Scandals at NSA and IRS Are Equally Alarming | Cato Institute

Scandals at NSA and IRS Are Equally Alarming | Cato Institute: "Project SHAMROCK, the NSA program that collected the content of virtually all cable traffic entering or leaving the United States from 1945 to 1975, and which “at its height would collect 150,000 messages a month, illegally.”

Using SHAMROCK, the NSA “acted as an information broker to the FBI and CIA” — which the agency referred to as its “customers.” Watchlists of potential subversives “eventually became blanket requests,” expanding to track Americans suspected of drug trafficking, as well as Vietnam War opponents, including such dangerous characters as folksinger Joan Baez and peace-activist pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock."