We're paying for all this stuff. Reflections on Mr. Snowden
One aspect of the Snowden story I have not seen discussed, is what the American taxpayer is getting for the tax dollars spent on the data mining programs and the various access applications that query the databases so acquired. The entire set of programs costs hundreds of millions of dollars, and storage for some of the data collected is being built in a million-square-foot building in Utah. What exactly do we citizens get for this major expenditure of public funds? Safety, we are told. I think, it had better be a lot of safety for that amount of intrusion on privacy, and that amount of money. Clearly, these programs did not prevent the Boston bombers from carrying out a successful operation. The number of other thwarted terrorist acts had better be significant to satisfy me, and surely they should be on the tip of the NSA's tongue if queried by Congressional oversight committees. The NSA should be able to defend themselves against accusations that they have been collection masses of informations on Americans for reasons unknown. What do we have instead of the list of clandestine operations prevented by this very extensive surveillance? We have James Clapper commenting that he answered Congress's question in the "least untruthful manner."
Not to put too fine a point union it, but WHOA! Will Mr. Clapper ever be asked by someone who cares why he lied to Congress about how much data the program is actually collecting? And I'm sure we are paying his salary. How many of the upper level of employees and operatives in Government agencies see it as part of their jobs to lie to or mislead Congress, and to the press, and not incidentally, the public? Are we paying the salaries of people whose duties include keeping the people's representatives, the courts, and the people in ignorance? Meanwhile Mr. Snowden has said we are indeed sweeping up records of practically all communications. Taxpayers were paying Mr. Snowden's salary when he worked for the CIA, and we indirectly paid his salary at Booz Allen if in fact 98% of their funding is from the US government. So we have until quite recently been paying Mr. Snowden, and are still paying Mr. Clapper. At the very least, this seems fearfully inefficient. Of course, Mr. Snowden no longer works for the government, directly or indirectly. He's hiding out in Hong Kong.
What is Mr. Snowden doing in Hong Kong? He's probably trying to stay free and stay alive. I, for one, fear for Mr. Snowden's life, his health, and his freedom. He, like Julian Assange and Private Bradley Manning, has embarrassed the United States government. That, I believe, is not allowed. These three whistleblowers will all be expected to pay for that. A twenty-year prison sentence for Pvt. Manning will be the least onerous penalty. I think.
Now, I would like to touch briefly on the phrase "Terminate with Extreme Prejudice." This phrase is used, we are told, at the highest levels of government and security decision making, and it means to assassinate or to murder someone. I assume that if US law enforcement and espionage agencies ever indulge in TEP, the taxpayers of the United States are paying the salaries of other Americans who carry out orders against the targets. We pay to be lied to, and we pay for massive data storage, and perhaps we pay to have inconvenient people silenced. Deeply inefficient, not to mention morally horrific. The taxpayers were certainly paying for programs that tortured non-Americans, as well as imprisoning some of them at Guantanamo Bay. I have seen the figure to keep one prisoner for a year at Gitmo estimated at $900K.
Gentle fellow citizens, at the most basic level, we are not getting our money's worth. We seem to be fully funding the destruction of our own privacy, the befogging of Congress, and serious threats to those who would clear the fog away. I vote for firing Mr. Clapper, and rehiring Mr. Snowden, who is willing to risk both a good career and his life to bring us the bad news. It is bad news, but it appears to be the truth. I am simultaneously deeply cynical and soaringly idealistic. which is why I advocate guaranteeing Mr. Snowden's freedom and safety, and fully debriefing him of his thoughts on espionage, security, and privacy. Mr. Snowden seems to be much better value for the money than Mr. Clapper and the entire range of government representatives he has successfully lied to. We really should not be paying people to lie to us, or to assassinate in our name, or to assassinate people's characters, or lock people up for years because it is politically inconvenient to free them. We are wasting hundreds of millions of dollars when most housewives and truck drivers could think of better ways to spend that money.
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