What do Americans think about the N.S.A. now?

The NSA, which long promised it was only spying on people in other countries, then only on “terrorists,” has been revealed to be funneling data and other information captured without a warrant (as required by the 4th Amendment) to local law enforcement via a previously-secret organization called Special Operations Division (SOD).  The 4th Amendment Protection Act would ban your state from accepting this kind of warrantless information in its criminal investigations.
     The NSA has established deep partnerships with over 160 universities around the country.  These partnerships not only provide a massive recruiting ground for future NSA spies, it is a major source of research and testing – all expanding the NSAs warrantless data-collection capabilities.
     In 2006, it was reported that the NSA had maxed out capacity of the Baltimore-area power grid via Baltimore Gas and Electric. Insiders reported that “The NSA is already unable to install some costly and sophisticated new equipment. At minimum, the problem could produce disruptions leading to outages and power surges. At worst, it could force a virtual shutdown of the agency.” The cost of electricity at Fort Meade, provided by Baltimore Gas and Electric, was probably one of NSA’s single biggest expenses, said Matthew Aid, author of The Secret Sentry: The Untold History of the National Security Agency (Bloomsbury Press, 2009). He estimated the agency could end up spending 95 percent less on electricity in Utah than in Maryland.
     The new “Data Center” is a massive complex. It requires 1.7 million gallons of water per day to operate. That water is provided by a political subdivision of the state of Utah. The electricity is provided by Rocky Mountain Power. Snow removal is by another contractor.  
     The Texas Cryptologic Center is being built on a former Sony warehouse, just down the road from a new Microsoft data center. The NSA waited to confirm Microsoft’s opening there before leasing the property from Corporate Office Properties Trust. A major part of the decision for the location was also the independent power grid in Texas, again confirming NSA’s very real concern about access to power. The electricity is provided by CPS Energy, the United States’ largest municipally owned utility company, with combined natural gas and electric service.. It appears that water will be as well.
     The Threat Operations Center has its water and sewage handled by the city of Augusta. Before a partnership in 2006 with Georgia Power, outages were a regular occurrence on post, particularly during the summer, when heavy demands were placed on the system.
     The “listening post” is scheduled to be closed and moved to Colorado. No date “in the future” has been confirmed.
     Intelligence collected from the geostationary satellites, as well as signals from other spacecraft and overseas listening posts, is relayed to this facility outside Denver. About 850 NSA employees track the satellites, transmit target information, and download the intelligence haul.
     Some 300 scientists and computer engineers with top security clearance toil away here, building the world’s fastest supercomputers and working on cryptanalytic applications and other secret projects. A

new facility is being developed on the East Campus of Oak Ridge. Called the Multiprogram Computational Data Center, the buildings will be low and wide like giant warehouses, a design
necessary for the dozens of computer cabinets that will compose an exaflop-scale machine, possibly arranged in a cluster to minimize the distance between circuits. According to a presentation delivered to DOE employees in 2009, it will be an “unassuming facility with limited view from roads,” in keeping with the NSA’s desire for secrecy. And it will have an extraordinary appetite for electricity, eventually using about 200 megawatts, enough to power 200,000 homes. The computer will also produce a gargantuan amount of heat, requiring 60,000 tons of cooling equipment, the same amount that was needed to serve both of the World Trade Center towers.
     Focuses on intercepts from Asia. Built to house an aircraft assembly plant during World War II, the 250,000-square-foot bunker is nicknamed the Hole. Like the other NSA operations centers, it has since been expanded: Its 2,700 employees now do their work aboveground from a new 234,000-square-foot facility.
     The Sugar Grove Station downloads a “staggering” amount of communications per NSA expert James Bamford.