[driftdiver]

Does the NSA take people out into the woods and shoot them? No

Does the NSA monitor the citizens of this country? yes
Does the NSA pass that information on to other government agencies? yes
Is that information used to persecute people based on their political or moral beliefs? yes
Is the NSA effectively creating a ‘file’ on every American citizen? Yes
Will that file be used against those citizens in the future? yes

[shego]

The KGB would occasionally take people out in the woods and shoot them... in territories controlled by the Soviet Empire.

As I said, the trump card is the fact that the NSA is here, not way over there.

[Ax]

I retired from NSA 16 years ago. I spent most of my career on the tip of the spear, overseas. If all this internal spying was going on while I was working, it went on in an invisible organization. While working overseas, we were continually reminded of our responsibilities under the Fourth Amendment. We were warned that any collection, recording or reporting of communications between US Persons would lead to dismissal or prosecution. My hands and those of my colleagues, FRiend, are spotless. In a career of 33 years, I never heard one word of any such organization.