The transcript is a good read, too. The EFF explains how the NSA grabs data wholesale from fiber optic cables (step 1) and then filters it according to selectors (step 2). This is the governments rebuke:<p>> IN FACT, THE SUPREME COURT DELINEATED PRECISELY HOW<p>> THE PROGRAM OPERATES. AND IT IS A TARGETED PROGRAM. IT IS A<p>> PROGRAM THAT IS TARGETED AT SPECIFIC SELECTORS, THAT IS PHONE<p>> NUMBERS OR EMAIL ACCOUNTS.<p>This person doesn't have an understanding of how <i>selectors</i> work. He doesn't realize that you can't decide if something is a phone number or an email account until you have already taken a look at it. This is the level on which they argue. They trick people into thinking that you can put a bunch of selectors in one bag and have only matching communications magically appear in a second one, circumventing the obvious constutional issue of collecting everything. But gravity is still in effect, so anyone with a basic understanding realizes that you can't get to (2) without having taken step (1).<p>> IT IS NOT BULK META DATA COLLECTION.<p>> IT'S A TARGETED COMMUNICATION SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM<p>> AGAINST NON U.S. PERSONS LOCATED OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES.<p>You're not sure if he is just ignorant or feigning ignorance. And the problem is that <i>it might just work</i>. It brings back memories to the Java APIs case where the career lawyer argued a trivial three line Java code Google copied verbatim constituted copyright infringement. He didn't know, of course, what he was talking about. There was no mental framework for him to realize the sheer stupidity on display.