As stated before , he writes that mass surveillance in the U.S. accelerated due to the aftermath of the September 11th attacks . The NSA 's Director , Michael Hayden , spearheads a successful secret campaign to persuade the rest of the Bush administration to expand the efforts made previously under the Total Information Awareness ( TIA ) program , which itself ended in 2003 due to Congressional opposition . Hadyen and his allies take a widely expansive interpretation of the law around executive branch authority . As Harris details , the NSA organizes its own internal efforts to sort through the vast data cloud of e-mails , phone calls , and the like that become codified and bureaucratized as the years go on
September 11th attacks
September 11 attacks
The Watchers: The Rise of America's Surveillance State