I apologize for the following cut from Wikipedia, but it was the most concise explaination I could find. I suggest you read this quote in order to answer my question at the end of this post.
"The NSA warrantless surveillance controversy (AKA "Warrantless Wiretapping") concerns surveillance of persons within the United States during the collection of foreign intelligence by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) as part of the war on terror. Under this program, referred to by the Bush administration as the "terrorist surveillance program",[1] part of the broader President's Surveillance Program, the NSA was authorized by executive order to monitor, without search warrants, the phone calls, Internet activity (Web, e-mail, etc.), text messaging, and other communication involving any party believed by the NSA to be outside the U.S., even if the other end of the communication lies within the U.S. Critics, however, claimed that it was in an effort to attempt to silence critics of the Bush Administration and their handling of several hot button issues during its tenure. Under public pressure, the Bush administration ceased the warrantless wiretapping program in January 2007 and returned review of surveillance to the FISA court.[2] Subsequently, in 2008 Congress passed the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which relaxed some of the original FISA court requirements.
During the Obama Administration, the NSA has officially continued operating under the new FISA guidelines.[3] However, in April 2009 officials at the United States Department of Justice acknowledged that the NSA had engaged in "overcollection" of domestic communications in excess of the FISA court's authority, but claimed that the acts were unintentional and had since been rectified. [4] This has been proven false as revealed by the June 08, 2013 NSA domestic internet surveillance leaks."
My queston: In the reaction to 9/11/2001, the "Patriot Act" was passed and various other steps were taken by W and by Congress and again in 2008 to "mission creep" surveillance of phone and internet activity. It appears we cannot be sure who is being surveilled or exactly how and what the surveillance encompasses. We sure as hell can't trust the current bunch. Has this all evolved into something the majority of our citizens did not really bargain for subsequent to 9/11?
