Timeline of NSA Domestic Spying
From the post:
All of the evidence found in this timeline can also be found in the Summary of Evidence we submitted to the court in Jewel v. NSA. It is intended to recall all the credible accounts and information of the NSA’s domestic spying program found in the media, congressional testimony, books, and court actions. For a short description of the people involved in the spying you can look at our Profiles page, which includes many of the key characters from the NSA Domestic Spying program.
A very interesting timeline with links to supporting materials.
The oldest entry is 1791, to mark the Bill of Rights, including the Fourth Amendment going into effect. The next oldest entry is 1952, when President Truman establishes the NSA.
While I understand and applaud all attempts to keep the heat on the NSA because of its widespread domestic spying, we should not lose sight of the fact that the NSA and it programs are only a symptom.
Domestic spying on Americans has a long and sordid history separate and apart the NSA.
I will run down the details for another post but in the early 20th century, the government broke into a corporation’s office, stole documents, which they then copied.
When forced to return the originals, for lack of a search warrant, the government proceeded to prosecute the defendants based on the copies.
How is that for overreaching?
The case had a happy result, at least from one point of view but I will cover that separately.
Press the NSA for all we are worth but realize the government as a whole has interests and goals that are not ours.
And that are not calculated to benefit anyone outside of present office holders and their favorites.