From the May 2006 Idaho Observer:

Big Brother Bush, et. al, is listening

Last December the Bush administration claimed that only the phone calls of those suspected of talking to terrorists outside the U.S. were being secretly monitored.

On May 11, 2006, The Associated Press reported that, "Congressional Republicans and Democrats demanded answers from the Bush administration Thursday about a government spy agency [the National Security Agency] secretly collecting records of ordinary Americans’ phone calls to build a database of every call made within the country."

President Bush did not admit or deny the accusations, but said that Americans’ rights are being "fiercely protected."

"We’re not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans," Bush said.

Former NSA Director General Michael Hayden, Bush’s nominee to replace CIA Director Porter Goss, said, "...everything that NSA does is lawful and very carefully done and that the appropriate members of the Congress, the House and Senate are briefed on all NSA activities—and I think I’d just leave it at that."