Live Chat: How Did the Government Come to Spy on Millions of Americans?

Share:

May 13, 2014

The NSA turned its eye on ordinary American citizens after 9/11, creating a massive surveillance dragnet to collect and monitor the communications of millions— without warrants, under a legal authority that hadn’t existed before.

As FRONTLINE explores in United States of Secrets: Part One, it was called “the program”— and when it came to light through Edward Snowden’s revelations, it sparked an intense debate over privacy, secrecy, and democracy in a post-9/11 world.

How did “the program” come to be? Why did the government keep it hidden from the people it was meant to protect? And what happened to the whistleblowers who spoke out against it?

Join us in a live chat with United States of Secrets: Part One producer and writer Mike Wiser and NSA whistleblower Kirk Wiebe, on Wednesday, May 14 at 2pm ET.

Spencer Ackerman, national security editor for the Guardian US, will serve as guest questioner.


More Stories

Coming This Fall on FRONTLINE
Plus: How you can support our journalism at a critical time for public media. Read a message from FRONTLINE Editor-in-Chief & Executive Producer Raney Aronson-Rath.
October 1, 2025
What the O.J. Verdict & Its Aftermath Revealed About Race in America
On the 30th anniversary of a verdict that shook the U.S., revisit a seminal FRONTLINE documentary on the stark truths and lasting impact of the O.J. Simpson trial, now streaming on YouTube for the first time.
October 1, 2025
Exclusive: Iran Won't Allow Nuclear Inspections if Sanctions Are Reimposed, Says Iran’s Chief Nuclear Negotiator
In an exclusive interview with FRONTLINE, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator said the country will end its participation in international weapons inspections if sanctions are reimposed.
September 26, 2025