U.S. intelligence community is out of control - David Rothkopf

'The Supreme Soviet of Cold War Russia was a less effective rubber stamp .. disregard for U.S. laws and international agreements. Not to mention the principles of respect for individual liberties and reasonable constraints on government power on which the United States was established.'

'These are all stories of a culture of secrecy and of arrogance that has simply gone too far. Perhaps each and every one of these missions began with a reasonable national security goal. But because so much of the planning and execution takes place behind closed doors or in situations in which the term "oversight" is laughably applied to wink-and-a-nod rubber stamping of initiatives, it is perhaps more surprising we have seen so few scandals than that we are dealing now with what seems like so many.

Consider: According to the U.S. government's own figures, last year the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court received 1,789 applications for approval of government spying operations and OK'd all but one. Since 2001, according to a report in Salon based on government figures collected by the Federation of American Scientists, more than 15,000 applications were approved and only 10 denied. The Supreme Soviet of Cold War Russia was a less effective rubber stamp.

The FISA Court is just one of the feeble oversight mechanisms that apparently did not do its job. Congressional and executive branch officials have bought into the post 9/11 paranoia and hopped up threat mentality and come to accept that even the possibility of an attack on the United States warrants disregard for U.S. laws and international agreements. Not to mention the principles of respect for individual liberties and reasonable constraints on government power on which the United States was established.

This was well illustrated when NSA Director Keith Alexander argued that the agency's massive surveillance programs were warranted because they allegedly stopped "over 50" terror attacks, with scant reference to the size of the attacks, the real risk posed, whether other means to stop them that didn't involve massive surveillance might exist, or to the possibility that the damage done to civil liberties might be worse than that which might have been produced had the terror plans gone forward.'

- David Rothkopf, U.S. intelligence community is out of control, July 2, 2013



Context

Property rights - Civil Liberties - The Criminal N.S.A. (The New York Times)