Hypocritical considering that's when these programs started getting huge boosts to funding and massive expansions. These domestic spying programs really "came of age" during the cold war, as they used them to spy on American citizens, but at the time were mainly looking for Russian spies. This is where the capabilities like being able to log all land line phone calls, fax lines, and microwaves really came into it's prime. The program I talk about a lot, ECHELON, was pretty much made for this. Funny the US would say that, while literally doing it at the same time. Perhaps they think their spying was more noble and needed, but none the less they were still doing it. Also the author of that article is a local politician. If I lived just a few miles further South I would be in his district and could vote for him. Seems like a solid dude.we were told that repressive regimes like the Soviet Union and East Germany spied upon their citizens. We were told that the US was different