That aside, the topic of the interviews was whether Snowden was a hero or a, to use my own word, traitor, whether Snowden did the American people a service or a disservice.
I believe that Baker inadvertently admitted that Snowden did a service to the American people when he said something to the effect that -- they (certain of the NSA's practices and policies) may become illegal DUE TO THIS DEBATE.
Without Snowden's having come forward not only with accusations but with so many documents to back up his accusations, we would not be having this debate.
And this debate is essential to righting the balance between individual rights and the government's potential excusing its own overreaching in the name of national security, and righting that balance according to the will of the American people, not a few security fanatics in the executive and military.
We cannot claim to be a democracy when our every or nearly every communication is recorded and its content made available to the government for potential future close examination.
On another point, as I understand it, Senator Wyden expressed publicly his concern about the NSA's overreaching prior to the Clapper gaffe (or lie depending on your point of vies) in response to Wyden's question in Congress. Wyden is an elected representative of the people of his state. Clapper was never elected to represent anyone. He was appointed by the executive branch.
Unfortunately as we learned when Obama dealt with Angela Merkel's apparent objections to the wiretapping or surveillance of her personal phone, Obama who was supposed to be in charge of the program had not been provided with enough information about just what the NSA was really doing to oversee its work properly.
The NSA surveillance of terrorist suspects is quite understandable. The NSA surveillance of every man, woman and child in America's phone bill is absurd. It's quite clear that I communicate with my various family members frequently. As a retiree at the age of 70, the likelihood that I am going to be involved in terrorist activities is minuscule. Non-existent.
Same is true for probably 99.99999% of the American population. So why spend the money to collect all our phone information and store the content of our calls? It is an absurdity and an utter waste of the time of employees. To say nothing of the violation of a common sense of decency and respect for the privacy of others.
What is more, as a lawyer, Mr. Baker should know what it is to review telephone records and what that can reveal, say, about what a law firm does or does not do. I can't believe two things about Dean Baker.
1) assuming that he is a litigator, that he cannot control his urge to interrupt others. He certainly has to control that urge in the courtroom.
2) that he does not understand the importance of privacy in the attorney-client relationship. The NSA program is an invitation to the secret perusal of attorney-client privileged conversations. Let's say you are an attorney trying to talk an irate husband out of talking about killing his wife. You really don't want the NSA to hear that kind of overly emotional language from your client especially when, knowing your client as you do, you know that is merely a momentary and colloquial use of the word "kill" and not really a threat at all. That's just one reason that attorney-client conversations are confidential, one example that anyone can understand.
Either Mr. Baker is actually rather naive about the kinds of information that can be obtained from a simple list of phone calls or he is willfully . . . well, you fill in the blanks.
The Wyden question to Clapper, and Clapper's answer revealed to all of us that Congress was unable to fulfill its duty of overseeing the activities of the executive branch's intelligence collection within the US. That is the event that I believe that Snowden stated triggered his decision to blow the whistle on the NSA.
And, when all is said and done, FISA court decision against the NSA's activities or not, we will either as a people make sure that the NSA's activities are compatible with our separation of powers and the rest of the constitutional structure of our government or we will catapult into dictatorship. Our Constitution is a finely tuned document, the result of a couple of centuries of political philosophical thought and can be overturned very easily by an excessively secretive cabal within the executive branch.
I vote for the premise that Snowden did the US a service. It's a shame that the NSA so overplayed its role and importance. But it did. The Obama administration should have reined in the NSA's activities. It should not, for example, even inadvertently collect data or other information on elected members of Congress or our political leaders. It is important that either it or Congress rein in the NSA's activities as soon as possible.
I believe that one of the authors of Section 215 of the Patriot Act stated that it was not intended to permit the overly zealous activities of the NSA.
= new reply since forum marked as read
