[cherokee1]

There’s no news here unless you(anybody) haven’t been paying attention for , oh, I dunno, maybe four decades. NSA has the gear to listen to almost anything. The actual limitation is that they can’t use warrantless search info in a prosecution. The question that needs to be asked of Obozo is “How do you keep from using overheard conversations/communications in a political campaign?” And “do you use this info in your own campaign?” And “have you-—”?

[OneWingedShark]

The actual limitation is that they can’t use warrantless search info in a prosecution.

This can be sidestepped by parallel construction ad other methods.
Moreover, there is way too much potential for blackmail/extortion with these systems.

We need to disband the NSA and prosecute everyone who was working there, or contracted with them, for deprivation of rights under color of law, and conspiracy against rights.

Terrorist threats are less to be feared than exactly what our government is doing.

[DBeers]

There’s no news here unless you(anybody) haven’t been paying attention for , oh, I dunno, maybe four decades

I disagree, I am pretty attentive, and there are at least two things recently confirmed that are news to me.

1. The NSA spies on Americans when their mandate is Foreign.

2. That without a specific warrant the NSA has went beyond intercepting communications on public airwaves to actually collecting secure data from individuals and companies

[shego]

NSA has the gear to listen to almost anything. The actual limitation is that they can't use warrantless search info in a prosecution

That limitation is easily sidestepped:

The Drug Enforcement Administration has been the recipient of multiple tips from the NSA. DEA officials in a highly secret office called the Special Operations Division are assigned to handle these incoming tips, according to Reuters. Tips from the NSA are added to a DEA database that includes "intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records." This is problematic because it appears to break down the barrier between foreign counterterrorism investigations and ordinary domestic criminal investigations.

Because the SOD's work is classified, DEA cases that began as NSA leads can't be seen to have originated from a NSA source.

So what does the DEA do? It makes up the story of how the agency really came to the case in a process known as "parallel construction."...

(emphasis added)