re: #370 Joanne

The right of the public to know how the government is keeping us safe has to be balanced with the right of the government to keep some stuff out of the public domain.

There’s a balancing act, but some people think that they get to unilaterally make that decision - Assange, Manning, and Snowden are the latest in a line of people who leak classified information come to mind. What they are doing isn’t heroic.

It’s putting peoples’ lives in jeopardy - whether it is through publishing information such as contacts and sources, who are then left hung out to dry (see Wikileaks) or identifying means and measures to go after terrorists.

It’s one thing to keep things secret in perpetuity. It’s another to see ongoing operations remain classified for a period of time.

The current NSA programs fall into that latter category. Congress gets briefings. They reupped the provisions in 2012. The NSA is so far operating within the law despite the breathless pronouncements by Greenwald and others. Revealing these details may undermine the agency’s ability to go after terrorists who seek to do harm to the nation. There has to be repercussions for those bad acts. They are crimes and should be prosecuted as such.

The NSA Chief, Congress, and the President should be the ones to determine when and how the programs are revealed and what details should remain hidden from public view.

Information is a weapon. We don’t go off telling everyone what a specific secret weapon does- we don’t broadcast the actual specs on a B-2 bomber, including its RCS under different conditions. Those kind of details are classified and highly protected. Release them and the person would be facing a lifetime of hurt in Leavenworth.

It shouldn’t be any different when dealing with the measures used by the NSA under federal law.