Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was at the Senate Intelligence Committee today, and spent much of the time railing against Edward Snowden for his “theft of intelligence information.”
He had a mostly sympathetic audience, with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D – CA) and others mostly on board for keeping the NSA surveillance programs intact, and lamenting the way the leaks “undermine public trust,” and meeting that with nominal “reforms” to quell the growing outrage.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D – OR) took a decidedly different view, and went so far as to state the obvious: that it was the surveillance programs themselves, and the “culture of misinformation” surrounding their cover-up, that had been responsible for really undermining public trust.
Being the voice of reason in a Senate committee means being in the decided minority, however, and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R – GA) quickly sought to get the meeting back on topic, angrily complaining about how media coverage of surveillance has “compromised our national security.”
"Duh" headline of the year goes to James "I give the least dishonest answer possible" Clapper the leaks undermine public trust because they prove you are untrustworthy
Abuse of power undermine public trust. Stop thinking yourself above the law Jimmy the Clap. That's the problem when no one in government is ever held responsible let alone accountable, it breeds that kind of people who think they can do anything and fear nothing.
Government employees take care of each other. They have nothing to worry about. It's us out here in the hinterlands that have to worry about these "domestic enemies" (except Sen. Wyden), and what their plans are for us.
The federal government is rotten to the core and is unreformable.
Imagine that! We find out that the govt has been secretly spying on us for years, compiling everything we think do and say and storing it at restricted facilities where we can't access it; and they have the NERVE!!!!! to say leaks have undermined the public trust. I know those responsible for these actions probably don't have the part of the brain capable of understanding this but, if you want an explaination of how the public trust was undermined, you'll listen to Senator Wyden. You own actions have created this distrust….which should have come far sooner than they did. (James Banford's work notwithstanding – all Snowden did was fill in the blanks, we already knew the outlines of the programs.)
He is correct. It is harder to sheer and herd the sheep when the sheep find out the true purpose of their life.