NSA Spied on Government Officials

NSA Spied on Government Officials: "NSA SPIED ON GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
Thursday, December 22, 2005 - FreeMarketNews.com

According to National Security Agency insiders, outgoing NSA Director General Michael Hayden approved special communications intercepts of phone conversations made by past and present U.S. government officials. The intercepts are at the height of the current controversy surrounding the nomination of Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations. It was revealed by Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd during Bolton’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee nomination hearing that Bolton requested transcripts of 10 NSA intercepts of conversations between named U.S. government officials and foreign persons. Later, it was revealed that U.S. companies [also treated as 'U.S. persons' by NSA] were also identified in an additional nine intercepts requested by Bolton. However, NSA insiders report that Hayden approved special intercept operations on behalf of Bolton and had them masked as 'training missions' in order to get around internal NSA regulations that normally prohibit such eavesdropping on U.S. citizens. "