Free Republic

The National Security Agency has admitted that analysts have abused their authority to spy on love interests on several occasions. In response to a letter from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the NSA identified 12 incidents since 2003 in which analysts intentionally misused their intelligence gathering powers. In one case, an analyst spied on a foreign phone number she discovered in her husband's cellphone, suspecting that he had cheated on her. She intercepted phone calls involving her husband, investigators discovered. The analyst resigned before any disciplinary action could be taken. On one analyst's first day of access to the NSA system,...

Over the weekend there was a Twitter hashtag game, #NSAPickupLines, here's a collection of the 10 best/favorites... 

Staff working at America’s National Security Agency—the eavesdropping unit that was revealed to have spied on millions of people—have used the technology to spy on their lovers. The employees even had a code name for the practice—“Love-int”—meaning the gathering of intelligence on their partners. Dianne Feinstein, a senator who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, said the NSA told her committee about a set of “isolated cases” that have occurred about once a year for the last 10 years. The spying was not within the US, and was carried out when one of the lovers was abroad. …

The National Security Agency (NSA) has admitted some of their officers misused the agency’s massive spying powers to keep tabs on their love interests, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Friday night. NSA employees reportedly dubbed the practice with its very own spy label: LOVEINT. U.S. officials said some of the violations included overseas communications, but claimed the practice was “very rare,” according to the WSJ. Officials reportedly said all employees involved were appropriately disciplined. The incidents were often self-reported, revealed while the officers took polygraph tests during routine security clearance renewals, according to the WSJ. “NSA has zero tolerance...