Just to play devil's advocate - I think he's talking about the NSA as a whole as a matter of policy, not these notably but otherwise isolated exceptions. It would simply be impractical and largely useless to listen to every average joe's conversations.

Also, is there any respite to be had considering the IG was aware of that particular case? Isn't that ideal?

> I think he's talking about the NSA as a whole as a matter of policy

The NSA lying to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court -- as the FISC called them out for in a ruling which has become public -- about what they are actually doing in order to get things approved is prima facie evidence that the intent to be unbound by law was not an exception but a matter of systematic policy.

So, follow through. The NSA is abusing its abilities on a systematic basis - to spy on the personal lives of average people? For political purposes?

That's what have been found, or what was let out, no? How much does the internal watchdog wants to keep this numbers reaaaally low.. is it really adversarial?

1 employee, 9 women, after 6 years... Not a pretty picture in my mind, honestly. They employ a looot of people, and they're growing more each day... no way that's all that happened imo..

I imagine what would happen if it was a private company employee snooping on women for 6 years...

I also imagine that when people are working in the intelligence industry, they have more to fear for crossing boundaries than a normal employee at a normal company.

What's the IG and were they aware of? From what I can see there are no controls in place and the only transgressions that are found out are those that are investigated or freely admitted to.

The Inspector General, in this case of the NSA. Basically an internal watchdog. They were aware of at least 12 cases of abuse according to the article.

How did they come to be aware of them? The information was volunteered or investigations comissioned at the behest of victims.

So... follow through with this. A significant portion of the NSA are abusing their powers to spy on average people?

An unknown amount of the NSA are.