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NSA Chief Denies Claims of Domestic Spying
AstroPhilosopher writes "Recently Wired, USA Today and other news outlets reported on a new spy center being built to store intercepted communications (even American citizens'). Tuesday, Gen. Keith Alexander testified in front of Congress refuting the articles. Alexander even went so far as to claim the NSA lacks the authority to monitor American citizens. It's an authority that was given to the NSA through the FISA Amendments Act signed into law by Bush and still supported today by Obama."
All modern governments do. Administrations are more likely to be attacked and overthrown by their own citizens than from other countries. Same as it ever was.
Meh. I worked at NSA for about a year back in the '80s, and I have read "Puzzle Palace." Quite frankly, "Puzzle Palace" was very sensationalist. For example, I remember reading about the electric fence around FanX (IIRC). I spent a couple of months working at FanX while waiting for my clearances to come through so I could actually start doing what I was hired to do. Guess what? FanX was surrounded by barbed-wire fence, but there was no electric fence there. The history of NSA in the book was interesting, but Bamford exaggerated a bit in his descriptions of what it was actually like there. "Puzzle Palace" was more Nancy Grace than Peter Jennings.
On the flip side, my year at NSA made me very skeptical of a lot of things I heard prior to 2004. Where I worked, we had signs posted everywhere reminding people that it was illegal (by Executive Order) for NSA to spy on Americans. We were chartered for the purpose of foreign surveillance, so Americans were off-limits. Then came the revelation of NSA wiretapping at AT&T and other telcos. Sigh. I'm just glad I don't work there anymore.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
It's not a threat to say the NSA doesn't spy on Americans unless it has a warrant (or, in the case of things like TSP, has otherwise been authorized) — but GEN Alexander already said as much before Congress. You just choose to not believe it.
What won't happen is a completely transparent accounting of all of NSA's capabilities and techniques. NSA can't "prove" it isn't spying on American citizens, and it does have the capability to do so. What prevents it from doing so is the law and oversight.
Intelligence agencies exist to act as instruments of policy and to serve policy makers. Intelligence agencies don't randomly decide what to do on their own; they do what they are DIRECTED and AUTHORIZED to do by law and the civilian leadership of our nation.