'I Have Been to the Darkest Corners of Government, and What They Fear Is Light'

[JDPriestly]

172. A couple of other whistleblowers tried to warn us without bringing out the huge array of

documents. No one paid any attention much. Fact is, Americans trust that we have a government that would not spy on us as ours is doing. This spying places the government above us. It gives the government the means and opportunity to discriminate against us based on our religions, on our personal lifestyles, on our associations, on our lives in general. It is utterly abhorrent. How anyone not on the payroll of the NSA can defend the NSA surveillance is beyond me. In fact, I personally class those who defend it as either inexperienced and not very intelligent or NSA employees. In my view, there can be no explanation for accepting the extent of the surveillance by the NSA if you don't fit into one of those two categories. Stupid or complicit? Which is it? One or the other.

I am not asking you personally to answer that question. It is intended to be rhetorical. I appreciate your giving me the opportunity to ask the question. There are a lot of people on DU who have not yet caught on to what a great threat the NSA surveillance poses to our country.

And I do not particularly distrust the people who are carrying out the surveillance at this time in our history. They are probably well-meaning people. But the threat these programs entail for our future, for our children and grandchildren is worse than any threat we have known other than maybe chemical or biological warfare and nuclear war. I do not think that we can live as a nation among other nations without diplomacy and appropriate intelligence on other countries. But any attempt to do intelligence on Americans' personal data and lives within the US should be backed up by warrants from a normal court not a special FISA court and based on probable cause.