It is vital that nobody assume that the NSA is the *only* government agency abusing its authority in gathering intelligence. The US has 17 MAJOR intelligence agencies, and the NSA is just one of them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Intelligence_Community
But wait! There’s more!
The Washington Post reported in 2010 that there were 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies in 10,000 locations in the United States that are working on counterterrorism, homeland security, and intelligence, and that the intelligence community as a whole includes 854,000 people holding top-secret clearances.
According to a 2008 study by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, private contractors make up 29% of the workforce in the U.S. intelligence community and cost the equivalent of 49% of their personnel budgets.
So it’s really a government jobs program then? Actually “countering terrorism” is not what they’re really about.