NEW YORK - The National Security Agency has eavesdropped, without warrants, on as many 500 people inside the United States at any given time since 2002, The New York Times reported Friday. That year, following the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush authorized the NSA to monitor the international phone calls and international e-mails of hundreds — perhaps thousands — of people inside the United States, the Times reported. Before the program began, the NSA typically limited its domestic surveillance to foreign embassies and missions and obtained court orders for such investigations. Overseas, 5,000 to 7,000 people suspected of terrorist ties are monitored at one time. The Times said reporters interviewed nearly a dozen current and former administration officials about the program and granted them anonymity because of the classified nature of the program. Government officials credited the new program with uncovering several terrorist plots, including one by Iyman Faris, an Ohio trucker who pleaded guilty in 2003 to supporting al-Qaida by planning to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge, the report said. But some NSA officials were so concerned about the legality of the program that they refused to participate, the Times said. Questions about the legality of the program led the administration to temporarily suspend it last year and impose new restrictions. On Friday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was asked about the program. "I'm not going to comment on intelligence matters," she told NBC's "Today" show. But Rice did say that President Bush "has always said he would do everything he can to protect the American people, but within the law, and with due regard for civil liberties because he takes seriously his responsibility." "The president acted lawfully in every step that he has taken," Rice said, "to defend the American people and to defend the people within his constitutional responsibility." Caroline Fredrickson, director of the Washington legislative office of the American Civil Liberties union", said the group's initial reaction to the NSA disclosure was "shock that the administration has gone so far in violating American civil liberties to the extent where it seems to be a violation of federal law." Asked about the administration's contention that the eavesdropping has disrupted terrorist attacks, Fredrickson said the ACLU couldn't comment until it sees some evidence. "They've veiled these powers in secrecy so there's no way for Congress or any independent organizations to exercise any oversight." Earlier this week, the Pentagon said it was reviewing its use of a classified database of information about suspicious people and activity inside the United States after a report by NBC News said the database listed activities of anti-war groups that were not a security threat to Pentagon property or personnel. Pentagon spokesmen declined to discuss the matter on the record but issued a written statement Wednesday evening that implied — but did not explicitly acknowledge — that some information had been handled improperly. The Bush administration had briefed congressional leaders about the NSA program and notified the judge in charge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the secret Washington court that handles national security issues. Aides to National Intelligence Director John Negroponte and West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, declined to comment Thursday night. The Times said it delayed publication of the report for a year because the White House said it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny. The Times said it omitted information from the story that administration officials argued could be useful to terrorists.
Not like its new for them to monitor all the comunications for buzz words or phrases and review those flagged.
Bingo. They act like this is a surprise, but the news has has a couple of arrest reports where they got on to the people from buzzwords in e-mail. This has been running around the Internet for a while. The group in Az, NM that they busted a couple of years ago, the one that had all the bombs, they admitted they had originally gotten suspicious from e-mails.
This was made legal in '78 Was originally intended to catch people in the US while Communicating with those outside the US. IIRC, THe Patriot Act changes that to include those suspected of aiding the Enemy, Terrorists, (Foregn or Domestic, or People who don't like Bush http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fisa/
