The Guardian reporter who broke the story about the National Security Agency’s spying program sweeping up Americans’ electronic communications appeared on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday to give a chillingly detailed description of how easily any email or other communication can be accessed by anyone in the agency for any reason — with the right information.

All it takes, Glenn Greenwald said,  is an email address, the desired phone number or the IP address of a particular device. Later in the program, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., said he’s been told Greenwald’s statement is incorrect.

But if what Greenwald says is true, considering there are literally trillions of emails caught up in the government’s net (including all of yours) and – Greenwald says – the information can’t be used in court without a judge signing off first, there’s probably a fairly low probability that your email exchanges, Google search histories, pizza orders and the like are being monitored – for now, anyway.

Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is now awaiting a verdict in his espionage trial for leaking hundreds of thousands of “secure” diplomatic communications to the WikiLeaks website, showed the world just how easily this information could be shared.

The story Greenwald broke based on information from Edward Snowden, a former employee of an NSA contractor, proved it again.

NSA officials are due to testify before the Senate on the program Wednesday.

U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., is conducting a separate hearing in the House the same day, and Greenwald is expected to participate via telephone, according to the Huffington Post.

Check out Greenwald’s description of the program here. However you feel about Greenwald, Grayson, the Guardian or even Edward Snowden, it’s a lot to think about.

HT: National Review

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Joe Saunders

Joe Saunders, a 25-year newspaper veteran, is a staff writer and editor for BizPac Review who lives in Tallahassee and covers capital and Florida politics. Email Joe at [email protected].

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