Uh, Adam, I'm going to make a wild ass guess that you are pretty young. I say that because to any seasoned activist, the idea of this being news is rather silly. We use any instance of government spying that can be proved as propaganda. Problem is, it rarely works effectively, because no one gives a shit if the government is spying on dissenters and activists.

The government ALWAYS spies on dissenters and activists who do their job well enough to influence public opinion, and even better, public policy. There are many documented instances of abuses by the US government spying on dissenters and activists violating their civil rights. But people just don't give a shit, because they believe what they want to believe. Which is, if the US government is spying on you, you must be doing something illegal or at least "bad".

People don't give a damn about the US Constitution or the Bill of Rights, as we've seen in the past year of post 9/11 dismantling of civil rights. The bureacratic system has successfully disenfranchised enough voters, so that extremists hell bent on dismantling the Bill of Rights (because it stands in the way of their controlling the government, and by extension, their profits) is able to get people elected who will immediately begin to violate both the Bill of Rights AND their oath to uphold and protect the US Constitution.

We are voting into office the very people bent on destroying our democracy for their own profit and gain. Until the citizenry themselves wakes up and smells the coffee, there will be more and more of these news reports, more and more people imprisoned without cause, held without trials, etc. just as is happening right now with non-citizens, and the fascists will have it all. They are damn close to having it all right now. But if they win, we have no one but ourselves to blame, because hand wringing in "ain't it awful" threads in online discussion forums isn't doing enough.