The Government is not spying on us. Private Contractors are. Who here thinks that's okay? [View all]

[TalkingDog]

These are not government agencies, government employees. They are private citizens who then sell the information to the government.

I'd like to know exactly what Blackwater (or equivalent) is contracted to do. What is the agreement about what information they have access to, how much of it they are required to hand over and what tasty tidbits they may be keeping for themselves.

Edited to add today's headline story from Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/10/nsa-leak-contractors_n_3418876.html?1370919691
NSA Leak Highlights Key Role Of Private Contractors]

But critics say reliance on contractors hasn't reduced the amount the government spends on defense, intelligence or other programs. Rather, they say it's just shifted work to private employers and reduced transparency. It becomes harder to track the work of those employees and determine whether they should all have access to government secrets.

"It's very difficult to know what contractors are doing and what they are billing for the work – or even whether they should be performing the work at all," said Scott Amey, an expert in contractor oversight and government transparency at Project on Government Oversight, a non-partisan government accountability organization based in Washington. "It has muddied the waters."