Yes, its true. The NSA asked and is currently receiving telephone call details on nearly every citizen in the US. These aren't international calls, these are calls from someone in the US to someone else in the US. Call details aren't the actual content of the calls. It is things like which number called which, what time the call was made, and how long the call was. Over 200 million people are being track *right now* and its been happening since just after 9/11.

There was no warrant, no authorization by the secret FISA court. The NSA just asked Version, SBC, AT&T, BellSouth and the like to be a patriot and turn the data over. What do those companies have to say for themselves now?

AT&T: "We do not comment on matters of national security, except to say that we only assist law enforcement and government agencies charged with protecting national security in strict accordance with the law."

BellSouth: "BellSouth does not provide any confidential customer information to the NSA or any governmental agency without proper legal authority."

Verizon: "We do not comment on national security matters, we act in full compliance with the law and we are committed to safeguarding our customers' privacy."

The only major company who didn't comply was Qwest. They wanted some kind of ruling from the FISA count, which normally handles these things...

Unable to get comfortable with what NSA was proposing, Qwest's lawyers asked NSA to take its proposal to the FISA court. According to the sources, the agency refused.

The NSA's explanation did little to satisfy Qwest's lawyers. "They told (Qwest) they didn't want to do that because FISA might not agree with them," one person recalled. For similar reasons, this person said, NSA rejected Qwest's suggestion of getting a letter of authorization from the U.S. attorney general's office. A second person confirmed this version of events

When it it become OK for the government to spy on its people?