The big question I would think is whether or not the NSA can capture a phone call (without an analyst listening to it) with a warrant or not. On the one hand t

The big question I would think is whether or not the NSA can capture a phone call (without an analyst listening to it) with a warrant or not. On the one hand that's a phone call which has its own specific wiretap requirements. On the other NSA has been capturing things elsewhere that they need a warrant to look at, so the logic would be similar. And given that most phone calls are probably routed over a computer network by now the wiretap law may not apply directly in NSA's view. I said yesterday that it Nadler probably understood "we can capture but not listen to calls" as "we can tap into calls (i.e. eavesdrop)" and so the message the NSA rep delivered is not the one Nadler understood. But that still leaves open the question of whether phone calls can be recorded in NSA's view, or whether it's just the metadata.