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The people who knew about it were a handful in Congress, a slightly larger handful in the White House & Justice and everyone who worked on it at NSA, and employees in the telecommunications industry who would helped make the data available.
If all things were equal I would say someone from NSA, but things aren't always equal. NSA folks are both democrats and republicans but they really do believe in the importance of intercepting and analyzing data. They probably would have been told it was authorized, and they probably wouldn't worry about it beyond that.
The people who would be unhappy about the program are most likely to be people who are more sensitive to issues of presidential power, that mostly eliminated WH inner circle types since Cheney picked them knowing he was going to expand presidential power. So that leaves someone in Congress the FIS court or in the telecommunications industry. The chief of FISC quit because he was blindsided. The indication is they didn't know anymore than the general public. The few people in congress who knew and objected have come forward seeming to credibly say they were ordered not to speak about their briefings.
That leave someone in the communications industry. Someone who knew and didn't like it. Lots of people there and likely someone who would have wanted the spy story out in time to effect the election last year.
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