The Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency both recently announced plans for huge new electronic security centers that could monitor, sort and archive e-mails, telephone calls and other intercepted communications. But critics wonder just who is watching the watchers.

"The director of the NSA is in charge of an organization three times the size of the CIA and empowered in 2008 by Congress to spy on Americans to an unprecedented degree," said James Bamford, author of the recently published book about the NSA, "The Shadow Factory."  He told WND the agency's ability to deal with cybersecurity and other communications is enormous.

"In 2008, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court loosened its control on the NSA and allowed for warrantless eavesdropping," he said. "Congressional oversight is very weak. A whistleblower for AT&T reported that AT&T has switch rooms in several parts of the country.

A number of sources in civil liberties groups say Americans have a right to be concerned about the absence of strict oversight and to wonder whose conversations are being monitored and recorded.

"The NSA didn't have these facilities a few years ago, but they do now," continued Bamford. "The question is, 'Why do they need them now when they didn't need them a few years ago?'

"If you think how much information can go on a 'thumb drive' (or a flash drive), you can get two or three gigabytes of information on a little thumb drive. Think how much information can go into a facility that’s a million square feet," he said.

"The NSA intercepts communications in any form, phone calls, e-mails, instant messaging, Twitters, all forms of communication," Bamford said. "They’re able to store trillions of phone calls, e-mail messages, and data trails: Web searches, parking receipts, receipts, bookstore visits, and other digital 'pocket litter.'"