The National Security Agency
complains that Edward Snowden and his leaks have “sensationalized” its rather
tedious accomplishment: a god-like edifice that now perches atop every twitch
we make as social animals. And, in doing so, it presses that narcotic button:
“You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide.”
Unlike imaginative humans and
run-of-the-mill liberal democrats like us, it just can’t imagine that: ruthless
political winners, smart adversaries, and the smart malcontents that keep
American politics vital may all eventually be corrupted by NSA’s existing
intelligence machinery.
NSA admits to slips that invite
us to smirk when instead we should be afraid. Maureen Dowd’s New York
Times column yesterday, entitled "Creeping Cloud,” contained this nugget:
“Yet,
news broke this past week that the N.S.A. inspector general admitted that there
have been a dozen instances of staffers spying on love interests. (The Wall
Street Journal said this practice is known as “LOVEINT,” for love
intelligence.)”
Sure, this is offensive.
More importantly, however, it
dramatizes that, right now, NSA staff can just as easily be asked — and rewarded — for “------,-------,------INT” spying on peaceful, lawful mental activity and
associations by individuals who might challenge, inconvenience, and even annoy
the leadership of what is still a highly competitive and volatile political
system.
Being an individual in any
super-charged political environment has always been hard. The NSA has
effectively put these individuals out in an open field.
If you wonder whether the
Bill of Rights protects you in an open field, ask the Poles what it's like to
live in flat prairies surrounded by "recognized" borders.
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