With concerns by privacy advocates and even foreign governments over the extent of monitoring by the United States National Security Agency, they could soon have even bigger concerns as other federal agencies are continually applying pressure for them to be able to have access to the information.
While turf wars and tensions between various law-enforcement and intelligence agencies are nothing new, following the recent revelations in the news as to the extent on which the NSA has surveillance and personal information on nearly all American citizens, other agencies are stepping up the push to have the information to aid in their own investigations.
Among the agencies seeking information form the NSA are those fighting drug trafficking, cyberattacks, money laundering, copyright infringement and counterfeiting. These groups frequently complain that their appeals to the NSA are turned down because their cases are not considered a high enough priority for the agency.
While many Americans and civil libertarians on both the right and left are protesting the collection of data and destruction of privacy rights, these other organizations are arguing just the opposite, claiming the tools are not used enough.
It's a very common complaint about NSA, they collect all this information, but it's difficult for the other agencies to get access to what they want," said Timothy H. Edgar, a former senior intelligence official at the White House and at the office of the director of national intelligence. "The other agencies feel they should be bigger players. They view the N.S.A. - incorrectly, I think - as this big pot of data that they could go get if they were just able to pry it out of them."
While the agencies frequently make the request they reportedly are frequently denied because the links to foreign terrorism or intelligence, which is required by law to obtain the information, is tenuous at best. However, many of these other groups say the real reason has nothing to do with the law but is more about protecting the NSA's turf on the data front, and as such they have begun to grow resentful of the agency.
Edgar said the reason the NSA is reluctant to share the information is because they fear its abuse and they have been "burned" by past wiretapping controversies.
Defense lawyers have even begun to seek information from the NSA with at least one attorney asking the court to order the NSA to turn over information on his client's phone records claiming that they would provide an alibi for his client.
