[pconf]

It actually started with the British whose spooks taught it to the US' Herbert Hoover before WWII. Read "Enemies: A History of the FBI by Tim Weiner" <http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/mar/30/enemies-fbi-his... for the definitive historical overview of how domestic spying and its abuse got started.

George Orwell foresaw the potential for abuse long before 1948 when he wrote "1984" <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four>.