Keith Alexander: No Better Way For The NSA To Help Protect U.S. Than Surveillance Programs

[Indi Guy]

Source: AP via Huffington Post

The NSA chief says he knows of no better way his agency can help protect the U.S. from foreign threats than with spy programs that collect billions of phone and Internet records from around the world.

Pleading with the Senate Judiciary Committee to not abolish the NSA bulk-collection programs, Gen. Keith Alexander said Wednesday that global threats are growing — specifically in Iraq and Syria — that pose what he called "an unacceptable risk" to America.

He said the NSA knows of no other way to connect the dots between a foreign terror threat and a potential attack on the U.S.

Alexander said the NSA is open to talking to technology companies for a better solution without compromising security...



Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/11/keith-alexander-nsa_n_4427693.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

[villager]

1. how many on this very website will tell us it's "for our own good?"

[billhicks76]

10. Does He Lie Much?

NSA spends the majority of its time and resources tapping influential Americans for leverage and blackmail purposes and as a tool of the domestic drug war. That's protecting us? Sounds like they are battling regular Americans like some twisted version of V For Vendetta.

[blkmusclmachine]

13. 9/11

Or do they even bother with their lame excuses anymore???

[grasswire]

2. they keep saying the global threats are growing

...with no specificity.

Pardon me for my skepticism.

[Ezlivin]

3. How about diplomacy?

You know, talking with people and finding out what they want.

[Indi Guy]

4. To quote Gen. Wesley Clark...

"If all you've got is a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail"

[cosmicone]

5. In other news...

an alligator said no one can live on a vegetarian diet.

[QuestForSense]

6. It certainly doesn't gibe with "They hate us for our freedoms."

If that expression were actually true, the terrorists have already won. There has to be a better way. They could start by 'not making enemies' a matter of policy, beginning with Pakistan. And perhaps hiring a replacement for Alexander who realizes that the only thing worth protecting IS our freedom. What's left if we have to sacrifice it for security?

[Indi Guy]

7. Spook Central isn't interested...

...in our freedoms. They onley care about thier freedom to do as they wish with impunity.

[blkmusclmachine]

12. Sieg Heil!

[DJ13]

8. I want him to live the next 6 months in the Big Brother house

See if he feels "safer" being watched 24/7.

[Maedhros]

9. The NSA and its apologists keep saying that petty dictators and tribal agitators

in places like Syria and Iraq present an "unacceptable risk" to America that can only be mitigated by wholesale surveillance that violates our civil rights.

Why is this accepted without question? I think that Assad presents a very acceptable risk - hell, we accepted the risks presented by the likes of Pinochet, Suharto and Mubarak for years and years. Likewise insurgents in Iraq are problematic but they do not, in any way, present an existential threat to the United States.

The NSA, however, does present an unacceptable risk to the U.S. Constitution.

[blkmusclmachine]

11. Hey, Pinocchio,

I see your nose growing.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

14. Didn't Kubrick make a movie about these jokers 40 years ago? nt

[Jesus Malverde]

15. his opening statement

[Indi Guy]

16. In other words...

...9/11 blah blah blah, 9/11 blah blah blah, 9/11 blah blah blah.