"It involves extensive procedures, specifically approved by the court, to ensure that only non-US persons outside the US are targeted, and that minimize the acquisition, retention and dissemination of incidentally acquired information about US persons."
Even if this wasn't almost certainly blatant lie, here's why it doesn't matter:
"Analysts who use the system from a Web portal at Fort Meade, Md., key in ?selectors,? or search terms, that are designed to produce at least 51 percent confidence in a target?s ?foreignness.?"
"Even when the system works just as advertised, with no American singled out for targeting, the NSA routinely collects a great deal of American content. That is described as ?incidental,? and it is inherent in contact chaining, one of the basic tools of the trade. To collect on a suspected spy or foreign terrorist means, at minimum, that everyone in the suspect?s inbox or outbox is swept in. Intelligence analysts are typically taught to chain through contacts two ?hops? out from their target, which increases ?incidental collection? exponentially."
And here's the kicker, from Inspector General absurdist mastermind I. Charles McCullough III: "...it would violate the privacy of Americans in NSA data banks to try to estimate their number."
My god, who knew the Monty Python of our times was working for the NSA? I can't even touch that statement, it's so absurd.
