And who even knows what the NSA's "lawful charter" is? Secret interpretations of laws (meaning secret laws) evidently mean it's ok for them to capture the phone records (and, as reported, credit card statements) of everyone. They lie about what they are doing under oath and they hunt, jail, and kill those who tell the truth.
They prevented these unconstitutional secret interpretations of the law from getting to the courts or to the public. That's the only reason why they haven't been struck down.
I responded, "tapping overseas cables is NSA's stated mission, and so it doesn't follow that they're tapping domestic communications".
You responded that of course they're exceeding their legal bounds, because the Fourth Amendment restricts them, which of course begs the question.
"tapping overseas cables is NSA's stated mission, and so it
doesn't follow that they're tapping domestic
communications".
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.http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/305047-dem-...
So if PRISM is just the tip of the iceberg, what method do you suggest for speculating as to what exactly they are doing domestically? Maybe, say, look what they are doing overseas?