Evidence NSA ‘illegally’ monitored anti-Vietnam dissidents, including journalists and two senatorsDecades before Edward Snowden’s leaks the National Security Agency secretly monitored the communication of prominent Americans who were opposed to the Vietnam War, including at least two sitting US senators. The six-year spying program known as Minaret, which lasted from 1967 to 1973, was disclosed in the 1970s but the identity of those who the government kept tabs on has been under wraps until now.