[Wolfhound777]

I didn't see the part where it authorizes the NSA to eavesdrop on US citizens just because they place an overseas call or send an email to an international email address. As a matter of fact, what you referenced has certain criteria that must be met and certified by the Attorney General of the United States and must meet the minimization standards. What the NSA was doing definitely did not meet those minimization standards.

(1) Notwithstanding any other law, the President, through the Attorney General, may authorize electronic surveillance without a court order under this subchapter to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of up to one year if the Attorney General certifies in writing under oath that - (A) the electronic surveillance is solely directed at - (i) the acquisition of the contents of communications transmitted by means of communications used exclusively between or among foreign powers, as defined in section 1801(a)(1), (2), or (3) of this title; or (ii) the acquisition of technical intelligence, other than the spoken communications of individuals, (Pat II) from property or premises under the open and exclusive control of a foreign power, as defined in section 1801(a)(1), (2), or (3) of this title; (Next Changes->) (Next Patriot II Changes->) (B) there is no substantial likelihood that the surveillance will acquire the contents of any communication to which a United States person is a party; and (C) the proposed minimization procedures with respect to such surveillance meet the definition of minimization procedures under section 1801(h) of this title;

[sgtyork]

--- And I didn't see the part in the New York Times article where US citizens were targeted at all. Unless you can quote that, I continue to believe that terrorist identities overseas and their connections to PERSONS here in the states (remember sleeper cellls?) were listened to.

It was very clever of the Times to obfuscate on this critical point. Here's paragraph 16 of the article (from Michelle Malkins site)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What the agency calls a "special collection program" began soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, as it looked for new tools to attack terrorism. The program accelerated in early 2002 after the Central Intelligence Agency started capturing top Qaeda operatives overseas, including Abu Zubaydah, who was arrested in Pakistan in March 2002. The C.I.A. seized the terrorists' computers, cellphones and personal phone directories, said the officials familiar with the program. The N.S.A. surveillance was intended to exploit those numbers and addresses as quickly as possible, the officials said.
In addition to eavesdropping on those numbers and reading e-mail messages to and from the Qaeda figures, the N.S.A. began monitoring others linked to them, creating an expanding chain. While most of the numbers and addresses were overseas, hundreds were in the United States, the officials said.

Read the definitions again. If a connection is shown to in international terrorist organization, the communication is considered foreign intelligence.

What would you propose be done if a laptop is siezed from a terrorist in Afghanistan and it has phone numbers in the United States listed?

Again, if you have documentation that says that US citizens were targeted, please provide it.