NSA in turmoil over U.S. spying

Several years ago, officials at the National Security Agency (NSA) sought to reassure taxpayers that the agency had repudiated its Vietnam-era spying on U.S. citizens.

They insisted the movie "Enemy of the State," which portrayed NSA as using its formidable technology to track and eavesdrop on Americans, was the stuff of Hollywood fantasy.

Now NSA stands accused of abetting the White House in what civil-liberties activists and some others describe as an assault on the constitutional right to privacy after Sept. 11, 2001.

The program reportedly traced thousands of calls from phones linked to terrorism suspects to and from locations in the U.S., and then listened in on many of those conversations, all without seeking warrants from a special court. E-mail also was tracked and read, according to reports.

"I've stuck up for NSA innumerable times, saying I didn't believe they were engaged in illegal activity," said James Bamford, author of two acclaimed books on the NSA, "The Puzzle Palace" and "Body of Secrets." But now, he said, there is no question that the agency broke the law.

Revelations about warrantless surveillance, he said, have thrown the nation's largest and most secretive intelligence-gathering agency into turmoil.

"Most of the people I've dealt with there had no idea this was going on, and they were very shocked and disappointed that suddenly they're back to where they were 30 years ago, dealing with questions of domestic spying," he said.

Don Weber, an NSA spokesman, said the agency can't comment in the interest of national security.

The surveillance will be subject to congressional hearings, expected to begin soon.

Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told The New York Times that he planned to hold hearings on the surveillance program after confirmation hearings for Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Those hearings may stretch into early next month.

According to reports in The New York Times and elsewhere, NSA began the program after the 2001 attacks, before President Bush issued a secret order authorizing it.

Bamford and others contend that, with or without presidential approval, the program was conducted in violation of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

That law bans NSA from intercepting calls or other electronic communications to or from a U.S. citizen or resident alien without a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Bamford, who holds a law degree, said the statute was written "to prevent exactly what just happened." Some critics call the president's authorization an impeachable offense.

An analysis done by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service and released Friday concluded that the justification for the monitoring may not be as strong as the administration has argued.

The Bush administration has said the president had the authority to authorize the program based on his powers as commander in chief.

The White House refused to cancel the program, and the government has started an investigation against the whistle-blowers who leaked the story to The Times.

To its defenders, the NSA program is legal and is a vital and necessary part of the efforts to prevent another Sept. 11-style attack.

"It was an integral and important part of the nation's counterterrorism toolkit," said John McLaughlin, who served as deputy director of the CIA from 2000 to 2004 and was briefed on the program.

But to critics, the alleged abuses are so serious that they eclipse even concerns of future terrorist attacks.

In the upcoming hearings, Congress will focus on a few key questions: What kinds of surveillance did the agency conduct? Were legislators fully informed about the program? Were abuses committed? And, of course: Was the program legal?

The search for answers might be difficult.

The strategies and hardware NSA uses are among the U.S. government's most closely held secrets, and it is not clear to what extent the administration will discuss them.

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.