agree on principle, they do it for the safety of the American people. It is usually Congress, a staffer leaks the information to inflict political damage, power is more important than the safety of the American people. The "leak" was timed to do the most damage, the system was put up during the Clinton administration,and the presence of the listening stations actually made the British newspapers at the time.