WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Senate intelligence committee is looking into allegations that a U.S. spy agency improperly eavesdropped on the phone calls of hundreds of Americans overseas, including aid workers and U.S. military personnel talking to their spouses at home.
The allegations, by two former military intercept officers assigned to the National Security Agency, include claims that U.S. spies routinely listened to intimate conversations and sometimes shared the recordings with each other. At least some of the snooping was done under relaxed eavesdropping rules approved by the Bush administration to facilitate spying on terrorists.
The intelligence committee chairman, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., on Thursday termed the accusations “extremely disturbing” and said his staff had begun gathering information and may consider holding hearings.
“Any time there is an allegation regarding abuse of the privacy and civil liberties of Americans, it is a very serious matter,” he said.
The alleged intercepts were described by two linguists who said they witnessed the activity while assigned to the NSA’s giant eavesdropping station in Fort Gordon, Ga.
