"Here's what now should be taken as an operating procedure in any discussion of the NSA..."

[Catherina]

20. That's one helluva article.

I'm still reading it, following all the links. I recommend everyone read it. Thanks for posting that terrific paragraph

"Most of the infractions involve unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the United States, both of which are restricted by statute and executive order. They range from significant violations of law to typographical errors that resulted in unintended interception of U.S. e-mails and telephone calls. The documents, provided earlier this summer to The Washington Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, include a level of detail and analysis that is not routinely shared with Congress or the special court that oversees surveillance. In one of the documents, agency personnel are instructed to remove details and substitute more generic language in reports to the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence."

Moreover, my understanding is that those 2776 times do not represent 2776 individual violations but, rather, 2776 times the NSA violated the privacy rules. Each violation might contain thousands of unique infractions.

(And, not for nothing, because I always thought the real story was the information revealed, and not the nomenclature used to describe Edward Snowden, International Man Of Luggage, except for when NBC News blithely called him a "spy," but this story really ought to end the debate over whether or not Snowden is a "whistleblower" or not. He shared with The Washington Post -- and therefore, with the country that pays the bills for it all -- information proving that the government agency for which he worked regularly violated its own regulations, and that it at best actively deceived the responsible oversight authorities in both the Department Of Justice and in the intelligence community. If you don't think that's whistleblowing, well, you're James Clapper and you should lawyer up.)

...

"The May 2012 audit, intended for the agency's top leaders..."

(Of course. Can't have the peasants knowing that they're being spied upon. We spy on our citizens in secret and make sure they don't know it. That's how we differ from East Germany because...freedom!)

...

It's well past time for another Church Committee -- or, if you will, another Pecora Commission -- dedicated to a full exposition of the surveillance state and its place in our lives and in our democracy. No half-truths. No hedging. No James Clappers, slow-dancing with perjury and obstruction of Congress. Put people under oath and compel their testimony as to what is being done in our name, especially what is being done to us in our name. If we're going to have a "national conversation," then let's have a by-god national conversation, and let it be held in the place where we are supposed to have our national conversations on issues like this -- in the Congress, among our elected representative, out in the open and in the light of day. Let us at least have all the information so we can decide for ourselves how to keep ourselves safe. We are not fragile children. We're the world's oldest democracy. We should damned well begin to raise hell and act like it.