[Mariner]

"I think that we should never stop gaining intelligence on other nations, even those that are friendly to us. "

But here we see an abuse of power.

The White House wanted the content of those calls.

For a surveillance state, the idea that the spy masters would forward ANY information not directly related and pertinent to National Security for political use and purposes, is crossing the Rubicon.

All of the information gathered by NSA here was gathered without warrant.

I believe the American people would tolerate a Security Apparatus that filters to only legitimate National Security issues for appropriate interdiction and enforcement.

But the American people will not tolerate wholesale collection of very, very private matters for political purposes.

And, I don't believe they will tolerate the use of acquired information for routine law enforcement when it's obtained without warrant. Meaning, LEO can never have direct access.

[Alberta's Child]

The NSA would not need a warrant to record phone calls outside the country, even if the calls involved one participant inside the U.S.

The more disturbing aspect of this is that members of Congress were apparently "conducting business" with a foreign government this way in the first place. If the NSA could record these conversations, then there are at least several dozen other countries whose intelligence services could have done the same thing.

[Phinneous]

I thought we already had reports of NSA’s disgruntled operators spying on their girlfriends’ conversations (back when these stories were breaking....)

[SkyPilot]

All of the information gathered by NSA here was gathered without warrant.

And the liberals wearing judges black robes could care less. They are political whores of immense personal immorality.