Businessweek editorial: The NSA’s Alarming Misbehavior

[steve2470]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-16/the-nsa-s-alarming-misbehavior.html

The National Security Agency, accustomed to operating in the shadows, has had a rough few months as details of its secret intelligence-gathering operations have been leaked. The Washington Post reported today that the agency has violated its privacy rules and exceeded its authority thousands of times a year since 2008.

Intelligence professionals -- especially those with a mission as important as the NSA’s -- deserve the benefit of the doubt on many issues. But the alarming behavior the recent leaks have revealed shows that the NSA requires strong supervision, and it’s clear that the current system of oversight is failing.

By law, the NSA is prohibited from snooping on American citizens. Yet its modus operandi -- sweeping up colossal amounts of information on phone calls, e-mails and other electronic communications ostensibly from foreign intelligence targets -- lends itself to doing so inadvertently. The Post revealed an internal NSA audit showing that agents improperly collected and stored troves of data on Americans, retained information they were required to destroy, and failed to report incidents of inappropriate collection. One document appears to instruct analysts in the fine art of stonewalling government overseers.

Under two presidents, the NSA has been found to be exceeding its legal authority, systematically “overcollecting” data and failing to exercise adequate oversight. Its leadership has obfuscated, misled the public and issued statements that now look like something very close to outright lies.

[leftstreet]

1. Why is the NSA suddenly being thrown under the bus?

All these articles critical of the NSA *magically* appearing...

What do our overlords have planned?