NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm
Excerpt:
NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls 
Updated 5/11/2006 10:38 AM ET E-mail  
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Gen. Michael Hayden, nominated by President Bush to become the director of the CIA, headed the NSA from March 1999 to April 2005. In that post, Hayden would have overseen the agency's domestic phone record collection program.

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From the White House:
The White House defended its overall eavesdropping program and said no domestic surveillance is conducted without court approval.
   ''The intelligence activities undertaken by the United States government are lawful, necessary and required to protect Americans from terrorist attacks,'' said Dana Perino, the deputy White House press secretary, who added that appropriate members of Congress have been briefed on intelligence activities.
"It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA's activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders, this person added.

Michael V. Hayden Sourcewatch
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Michael_V._Hayden
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Warrantless wiretapping

The NSA warrantless surveillance controversy arose when the New York Times revealed on December 16, 2005, that the agency had been eavesdropping on U.S. citizens and other people within the U.S. without seeking warrants from a special court, as ostensibly required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.[4]
Hayden received personal criticism for his role in the controversy when he spoke at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on January 23, 2006, to defend the practice of warrantless surveillance. During the question and answer period following his speech, Hayden appeared to deny that a "probable cause" standard is contained in the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution--which limits the government's ability to conduct searches and, by extension, surveillance.
Knight Ridder reporter Jonathan Landay prefaced a question by noting that "the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution specifies that you must have probable cause to be able to do a search that does not violate an American's right against unlawful searches and seizures." Hayden responded: "No, actually--the Fourth Amendment actually protects all of us against unreasonable search and seizure.... That's what it says." When Landay continued, "But does it not say probable--" Hayden said: "No. The amendment says...unreasonable search and seizure."
In fact, the amendment refers to both "unreasonable searches and seizures" and "probable cause."