Questions on the NSA spying case.....

Yesterday, the WaPo reported that the content of the illegal taps were spread through the Pentagon's DIA as well as other agencies. It has taken me a day to digest this, and after thinking about it again, I have two questions:


Who specifically, what government agency or group, requested these taps?


Were these agencies where the tap contents were eventually distributed, the requestors for those specific taps?


If so, I think that could be a really big deal if the DoD, again as example, was given the prerogative to spy on American citizens, tapping their phones and reading their email, using the NSA as a legal cutout.

We've heard alot about these taps, but I don't think I've seen anywhere what group within the government actually requested the NSA to tap somebody, or what group supplied the intelligence to suggest that somebody should be specifically monitored.

(It appears to me there are a number of programs which have been goperating under this NSA spying umbrella. I'm not referring to the apparent TIA type datamining here, but the specific monitoring of individuals within the US.)

A few stray thoughts: So far, beyond repeated non-detailed assertions that they believe they acted within John Yoo's interpretations of the law, all of the administration's defenses have been emotional in nature. "We're doing this to protect Americans." This could be because they don't want to divulge facts for practical reasons, but my general belief is that you argue emotion when the facts aren't on your side.

I know it's nitpicking, but despite Bush's repeated assertions, his oath of office was not to protect Americans, although I must say I generally support the "protecting Americans" plank of the platform. The presidential oath of office in article 2 of the constitution(sec 1 -8) is the following.

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

You swore to preserve protect and defend the Constitution, georgie boy, not circumvent it.

Lastly, I don't think we've really seen the body of this iceberg yet. Everything we've heard is elements of this program, things that were done, but not how the whole program worked from the beginning. That's what I was trying to get at in the questions at the top. The NSA was operating the technology, but who was actually pulling the levers. Something in this just smells fishy to me. Fishier than what we already know.