NSA Surveillance Flubs Found: Americans Wiretapped, Rep. Targeted
The National Security Agency’s eavesdropping program, designed to uncover terrorist activity, improperly collected e-mail and phone communications from Americans, a routine review has found.
The problems spurred the Justice Department to enact new safeguards to bring the program into compliance with a law last year that gave the NSA broad authority to collect communications of targets outside the United States, the New York Times reports. Technical problems in the data-mining program apparently made it difficult for the NSA to distinguish between overseas and domestic communications, the story says.
The law requires the NSA to get court approval before monitoring the communications of Americans. The Justice Department issued a statement after the New York Times story was published that said it has taken “comprehensive steps to correct the situation and bring the program into compliance,” the Associated Press reports. After taking corrective steps, Attorney General Eric Holder is seeking court approval to renew the NSA program, according to the Times and the Wall Street Journal.
The problems were apparently uncovered as part of a twice-a-year certification on NSA protocols that must be submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the New York Times says.
The Times also reports on new information that the National Security Agency sought to wiretap, without court approval, conversations of an unidentified congressman thought to be in contact with an extremist who had terrorist ties. The lawmaker was part of a congressional delegation to the Middle East in 2005 or 2006, the story says. The plan was never carried out because of concerns by intelligence officials.
