Today’s New York Times has a long story about how the NSA is monitoring all international electronic communication. They also have a news story that shows what the agency actually does:
The agency has traced and analyzed the traffic flow – looking at who is
calling whom, where calls originate and end, and other patterns – to
gather clues on possible terrorist activities. In cases where security
agency supervisors believe they can show a link to Al Qaeda, President
Bush has authorized eavesdropping on calls without a warrant within the
United States, so long as one end of the phone or e-mail conversation
takes place outside the country.
It would be better if they got warrants. But it’s great that the government is using
pattern recognition
to help capture people who want to kill us and knock our buildings down. I am not a fan of our president, in fact I think he is the spawn of the jackal, but this one is a non-issue for me. Information in the aggregate is used to make Google searches better, why can’t we use them to help protect us?
Yes, let’s keep an eye on these creeps in office. But let’s not be "shocked, shocked" to learn stuff like this.