Yahoo News - NSA taps OK because NSA needs no approval - !!!

[Skip Intro]

Is the NSA a governmental agency that operates above the laws, outside the laws?

There are a couple of threads on this article, but none that I saw focusing on the NSA wiretapping,and how this article says the following:

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In the book, which quotes extensively from anonymous sources, Risen said the NSA spying program was launched in 2002 after the CIA began to capture high-ranking al-Qaida operatives overseas, and took their computers, cell phones and personal phone directories.

The CIA turned the telephone numbers and e-mail addresses from the material over to the NSA, which then began monitoring the phone numbers — in addition to anyone in contact with the telephone subscribers, the book said, saying this led to an expansion of the monitoring, both overseas and in the United States.

The book said the NSA does not need approval from the White House, the Justice Department or anyone else in the Bush administration before it begins eavesdropping on a specific phone line in the United States.

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wtf is the nsa?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060103/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/cia_iraq

[Erika]

1. Big brother is here

1984 was prophetic.

[Sydnie]

3. I was just holding out hope that Planet Of The Apes wasn't.

But ... with a chimp in the WH, we need to consider that maybe that was not entirely a work of fiction either.

I agree, 1984 is real and we are living it. George just had the date wrong by 20 years!

[northzax]

2. well, that book seems to be incorrect

the NSA, like the CIA is chartered for operations outside the United States only. Federal domestic law enforcement is the purview of the Department of Justice (and now Homeland Security) not the Intelligence Agencies.

[fasttense]

4. That is plain bushit.Everyone, even Mad King George, needs a warrant

to spy on American citizens. The Mad King knows this. But he is counting on his political control to keep him safe from the American's people's wrath.

[H2O Man]

5. Read James Bamford's book

"The Puzzle Palace." It's the best book on the NSA. The NSA tried to keep it from being published.