E-mail Surveillance?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/us/17nsa.html?_r=1

This article discusses the renewed scrutiny that the National Security Agency faces over the extent of its domestic surveillance program. The major problem faced is the recent "intercepts of the private telephone calls and e-mail messages of Americans." A certain team is made to go through bulk e-mails messages. This is done without court warrants. The handling of these messages infuriates many because it's an invasion of American's privacy.

They claim to have a hard time distinguishing between American and foreign e-mails. That is just inexcusable though. With all of the technology that we have today there must be a way to know the difference between foreign and American messages. Are they claiming to not know the difference or is the government choosing to snoop and blaming it on negligence?

The agency is permitted to collect e-mails from private Americans if there is reason to believe they could be involved in overseas contact/e-mails. Who determines which Americans are examined? It seems to me that almost anyone could be a reasonable suspect when the government is deciding. What constitutes a person to be of personal "liking" to the agency?

The article states, "In April, the Obama administration said it had taken comprehensive steps to bring the security agency into compliance with the law after a periodic review turned up problems with “overcollection” of domestic communications. " An over-collection of information is what leads to an invasion of privacy. This must be monitored and fixed obviously.