"tapping overseas cables is NSA's stated mission, and so it doesn't follow that they're tapping domestic communications". http://bigstory.ap.org/article/

"tapping overseas cables is NSA's stated mission, and so it doesn't follow that they're tapping domestic communications". http://bigstory.ap.org/article/secret-prism-success-even-bigger-data-seizure http://bigstory.ap.org/article/secret-prism-success-even-big... Deep in the oceans, hundreds of cables carry much of the world's phone and Internet traffic. Since at least the early 1970s, the NSA has been tapping foreign cables. It doesn't need permission. That's its job. But Internet data doesn't care about borders. Send an email from Pakistan to Afghanistan and it might pass through a mail server in the United States, the same computer that handles messages to and from Americans. The NSA is prohibited from spying on Americans or anyone inside the United States. That's the FBI's job and it requires a warrant. Despite that prohibition, shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush secretly authorized the NSA to plug into the fiber optic cables that enter and leave the United States, knowing it would give the government unprecedented, warrantless access to Americans' private conversations.