CNNs David Ensor has

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CNN’s David Ensor has a follow-up here on that weird story about the NSA possibly snooping on CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour.

Says Ensor: “A senior U.S. intelligence official told CNN on Thursday that the National Security Agency did not target CNN’s chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour or any other CNN journalist for surveillance.”

What we may have here though is an issue of terminology.

Remember that what Andrea Mitchell said or asked in her interview of James Risen was this: “Do you have any information about reporters being swept up in this net? (italics added)”

To be ‘swept up’ in a net isn’t the same as being ‘targetted’ — just ask dolphins. And toward the end of Ensor’s piece on the CNN website, there’s some hint that this distinction might be what we’re talking about …

The senior official said that from time to time NSA surveillance overseas “inadvertently” acquires recordings or copies of communications involving Americans — or what the government calls “U.S. persons,” which includes most U.S. residents and employees of American companies. By law, however, such materials are required to be erased or destroyed immediately, the official said.

Intelligence officials rarely comment on who they may or may not have collected information about, but because of all the speculation on Internet blogs, the senior official agreed to look into the matter for CNN. Another official privately said he was “puzzled” by NBC’s decision to publish the raw transcript of the interview.

There’s a lot of hinting and vagary here. But I think this gives some clue to where this goes.

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