An award-winning journalist criticizes the US mass surveillance programs saying the bulk collection of phone and email records is similar to “looking for a needle in a haystack.”
“The problem with our spying system is that, as any good intelligence agent knows, you donâ„¢t look for a needle in a haystack, and thatâ„¢s our spying program has been,” Walter Brasch told Press TV on Tuesday.
The US National Security Agency Å“has been trying to grab everything it can,” he added. Å“When youâ„¢re trying to do that, youâ„¢ve got so many problems that develop.”
Å“Instead of focusing upon actual threats, they have cast a blanket against an entire nation essentially and leaders of foreign countries,” he noted.
The US intelligence services try to collect Å“all the records of all Americans who have talked to anyone overseas and then relate that to a giant paradigm” and focus on Å“sorting data” instead of Å“analyzing what might be true threats,” Brasch said.
He said that the US is Å“destroying” itself through its spying operations at home and abroad.
Å“The reality is when al-Qaeda said that they were going to destroy America, then it was not quite true, America is trying to destroy itself with these kinds of programs.”
The US spying programs became publicized in June when Edward Snowden, former contractor of the National Security Agency, began revealing secret documents on government surveillance programs.
The documents showed that Washington has been spying on leaders of some of its close allies.
AT/HJ
With permission
Source: Press TV