Can anyone say exactly what this paragraph is supposed to mean (or really mean, if there's a difference):<p><i>Intelligence community sources said that this description</i>[direct access]<i>, although inaccurate from a technical perspective, matches the experience of analysts at the NSA. From their workstations anywhere in the world, government employees cleared for PRISM access may “task” the system and receive results from an Internet company without further interaction with the company’s staff.</i><p>So they get data from an ad-hoc query without interaction with the company's staff. And yet it is not direct access? I've read the other back-and-forths but I'm still not sure what this could even trying to imply.<p>Edit: and read - <i>According to a more precise description contained in a classified NSA inspector general’s report, also obtained by The Post, PRISM allows “collection managers [to send] content tasking instructions directly to equipment installed at company-controlled locations,” rather than directly to company servers. The companies cannot see the queries that are sent from the NSA to the systems installed on their premises, according to sources familiar with the PRISM process.</i><p>But that the meaning is no more clear. Or the meaning is, we buy an "indirect access cable at Best Buy and so everything is OK", ie, the distinction is nothing but word games.