What's more important: Security or freedom?: The Big Question the National Security State isn't Aski

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http://www.opednews.com/articles/What-s-more-important-Sec-by-Dave-Lindorff-Federal-Agency-NSA_Security_Security-State-131112-491.html



NSA spoof shirt provoked the agency to threaten a lawsuit

What's more important: Security or freedom?: The Big Question the National Security State isn't Asking
OpEdNews Op Eds 11/12/2013 at 11:01:40
By Dave Lindorff

So National Security Agency Director Keith B. Alexander, who, along with his boss, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., thinks that "if you can collect it, you should collect it," now is asking whether it might not be such a good idea in the case of spying on the citizens of US allies like Germany, France, Spain et al.

"What's more important," the chief spook reportedly asked, following revelations by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden that the NSA has been spying on the electronic communications and phone conversations of millions of people in European other countries around the world. "Partnering with countries may be more important than collecting on them."

~snip~

Caught with his electronic pants down, Alexander, who is also a four-star active-duty general, is suddenly acknowledging that spying might have a downside.

~snip~

What Alexander and his truth-challenged boss Clapper are not considering, though, is whether there is also a bigger question: Isn't maintaining democratic freedoms and the trust of the American people more important than collecting every possible datum of information about them, and monitoring their every move and every communication?"