NSA documents challenge Obama claim that surveillance programs ‘not abused’
The Washington Post reported on an audit and other secret documents that allegedly show the NSA broke privacy rules and overstepped its authority thousands of times since it was granted new powers in 2008. The May 2012 audit specifically tallied 2,776 incidents from the prior year where communications were improperly gathered and handled. Some of the alleged abuses were inadvertent, stemming from typos and other errors, while others were more severe.

Edward Snowden documents show NSA broke privacy rules
The US National Security Agency (NSA) broke privacy rules and overstepped its legal authority thousands of times in the past two years, according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden. The incidents resulted in the unauthorised electronic surveillance of US citizens, according to documents published by the Washington Post. Mr Snowden, a former NSA contractor, has leaked top secret documents to the US and British media.