'..exploiting .. fear to make money..'<blockquote>'But worse than the omission of Hayden's NSA history is his current - and almost always unmentioned - financial stake in the very policies he is being invited to defend. Hayden is a partner in the Chertoff Group, a private entity that makes more and more money by increasing the fear levels of the US public and engineering massive government security contracts for their clients. Founded by former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff, it's filled with former national security state officials who exploit their connections in and knowledge of Washington to secure hugely profitable government contracts for their clients. As the Huffington Post's Marcus Baram
reported:
<blockquote>"'They're trying to scare the pants off the American people that we need these things," [passenger rights advocate Kate] Hanni told The Huffington Post. 'When Chertoff goes on TV,
he is basically promoting his clients and exploiting that fear to make money. Fear is a commodity and they're selling it. The more they can sell it, the more we buy into it. When American people are afraid, they will accept anything.'"</blockquote>
The article further detailed how much of a huge financial stake the Chertoff Group has in scaring the nation about cyber threats and obtaining large NSA contracts relating to cyber-warfare. Hayden's bio at the Chertoff Group says that his focus includes "technological intelligence and counterintelligence (communications and data networks)" and "brief[ing] clients on intelligence matters worldwide – including developments in cybersecurity – that may affect their businesses."
In other words, Hayden has a clear financial stake in the very NSA debates he's put on television to adjudicate. And while he's sometimes identified as a principal of the Chertoff Group, what that means - the conflicts of interest it creates in the very debates in which he's participating - is almost never mentioned..
..
A
new Pew poll this weekend found that while the US public holds the media in very low esteem, the one function they actually value is having the media serve as a watchdog over political leaders. The percentage of Americans who value this press function has risen considerably this year.
This has happened despite the likes of NSA advocate and government spokesman Bob Schieffer continuing to dominate and shape establishment TV outlets. The fact that
his "objectivity" as a journalist would never be questioned by those who raise such issues demonstrates that this concept of journalistic objectivity has only one real purpose: to delegitimize all views other than those that prop up and glorify those who wield the greatest power in US political and financial circles.'
- Glenn Greenwald,
Michael Hayden, Bob Schieffer and the media's reverence of national security officials, 12 August 2013</blockquote>
'..I have a hard time understanding why my wanting to stand up for democratic principles makes me unpatriotic, while the ones calling themselves patriots seem to think so little of the people and the principles that comprise the country they purport to love.'<blockquote>'..Although the most identifying aspect of my resume is probably the six years I spent as US Senator Ron Wyden's communications director and later deputy chief of staff, I started college at the US Naval Academy and spent two years interning for the National Security Council. I had a top secret SCI clearance when I was 21 years old, and had it not been for an unusual confluence of events nearly 15 years ago – including a chance conversation with a patron of the bar I tended in college – I might be working for the NSA today. I care very deeply about national security.
..
..I, obviously, haven't mentioned the director of National Intelligence's decision to lie when Wyden "asked whether the NSA had collected 'any type of data at all on millions of Americans'". (By the way, given that Wyden shared his question with the ODNI the day before the hearing, I am highly skeptical that Clapper's decision to lie was made unilaterally.) Or the fact that the Obama administration repeatedly fought lawsuits and FOIA requests for, again – not sources and methods – but the Section 215 legal interpretation that the administration claims authorizes its surveillance authorities.
..
I think it's hard for the American people to trust their president when he says he respects democratic principles, when his actions over the course of nearly five years demonstrate very little respect for democratic principles.
..
A reporter recently asked me why I think the administration won't just declassify the legal opinion, given that the sources and methods it relates to have already been made public. "I think that's pretty obvious", I said. "I believe it will be much harder for the administration to claim that these programs are legal, if people can see their legal argument."
I think it's hard for the American people to trust the president when his administration has repeatedly gone out of its way to silence critics and, again, treat oversight as a threat on par with al-Qaida. As another great Techdirt post this week – US releases redacted document twice … with different redactions – illustrates, many of the intelligence community's classification decisions seem to be based more on a desire to avoid criticism than clear national security interests. And as Senator Wyden said back in 2007, when then CIA Director Hayden .. attempted to undermine oversight over his agency by launching an investigation into the CIA's inspector general..
..
<blockquote>'Secrecy – the first refuge of incompetents – must be at a bare minimum in a democratic society for a fully-informed public is the basis of self-government. Those elected or appointed to positions of executive authority must recognize that government, in a democracy, cannot be wiser than its people.'
- Patrick Moynihan (
Secrecy: The American Experience)</blockquote>
I think it's awfully hard for the American people to trust the president and his administration when their best response to the concerns Americans are raising is to denigrate the Americans raising those concerns. Because, you see, I have a hard time understanding why my wanting to stand up for democratic principles makes me unpatriotic, while the ones calling themselves patriots seem to think so little of the people and the principles that comprise the country they purport to love.
- Jennifer Hoelzer,
If Obama wanted an 'open debate' on NSA spying, why thwart one for so long? 13 August 2013</blockquote>
Context<blockquote>
'One sees authoritarianism v. individualism, fealty to The National Security State v. a belief in the need to constrain and check it, insider Washington loyalty v. outsider independence.'</blockquote>