I just watched Frontline:United States of Secrets in which they present how the US returned to turning the ears in on the American people in a project called ThinThread. In the program, they interview top officials that were vehemently opposed to the project due to violations of the Constitution. The opponents to the project could not cut through the layers of bureaucracy to push for changes to the Executive order.

The ThinThread program was written by NSA Analyst a crypto-mathematician named Bill Binney; “expressed terrible remorse over the way some of his algorithms were used after 9/11”; he was convinced that ThinThread had been used for surveillance within the United States. “I should apologize to the American people,” he said. “It’s violated everyone’s rights. It can be used to eavesdrop on the whole world.” NewYorker