You are forgetting one critical fact: the NSA's language is entirely different from the language that you and I agree upon and understand. If they are saying "

You are forgetting one critical fact: the NSA's language is entirely different from the language that you and I agree upon and understand. If they are saying "only 30 intelligence employees are permitted access to the database, and only 300 searches a year", they could really mean "only 30 employees (and a multitude of contractors and military personnel) are permitted access to the database (of which they can make a copy of all remotely relevant information and then distribute to whoever), and only 300 searches a year (under our atomically narrow Byzantine definition of "searches" which completely misrepresents the real number of database queries)". Additionally, people are really placing way too much faith in the warrant/court approval system. These courts are in the pockets of the people requesting authorization for searches; after all, the people with real information (power) can twist the arm of any judge to suit their needs. We need to clean house from the bottom up and rebuild a system which does not permit for human corruption or human error.