What has the NSA actually accomplished w/wiretaps?

As I was reading an article about the FBI totally missing evidence of an affair between a paid informant and her "control" (not to mention missing the fact she was a Chinese agent passing secret information to Beijing supplied by her FBI "Control") I got to thinking:

What has the NSA actually accomplished with it's Domestic Spying Program?

I mean, these are the same bozos who missed the fact that a mid-level CIA bureaucrat (Aldrich Ames) was driving a brand new Jaguar on a salary that most found it difficult to stretch to having two American cars. This, by the way, during a massive hunt for a "mole" at the CIA.

Missed the fact that an FBI agent who tried to project a squeaky clean Catholic image was spending an inordinate amount of time at a particular strip club - one that was under surveillance by the FBI on an unrelated matter at least once during the time in question (Robert Hanssen.) Or that this FBI agent had a real affinity to taking a couple of days off & flying to Vienna (must have REALLY liked the torte!)

Missed the link between Katrina Leung (paid FBI informant and Chinese spy) and James Smith (FBI handler and traitor to the U.S.) even though the Washington office was informed by a source that Leung was "in bed with" the Los Angeles office and they shouldn't use that office to investigate her.

Failed to investigate a former Navy code man, or his children, when the man's ex-wife provided evidence that he was selling code information to the Soviets & suborning his own children to do the same (John Walker.)

Based on past performance I figure they'll notice AL Qaeda operators in the U.S.A. calling Islamabad sometime in 2083 (not long after they notice I prefer Pap John's to Dominos.)

The NSA started spying on us before 9/11. They knew.

...in winning the last few elections for the Republican party, don't you think?

I mean, since they obviously haven't been making any progress catching 'terrorists', one would assume they're spending all that wiretapping time listening to *somebody*, you know?

When my father worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development and was headquartered in Rosslyn, Virginia they gave him several extra days off every summer - their antennas & associated receivers plus computers in his building would overwhelm the air conditioning and shut down power in the entire building. As I recall, the building was near the Cuban Mission (they didn't have an Embassy) and that was the reason they had snooping equipment outside of Fort Meyers.

That's been documented in the media, but at the time that story came out, no one knew where the NSA was getting its information from for sure. Now we know more of the big picture.

That's quite an accomplishment in and of itself. I can only imagine how such wasted man-hours have contributed to weakening America's security.

Selling all those hard drives to hold information...

And as Colbert would say, 'my gut' tells me the NSA spying explains the kiss * gave Joementum... Maybe someday we'll all know what * has on him...

It's a great way of keeping tabs on your opponent. No wonder Rovie-boy was
so confident of a Man - date.

which can be used forever now for totalitarian control

like the egregious privacy violations at our airports, it's more about keeping the "faithful" unquestioningly docile as it is to find "terrorists" or "subversives"

Exactly. These bozos can't handle the information they obtain legally - what justification is there to obtain more (unless it is to re-fund their utterly failed attempt to build a computer system which COULD handle these masses of info.)

Fumblers, Bumblers and Incompetents.

Just sayin'

I acomplished my objective - stimulating debate. THIS is the kind of thing we (the Progressives) are going to have to do in November and again in '08 - bring the debate home to Mr. & Mrs. Joe Sixpack, without the abstract talk about civil liberties and with concrete reasons they should be concerned.

for protitutes.

Seriously, we are a bankrupt country - we don't have any trust in the people we're paying who we thuoght were doing something they were not.

They have become MORALIZERS! Bill Bennett rules! Along with Phelps and Falwell and good old Pat. They don't like us.

Don't YOU do anything wrong. But they can do everything wrong.

It has comne down to only trusting a few - Coleen Rowley types.

Domestic espionage.

war against terror.

We can't tell you what those successes are however because that would be aiding the terrorists. Just be safe and secure in the knowledge that these wiretaps are increasing the safety of you and your family, especially your children.

In other words, I could tell you, but then,... well, you know.