The NSA’s Metadata Is Just The Beginning

The journalist who wrote the NSA story says more information about the NSA spying program will soon be revealed, adding, "There are extremely invasive spying programs that the public still does not know about that the NSA regularly engages in or other capabilities that they're developing."

It's possible this means the ability to record phone calls or tap into GPS systems, both of which have been rumored. However, unless more leaks are coming, the public isn't going to find out. There is not likely to be a Senate hearing on the spying case because the government still hasn't admitted that it exists.

In fact, Europe will do more to address these serious invasions of privacy than the US government. Members of the European Union announced it will confront the US on its spying records and insist the rights of European citizens are respected.

Interestingly enough, 55 percent of Americans say the phone tracking is "acceptable" but are less approving of the other spying methods used by the NSA on its own people.

Those tactics might include recording phone conversations, hacking into security systems and keeping databases of records on all American citizens. Suddenly, Shia LeBouf's interview on Leno in 2008 doesn't seem quite as crazy.

Neither does this 2006 report from USA Today. It claimed the government was tracking all major cell phone carriers and storing the information in the largest database in the world. They were also allegedly ducking the FISA court.

Unable to get comfortable with what NSA was proposing, Qwest's lawyers asked NSA to take its proposal to the FISA court. According to the sources, the agency refused.  

The NSA's explanation did little to satisfy Qwest's lawyers. "They told (Qwest) they didn't want to do that because FISA might not agree with them," one person recalled. For similar reasons, this person said, NSA rejected Qwest's suggestion of getting a letter of authorization from the U.S. attorney general's office. A second person confirmed this version of events.

Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, calls the future "Orwellian."

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