How the NSA Used a 'Loophole' to Spy on Americans
Obama's intel czar confirms targeting U.S. communications.

April 1, 2014

The Obama administration's top intelligence official has confirmed that the National Security Agency intentionally spied on the communications of Americans under a law intended to apply only to foreigners.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper confirmed the surveillance in a letter responding to questioning from Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat. The agency spied on the actual contents of communications without a warrant—not just "metadata," such as call times and phone numbers.

"This is unacceptable. It raises serious constitutional questions, and poses a real threat to the privacy rights of law-abiding Americans," Wyden and Sen. Mark Udall, a Colorado Democrat, said in a statement.

  

"If a government agency thinks that a particular American is engaged in terrorism or espionage, the Fourth Amendment requires that the government secure a warrant or emergency authorization before monitoring his or her communications," the senators said. "This fact should be beyond dispute."

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act gives the NSA broad power to listen in on phone calls and access emails. But the law only covers non-Americans located outside of the United States.

The agency sometimes collects Americans' information as it scoops up vast amounts of data on foreigners. In his letter to Wyden, Clapper revealed that the NSA has searched through that database specifically looking for Americans' communications.

"There have been queries, using US person identifiers, of communications lawfully acquired to obtain foreign intelligence targeting non-US persons reasonably believed to be located outside the United States," Clapper wrote.

The statement confirms that the NSA has been been taking advantage of a secret rule change first revealed by The Guardian in August, based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/how-the-nsa-used-a-loophole-to-spy-on-americans-20140401

let me just say that some websites are run by the government....behind the scenes so to say.
eg.....a lot of the anti-government sites.