Sunday, April 26, 2009

Congress investigating spy violation by NSA

Congress is investigating a "serious" failure by the National Security Agency to comply with legal limits on its domestic eavesdropping activities, key lawmakers said Thursday. An internal review by the Justice Department and the NSA found that the spy agency's monitoring program had exceeded limits set by Congress last year designed to protect the privacy of U.S. citizens. The Justice Department said that steps have been taken to correct the problem, discovered as the Obama administration was preparing to seek renewal of the surveillance program. Separately, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee described details of the NSA's "overcollection" of domestic communications, first reported in The New York Times, as "serious allegations." Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, said her committee "is looking into this, and we will hold a hearing on this subject within one month." Ruppersberger, in an interview, described the NSA's breach as "a serious failure to comply with the FISA court." Before the NSA can eavesdrop on the private communications of Americans suspected of involvement in terrorist activity, it is generally required to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court. However, legislation approved last fall gave the NSA the right to conduct warrantless eavesdropping on the enormous volume of international communications that passes through the U.S. every day. The NSA and its intelligence partners in more than 30 countries monitor over a billion communications daily, on average, including e-mail, phone calls and other records, said Ruppersberger...Baltimore Sun

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