NSA Signal Intelligence Specialists Speak Out

This Defense Tech story has been mentioned by Talking Points Memo and Eschaton:

All of the sigint specialists emphasized repeatedly that keeping tabs on Americans is way beyond the bounds of what they ordinarily do....

but I wanted to highlight this part:

The C.I.A. seized the terrorists' computers, cellphones and personal phone directories, said the officials familiar with the program. The N.S.A. surveillance was intended to exploit those numbers and addresses as quickly as possible, they said....In addition to eavesdropping on those numbers and reading e-mail messages to and from the Qaeda figures, the N.S.A. began monitoring others linked to them, creating an expanding chain. While most of the numbers and addresses were overseas, hundreds were in the United States, the officials said....Since 2002, the agency has been conducting some warrantless eavesdropping on people in the United States who are linked, even if indirectly, to suspected terrorists through the chain of phone numbers and e-mail addresses.

But this call chain could very well have grown out of control, the source admits. Suddenly, people ten and twelve degrees of separation away from Osama may have been targeted.

Five degrees of separation is enough to connect one individual to every American. Six or seven degrees of separation are enough to connect an individual to every person on earth. Even if warrants had been approved, it's obvious that if the above source is correct, this is a program way out of control. We need to know exactly who the NSA is spying on without a warrant within the United States (and those who have had their rights violated are entitled to know) and, given that this is obviously a pattern with this presidency, we need to know the kind of people the Pentagon is spying on with its own programs and if any of this is more political than related to national security.