“On May 10, 2006, USA Today revealed a further assault on the U.S. judicial system–the existence of a secret program conducted by the National Security Agency of the Department of Defense to monitor and catalog phone calls made from the four largest telephone carriers in the United States. The discovery of this program and an estimated database of 1.9 trillion phone call records generated immense national controversy.”
– Eugene Jarecki, The American Way of War, Page 236-237