Stellar Wind

[3] There were internal disputes within the U.S. Justice Department about the legality of the program, because data is collected for large numbers of people, not just the subjects of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants.

[2] From a report by the inspectors general of six US intelligence agencies that was declassified in September 2015, it became clear that President Bush had originally authorized the collection of telephone and e-mail metadata only if one end of the communications was foreign or when there was a link to terrorism.

[11] In June 2013, The Washington Post and The Guardian published an Office of the Inspector General (OIG) draft report, dated March 2009, leaked by Edward Snowden detailing the Stellar Wind program.

In September 2014, The New York Times asserted, "Questions persist after the release of a newly declassified version of a legal memo approving the National Security Agency's Stellarwind program, a set of warrantless surveillance and data collection activities secretly authorized after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."

[13][14][15] Note was made that the bulk of the program—the telephone, Internet, and e-mail surveillance of American citizens—remained secret until the revelations by Edward Snowden, that to date, significant portions of the memo remain redacted in the newly released version, and that doubts and questions about its legality persist.