and who is now in deep doodoo. Per Wired article posted at Truthout.

An NSA intelligence analyst was apparently investigated after accessing Clinton's personal correspondence in the database, the paper [NYTimes] reports, though it didn't say how many of Clinton's e-mails were captured or when the interception occurred.

[Warning: Virus detected when I clicked through to the NYTimes article; has happened other times going to the Times site.]

The database, codenamed Pinwale, allows NSA analysts to search through and read large volumes of e-mail messages, including correspondence to and from Americans. Pinwale is likely the end point for data sucked from internet backbones into NSA-run surveillance rooms at AT&T facilities around the country.

I don't think many of us doubted the NSA info collections through AT&T and other telecom companies were capturing emails and telephone calls of US citizens; some of us hypothecized that BushCo might find it useful to keep tabs on politically interesting people.

So who else had seen Pres. Clinton's personal emails? Was information given to political opponents of the Clintons?

I just didn't think it would come out. Interesting that this intel analyst's curiosity was detected and then reported.... Why? The NSA is quite capable of keeping such things secret, so why release the story? As a warning to other pols? But why not quietly?

Did someone want to make clear to Obama what goes on? Let him know the effects of his FISA vote?

The NSA has claimed that the over-collection was inadvertent and corrected it each time the problem was discovered. But Rep. Rush Holt (D-New Jersey), chairman of the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, disputed this. "Some actions are so flagrant that they can't be accidental," he told the Times.

Holt and other congressional reps have been holding closed-door meetings on the issue. Holt's office said there are no current plans to hold a hearing on the matter, but the investigation is on-going.

I do like the codename, Pinwale.