Let's connect the dots:
Dot 1: Instant-Messagers Really Are About Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon
Dot 2: According to news reports, "the NSA began monitoring the communications of anyone "connected" to Al Qaeda figures"
Under this doctrine, even Rush Limbaugh is "connected" to al Qaeda and subject to warrantless surveillance. In other words, the Bush Administration can now wiretap the international communications of anyone, anywhere, at their sole discretion. And if any purely domestic communications "accidentally" make it through the filters, I'm sure the loyal Bushie in charge would never, ever consider relaying any politically useful bits to the appropriate political operatives...
(more below the fold)
Dot 1: Instant-Messagers Really Are About Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon
With records of 30 billion electronic conversations among 180 million people from around the world, researchers have concluded that any two people on average are distanced by just 6.6 degrees of separation, meaning that they could be linked by a string of seven or fewer acquaintances.
Dot 2: The Bush Administration claims the right to eavesdrop on the communications of anyone "connected" to Al Qaeda:
Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts
New York Times
By JAMES RISEN and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: December 16, 2005
What the agency calls a "special collection program" began soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, as it looked for new tools to attack terrorism. The program accelerated in early 2002 after the Central Intelligence Agency started capturing top Qaeda operatives overseas, including Abu Zubaydah, who was arrested in Pakistan in March 2002. The C.I.A. seized the terrorists' computers, cellphones and personal phone directories, said the officials familiar with the program. The N.S.A. surveillance was intended to exploit those numbers and addresses as quickly as possible, they said.
In addition to eavesdropping on those numbers and reading e-mail messages to and from the Qaeda figures, the N.S.A. began monitoring others linked to them, creating an expanding chain. While most of the numbers and addresses were overseas, hundreds were in the United States, the officials said.
(emphasis added)
Congress gave Bush that power:
Bush Signs Law to Widen Reach for Wiretapping
By JAMES RISEN
Published: August 6, 2007
WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 — President Bush signed into law on Sunday legislation that broadly expanded the government’s authority to eavesdrop on the international telephone calls and e-mail messages of American citizens without warrants.
So, if we're all within 6-7 degrees of separation from each other, and the Administration has the right to eavesdrop on the international communications of anyone "connected" to Al Qaeda, so long as they "reasonably" believe one of the parties is in a foreign country. They do this by latching onto the switches, sucking up everything, and "filtering out" the "unwanted" content. (And we know the apolitical Justice Department would never do anything illegal in support of their political ambitions. Oh, wait...)