Just be still and this won't hurt a bit

Tomorrow's NYT's:

But the battle is really about something much bigger. At stake is the
federal government's extensive but uneasy partnership with industry
to conduct a wide range of secret surveillance operations in fighting
terrorism and crime. The N.S.A.'s reliance on telecommunications
companies is broader and deeper than ever before, according to
government and industry officials, yet that alliance is strained by
legal worries and the fear of public exposure.

To detect narcotics trafficking, for example, the government has been
collecting the phone records of thousands of Americans and others
inside the United States who call people in Latin America, according
to several government officials who spoke on the condition of
anonymity because the program remains classified. But in 2004, one
major phone carrier balked at turning over its customers' records.
Worried about possible privacy violations or public relations
problems, company executives declined to help the operation, which
has not been previously disclosed.

In a separate N.S.A. project, executives at a Denver phone carrier,
Qwest, refused in early 2001 to give the agency access to their most
localized communications switches, which primarily carry domestic
calls, according to people aware of the request, which has not been
previously reported. They say the arrangement could have permitted
neighborhood-by-neighborhood surveillance of phone traffic without a
court order, which alarmed them.

9/11 didn't change the way we live, or how government operates for the most part. It certainly does provide a convenient excuse, though, for this administration to disregard the constitution.

-Diane