> that limitations on querying them are enforced only at a policy level.

I love it when people throw this out. Virtually every crime is enforced only at a policy level. There are no technical limitations preventing a cop from going from door to door and using his issued weapon to kill everyone inside, but you don't see people crying out to disarm cops to prevent it.

> The issue is not about whether there has been abuse. The issue is about the fundamental principles of freedom in our country against suspicion-less search and seizure.

It's not suspicion-less - it's done to answer specific questions: are any phone numbers on a given list of foreign terrorist numbers in contact with other phone numbers inside the US? If so, which numbers are they in contact with? It was implemented to address a specific fault found by the 9/11 Commission. I'm personally comfortable with the information collected being used for exactly that purpose, and nothing else (although I'm guessing you're going to come back and say you're not). That's why in evaluating the program, it's critical to look at whether the NSA has deviated from guidelines set down by the courts. Neither of the two review groups recommended shutting down the program, they recommended keeping the phone records at the phone companies instead.

> First, it seems you agree with the parent? You don't dispute him, just add an addendum about minimization.

I'm taking issue with cherry picking quotes to make a point.

> The issue is that the collection is done in the first place without a person being suspected of a crime. Their content can be collected, then it can be decided if they are suspect of a crime or not, and then it may possibly be released. This is principally different than how law enforcement is supposed to work in the United States.

This isn't law enforcement, it's foreign intelligence. The document in question pertains to Section 702 collection, which is targeted against specific e-mail addresses/accounts/identifiers used by foreigners. There already has to be a stated foreign intelligence purpose to collect against that specific address to begin with. The document further goes on to direct analysts to destroy any collected information that pertains to US persons is not of foreign intelligence value.

> Another thing we learned from the Obama Administration oversight panel is that anything within three hops of a target is considered relevant for collection (and the hops are counted across Facebook, Twitter, AIM, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Gmail, phone, geolocation, etc).

There's nothing in the PCLOB report that says that. The report makes it pretty clear that the whole three hop process pertains to phone records.

> but I would also classify his statement as accurate

It's inaccurate because he states that the NSA can hand attorney-client communications over to federal prosecutors, when the document he's citing says the exact opposite.

> almost reads like... parallel construction...

How could it be parallel construction if the person is already indicted? The entire point of that section is to protect client-attorney communications - if the purpose was to feed intelligence to US law enforcement by circumventing client-attorney privilege, why would they put in those additional restrictions?