Well, put yourself into this situation. You were a intelligence specialist...who was simply told to glean information...and you "gleaned" an awful lot. In fact, you had tons of info not only on bad guys...but also on Americans as well. And, lets just say...that most of these Americans were simply innocent bystanders....some of these Americans were conducting illegal wire transfers, bribes, and unethical affairs. And perhaps in the middle of this were a couple of politicans.
Add to this....after the gleaning...you realize that there are serious laws about US military folks gleaning info on American citizens (from the 1980s)...and you could actually face jail time.
So up and down the line, the intel specialist to the commander in charge...there are fears of jail time, and the distrubance of the American political landscape. It was nice to get info on bad guys...but your footprint went and touched alot of bankers, politicans, and regular people. Nope, can't have that...so destroy this program as quickly as possible and make it disappear.
If I were the intelligence guy here...I would be fearful of charges of collecting data against American citizens. I think DOD felt the same way. Everyone did what they were ordered to do, and never understood the laws at hand. I'm sure that GW told Rummy to let them go, and should trouble fall upon them...GW would just give a blanket pardon. Its better to honest about this.
And here I was thinking it was a handy tool to string up her Thighness. Oh well.
There is a difference between the deliberate focusing of information gathering upon American citizens without a warrant and inadvertently picking up information in the course of other activities. Wiretaps on mob figures would on occasion produce information on other people not named in warrants as well as phone conversations wherein one party was not a target. That did not mean all that information was tossed or the operation shut down.