The Fact that Mass Surveillance Doesn’t Keep Us Safe Goes Mainstream
Top Terrorism Experts Say that Mass Spying Doesn’t Work to Prevent Terrorism. - The fact that mass spying on Americans isn’t necessary to keep us safe is finally going mainstream. The top counter-terrorism czar under Presidents Clinton and Bush – Richard Clarke – says:
The argument that this sweeping search must be kept secret from the terrorists is laughable. Terrorists already assume this sort of thing is being done. Only law-abiding American citizens were blissfully ignorant of what their government was doing.
William Binney – the head of NSA’s digital communications program – says that he set up the NSA’s system so that all of the information would automatically be encrypted, so that the government had to obtain a search warrant based upon probably cause before a particular suspect’s communications could be decrypted. But the NSA now collects all data in an unencrypted form, so that no probable cause is needed to view any citizen’s information. He says that it is actually cheaper and easier to store the data in an encrypted format: so the government’s current system is being done for political – not practical – purposes. Binney’s statements have been confirmed by other high-level NSA whistleblowers.