Jacob G. Hornberger: WHAT GOOD WOULD IT DO TO REFORM THE NSA?

http://fff.org/2013/12/23/what-good-would-it-do-to-reform-the-nsa/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-good-would-it-do-to-reform-the-nsa

Letter to the Editor of New York Times:

Re “Obama Is Urged to Sharply Curb N.S.A. Data Mining” (front page, Dec. 19):

The notion that the National Security Agency’s surveillance activities can or will be curbed is wishful thinking. The idea that transparency can be imposed on its operations is delusional. This is a rogue agency that does what it does because it can (technologically, not legally).

Let’s suppose that the administration decides that it wants to curb the telephone metadata sweeps. How does it do this? Cut funding? How would it know that the operations are not being paid for surreptitiously from other programs, given that this is an agency that fosters a culture of secrecy regarding even its most mundane activities?

Disband the N.S.A.? Not likely. It has no doubt identified enough skeletons in the right closets (just as J. Edgar Hoover of the F.B.I. did) to shield itself from any political assault. This genie is out of the bottle for keeps.

ERIC WEISS
New York, Dec. 19, 2013