Back 20 years ago, there was a conspiracy theory going around called "ECHELON" that claimed the NSA was monitoring the content of everyone's phone calls and emails, everywhere in the world, including the United States. Echelon (probably) existed, but it's wasn't technically feasible to be as extensive as claimed. It was also against the constitution: the NSA is a bunch of bastards, but they would never cross that line.
But they'll move the line. That's what today's revelation by Glen Greenwald (@ggreenwald) at the Guardian has shown us. While the NSA cannot intercept signals within the United States, then can get a court order for most of the information from businesses, with help from the FBI and the FISA court. The court order demanded everyone's call records from Verizon. It demanded not just records of calls made to foreign countries, but those wholly within the United States as well.
