Is the NSA a governmental agency that operates above the laws, outside the laws?
There are a couple of threads on this article, but none that I saw focusing on the NSA wiretapping,and how this article says the following:
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In the book, which quotes extensively from anonymous sources, Risen said the NSA spying program was launched in 2002 after the CIA began to capture high-ranking al-Qaida operatives overseas, and took their computers, cell phones and personal phone directories.
The CIA turned the telephone numbers and e-mail addresses from the material over to the NSA, which then began monitoring the phone numbers — in addition to anyone in contact with the telephone subscribers, the book said, saying this led to an expansion of the monitoring, both overseas and in the United States.
The book said the NSA does not need approval from the White House, the Justice Department or anyone else in the Bush administration before it begins eavesdropping on a specific phone line in the United States.-----------
wtf is the nsa?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060103/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/cia_iraq