WASHINGTON, May 12 (UPI) -- The U.S. National Security Agency is acting illegally if it is compiling telephone information on millions of U.S. citizens, a think tank said.
Washington-based non-profit the Center for Democracy and Technology said that if the NSA is indeed gathering information about who, when, and where people are calling to establish calling patterns, the NSA is breaking the law, and Congress should conduct a public inquiry into "the scope of warrantless domestic surveillance."
Public criticism against the NSA's activities and the Bush administration has been growing since a report by USA Today reported Thursday that the agency was compiling calling data on the bulk of the U.S. population.
"If the program involved real-time interception, it probably violated both the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the statute on interception of call detail information in criminal cases. Both statutes require a court order for interception of information about calling patterns, even if the content of communications is not collected," CDT said.
