Thank You, Eugene Robinson !!! - 'Defining the NSA's Role' [View all]

[WillyT]

Defining the NSA's Role
By Eugene Robinson - RCP
January 7, 2014

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WASHINGTON -- President Obama's anticipated reform of the National Security Agency's practices needs to go beyond ending the mass surveillance of innocent Americans' phone calls. He should force the agency to think less about the quantity of information it gathers and more about the quality.

Obama should ignore the choir of apologists singing in lamentation over the beastly way the NSA is being treated. I refer to voices such as that of Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who on Monday accused Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. -- and, by extension, all the agency's critics -- of "trying to create this paranoia among Americans that the NSA is spying on everyone."

In fact, the NSA is spying on everyone by keeping a detailed log of our private phone calls. This practice was sanctioned by secret court rulings that stretched the words of the Constitution and the Patriot Act beyond recognition. We couldn't challenge these rulings because we weren't allowed to know about them. When asked last March whether any such blanket domestic surveillance was taking place, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper lied to Congress and said no. In what universe is it "paranoia" to be angry about all of this?

King and the rest of the NSA chorus blame whistleblower Edward Snowden for getting the agency in trouble over the phone surveillance and other rogue practices, such as eavesdropping on the cellphone conversations of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and secretly tapping into the data streams of major Internet providers. But Snowden just revealed these abuses. It was the NSA that committed them -- and brought this world of hurt on itself.

The Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies -- one of two blue-ribbon panels Obama appointed to examine the NSA mess -- recommended that the agency stop compiling its comprehensive log of domestic phone calls. This information should be kept by the phone companies or some third party, the review group said, and the government should have to obtain warrants to search it.

Obama should go further...

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More: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/01/07/defining_the_nsas_role_121143.html