In one of the biggest changes to American life since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the government now collects vast quantities of information about its citizens. By Ken Dilanian, Los Angeles Times August 29, 2011, 7:14 p.m. Reporting from Washington— Internet entrepreneur Nicholas Merrill was working in his Manhattan office when an FBI agent in a trench coat arrived with an envelope. It was fall 2004, and federal investigators were using new legal authority they had acquired after Sept. 11, 2001. Merrill ran a small Internet service provider with clients including IKEA, Mitsubishi and freelance journalists. The agent handed Merrill a document called a National Security Letter, which demanded…[For full story: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/september11/la-na-911-homeland-security-surveillance-20110830,0,7272337.story
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A key Sept. 11 legacy: more domestic surveillance