The Obama administration secretly procured permission from a surveillance court in 2011 to turn around restrictions on the NSA's use of emails and intercepted phone calls, according to interviews with government officials and recently declassified material.
According to The Washington Post, the move permitted the agency to search deliberately for Americans' communications in it massive databases.
In addition, the court extended the length of time that the NSA is allowed to retain intercepted U.S. communications from five years to six years and more under special circumstances, the report said.
The revelations have been made by documents, which include a recently released 2011 opinion by US District Judge John D. Bates, then chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the report added.
