National Security

The NSA machine: Too big for anyone to understand

By Matt Apuzzo
Published September 11, 2013 1:57pm ET
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The NSA machine: Too big for anyone to understand
FILE - NSA's Utah Data Center is shown in this Thursday, June 6, 2013 file photo taken in Bluffdale, Utah. Newly declassified documents released Tuesday Sept. 10, 2013 tell a story of a surveillance apparatus so unwieldy and complex that nobody fully comprehended it, even as the government pointed it at the American people in the name of protecting them. Documents from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court show that even senior lawyers and officials weren't sure how the system worked and didn't understand what they were told. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, FILE) | Rick Bowmer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The surveillance machine grew too big for anyone to understand.

The National Security Agency set it in motion in 2006 and the vast network of supercomputers, switches and wiretaps began gathering Americans’ phone and Internet records by the millions, looking for signs of terrorism.

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