has there ever been a conviction due to NSA gathered information?
545297
No.  That would require them to present the information in open court.  That would require that the information be declassified and made public.  Unless the President decides that declassification is in his best political interests, that is not permitted; the needs of justice and a fair trial be damned.\n\nIMHO, the poor bastard will be (have already been?  We'll never know for sure...) whisked off without trial to some third-world hell-hole or dumped off at Gitmo to rot.  Guilt or innocence no longer matters and need not be proven.  A mere accusation is better than a conviction as there is no judicial oversight and no appeal is possible.\n\nIndefinite incarceration without trial or access to counsel, in order to protect the state.  It's one of the great principles of freedom that our great nation was founded upon.  Oops!  Sorry, I've got that confused with Nazism.  No matter, the outcome is the same...
96046
Have you tried any federal agencies?  FBI, maybe??  Depends what you are interested in!
1171171
no.  the only evidence that can be used is documents, sworn testimony, or affidavits.  otherwise, they don't have to admit to having said it and anything else is just heresay.
1183793
Short answer: No\n\nThe reasons are many, but include the fact that, even if he did "expose" her, no law was broken.  Here's a resource for the actual wording of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act:\n\nhttp://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Intelligence_Identities_Protection_Act\n\nThe key provision is that you need to have knowingly disclosed information about a covert agent; so it would need to be proven that Plame was a covert agent and that Rove knew it and then told someone.\n\nPlame was no longer a covert agent and there is evidence to indicate it was common knowledge that she was working for the CIA.  This whole investigation (when viewed in context of the lies and political attacks from her husband Ambassador Wilson) appears to be more political than legal or national security related.\n\nBottom Line: If no law was broken (and it wasn't) there is no grounds for an indictment, no matter how much emotion or personal feelings someone wants to interject into the debate.
385043
The National Security Agency, or the NSA, is an intelligence gathering agency.  Their mission is to gather information on threats and potetnial threats to the United States, primarily through Signals Intelligence (electronic communications).  To that end they should have a great deal of flexibility on gathering information that may relate to this mission.  It is very unlikely that an actual person ever reads all the email or listens to all the phone calls made (just the volume generated in the time between when you asked this question and when I posted an answer would be more than a days work for an individual analyst) so what is looked for has to be targeted (Specific Phone Numbers and Emails known or suspected to belong to terrorists, and even these are probably sorted electronically) to even be remotely useful.  The second issue is that even if this information is gathered and used to stop terrorist attacks, it probably can't be used against US Citizens to pursue criminals, so if for example the NSA caught an entire conversation detailing how the Mafia was laundering money (and happened to notice they had it) they probably could not turn it over to the Department of Justice to prosecute.
178861
Assuming they don't give themselves away by telling someone they did it? Nigh impossible. You would have to find out what ip it was sent from, then hack the isp to find out who was using that ip. Not an easy task for even an expert hacker, and highly illegal. And that would only tell you who pays for the internet service. If they sent it from say, a library, you would then have to somehow find out exactly who was sitting at that pc at that exact time. Basically it would take more time, effort, and skill than anyone is willing to put into it, just to find someone calling them names.
195567
File a freedom of information request with the feds, yes they will tell you
21426
Well, hypothetical, if you committed a federal crime at some point and you know that a file exists, you could file an Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request with the FBI and they will probably respond in some way or another. Check the link below for instructions:
1105291
yes, but you will need a warrant from the FBI or  a local law office.  This is considered private info. and there has to be a  legal reason for wanting it.
1132600
oh they know absolutely everything. They have a log that keeps track of their clients' activities. Legally, I don't think it's legal to read the logs but they are keeping them for records in case something comes up and they have a reason to suspect you, then they will need a warrant to look at your activities, just like the government taping your phone lines.\n\nI'm not sure if data encryption helps in this case. I'm sure they can still find which sites you are visiting, but they might not be able to tell what messages are being passed back and forth.
668332
People are missing the point. There may not be an expectation of privacy requiring a warrant, but the phone call database is in direct violation of applicable federal law.\n\nWhether I have anything to hide or not is irrelevant. It was against the law for the NSA to be doing what they are doing, especially if it has been going on for years. See the 1986 Stored Communications Act.
1128767
no.. and even if they did.. could they have done anything about it before the crime was committed?
1182414
Yes, they do. For the fact that the information that is being given to this individual is protected by Privacy Rights Act of 1974. If this individual fail to safely guard this information, he or she can be prosecuted in a court of law with punishment of fines starting at $5000 or inprisonment.
776224
classified AREA 51 clearence needed
418527
Ever hear of the Patriot Act? The NSA's been doing just that in a big way since 9/11,and was doing it on a smaller scale since before that. Also let's not forget the FBI,\nthat also has a history of tapping phones since J.Edgar\nHoover-I'm sure they've kept up with the times.
292905
Unless the person is a Government (public) employee, you'd need to subpeona that information with a court order.  You couldn't just get that information because you were curious.
33711
Yes.  Three of the main ones did.  The one exception so far has been google.  And this wasn't about national security... it was about the effectiveness of porn filters.  They wanted to see what searches came up with porn, and what filters it beat to still show up.