ON THE N.S.A. FRONT

We hear this week that the N.S.A. has also hacked into the Secretary General of the United Nations and the computers at Yahoo and Google. Oozing out yesterday without media fanfare is news that William Binney, a codebreaking specialist whom the National Security Agency enlisted to help decipher electronic data to foil post-Sept. 11 terror plots, recently told CBS Baltimore his attempt several years ago to protest the agency’s abuse of its growing tech powers led only to personal heartache as the government pushed back against his vocal concern. That is probably one major reason why Snowden made his public disclosures. 

In the meantime,the Obama Administration is fighting an effort to have the Supreme Court immediately review the legality of the National Security Agency’s call-tracking program.
In a brief filed with the high court, the Justice Department argues that the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s petition asking the justices to weigh in on the issue is premature and that the issue should be allowed to percolate in the lower courts.


This whole N.S.A. thing has us and the world extremely uptight.  Well, President Obama is considering splitting the N.S.A. into two agencies, one dealing with the gathering of intelligence and one dealing with the conduct of war and military activities overseas.  I guess he is lame-brained enough to think that will either resolve the problem or satisfy those of us who have strong fears about his agendas, but simply dividing a cancer doesn't kill it.  In fact, separating the functions will certainly facilitate a more rapid growth and deployment of the spying portion. 

However, the fact that he is considering taking this action is indicative to me that he knows full-well that the actions of the N.S.A. are inappropriate and probably illegal.  And that is where my blame rests today.