Glenn Greenwald has testified yesterday before the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties and Home Affairs via a video link from Rio, Brazil. The journalists who had mostly reported on whistle-blower Edward Snowden’s leaks on U.S. and U.K. mass surveillance operations claimed that  the “NSA’s goal is to destroy individual privacy worldwide.” It’s not its ultimate goal, it’s one grave and unacceptable consequence of its collecting metadata of all and everything which may in fact be necessary to meet its true goal, getting relevant intelligence about perceived evildoers. With no avail as far as we know now despite claims by member of the intelligence community to the contrary. According to another ridiculous propaganda piece aired in the U.S. the other day, it’s metadata which has intelligence value according to NSA’s current director Gen. Keith Alexander, “the least intrusive way of doing that is [collecting] metadata,” which is made up as if conforming with the American Constitution, in particular its Fourth Amendment. It’s not.

Assuming that Alexander or his current superior, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, individuals who are used to lie even to Congress, or their legal advisors are not familiar or even aware of constitutional limitations of their activities, do not know of grave consequences of Orwellian, worldwide mass surveillance for freedom and liberties of citizens, democracy at large, and international relationships with yet  friendly governments, it becomes clear that neither they nor the agencies they currently direct seem to be aware of that they are the bad guys, not those who have exposed their activities we have got to know of.

Expectations that accomplice President Obama is even willing to overhaul NSA practices are low anyway. See Report and Recommendations of The President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies here.

19 December 2013 @ 9:33 am.

Last modified December 19, 2013.