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Washington’s Blog<\/b><\/a> The NSA and other intelligence officials have been repeatedly caught lying about their spying programs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Officials in the legislative, judicial and executive branches of government all say that the mass surveillance on Americans is unnecessary:<\/p>\n A member of the White House review panel on NSA surveillance said he was \u201cabsolutely\u201d surprised when he discovered the agency’s lack of evidence that the bulk collection of telephone call records had thwarted any terrorist attacks.\u201cIt was, \u2018Huh, hello? What are we doing here?’\u201d said Geoffrey Stone, a University of Chicago law professor\u2026.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was stunning. That was the ballgame,\u201d said one congressional intelligence official, who asked not to be publicly identified. \u201cIt flies in the face of everything that they have tossed at us.\u201d<\/p>\n The conclusions of the panel’s reports were at direct odds with public statements by President Barack Obama and U.S. intelligence officials.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Top terrorism and security experts also agree, saying that:<\/p>\n Indeed, the NSA itself<\/em> no longer claims that its mass spying program has stopped terror attacks or saved lives. Instead, intelligence spokesmen themselves now claim that mass spying is just an \u201cinsurance policy\u201d to give \u201cpeace of mind\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n But given that mass surveillance by governments on their own people have always been used \u2014 for at least 500 years \u2014 to crush dissent<\/a>, that the NSA has a long history of spying on Congress<\/a> for political purposes, and that high-level NSA whistleblowers say that the NSA is using spying to blackmail politicians and social critics<\/a> and to prosecute people the government dislikes<\/a>, the question is whose peace of mind the programs preserve<\/p>\n And while the NSA claims that disclosure of its spying programs hurts America’s security, that’s what authoritarians always<\/em> say. For example:<\/p>\n So how can anyone<\/em> believe the NSA at this point?<\/p>\n Unfortunately, fear of terror makes people unable to think straight<\/a> \u2026 and when the government undertakes a large, idiotic project \u2014 like launching the Iraq war \u2014 many people will go to great lengths to grasp at straws<\/a> to try to rationalize the government’s ill-conceived campaign.<\/p>\n The minority of Americans who believe the NSA have \u2014 sadly \u2014 fallen for the same trick<\/a> \u2026<\/p>\n This article was posted: Tuesday, January 14, 2014 at 5:02 am<\/p>\n Tags: constitution<\/a>, domestic news<\/a>, domestic spying<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <!– this is where we need to show the related articles <\/p>\n
January 14, 2013<\/p>\n\n
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