Nsa on nyt warrantless wiretapping story
- 4. TOP SECRET//COMINT//ORCON/NOFORN//20291123 (TS//SI//STLW//NF//OC) "President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence ofterrorist activity. (TS//SI//STLWIINF//OC) (NSA) "monitored the international telephone calls (communications to the U.S.) and international e-mail messages ofhundreds, perhaps thousands, ofpeople inside the United States without warrants over the past three years ... to track possible "dirty numbers" linked to Al Qaeda..." (C) (The article) would alert would-be terrorists (inside the United States) that they might be under scrutiny. (TS//SI//STLW//NF//OC) "NSA eavesdrops (under this program) without warrants on up to 500 people in the United States at any given time." ... the number monitored ... may have reached ... the thousands (S//SI) "Overseas, about 5,000 to 7,000 people suspected ofterrorist ties are monitored (by NSA) at one time." (TS//SI//STLW//NF//OC) (The NSA) "eavesdropping program had helped to uncover a plot by Iyman Faris, an Ohio trucker('s), (plan) to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge with blowtorches." "... an Qaeda plot, involving fertilizer bomb attacks on British pubs and train stations,..." "... an Iranian-American doctor in the South ... (with) dubious ties to Osama bin Laden." (C) (The NSA Program) (was a) " special collection program" which began soon after the Sept. 11 attacks,..." (C) (The NSA Program) (was used to exploit) "captured top Qaeda operatives'...computers, cellphones and personal phone directories..." "The N.S.A. surveillance was intended to exploit those numbers and addresses as quickly as possible." (TS//SI//STLW//NF//OC) "In addition to eavesdropping on those numbers and reading e-mail message to and from the al Qaeda figures, the N.S.A. began monitoring others linked to them, creasing and expanding chain....hundreds were in the United States..." (S//SI) "... the N.S.A can target for interception phone calls or e-mail messages on foreign soil, even ifthe recipients ofthose communications are in the United States." (S//SI) ".... N.S.A.... seeks (FISA) warrants .... (on) foreign embassies and missions in Washington, New York and other (U.S.) cities..." (S//STLW) "...U.S. Government elements knowledgeable about the N.S.A. Special Program include... "congressional leaders, cabinet members, N.S.A., C.I.A. and the Justice Department..." TOP SECRET//COMINT//ORCON/NOFORN//20291123