In comments today at a cybersecurity summit, NSA Chief Gen. Keith Alexander reiterated his opposition to limiting the agency’s surveillance scope, saying that the collection of all Americans’ phone records had proven “helpful” at times and should continue.
The “helpfulness” example Alexander provided was the Boston Marathon bombing earlier this year, as he claimed that the ability to look up all Americans’ phone records allowed them to determine that there was no plot to follow up with an attack in New York. Of course there was no real reason to think there was in the first place.
Alexander went on to angrily condemn the media for fueling public opposition to the surveillance with “sensationalized” reports, and said it was vital for the government to convince the Americans “why we need these tools.”
The general has repeatedly defended domestic surveillance as a “noble” endeavor and insisted that Americans should be comforted by the fact that it is “perfectly legal.”
a “noble” endeavor ? this guy is a wacko, he is a serialized state threat to our diminishing constitutional rights. If he and his nefarious ilk are not reigned in then we deserve to buried along with was supposed to be a government of the people, by the people, for the people!