David Sirota: A Cold, Hard Look at the NSA’s Metadata Program

[marmar]

from In These Times:



A Cold, Hard Look at the NSA’s Metadata Program
Fearmongering abounds, but the facts are simple. No attacks have been stopped.

BY David Sirota


In order to have a genuinely constructive debate, data must be compiled, evidence must be amassed and verifiable truths must be presented. This truism is particularly significant when it comes to debates about security and liberty. When public policy disputes involve such grave issues, facts are a necessity. Without facts, we get the counterproductive discourse we are being treated to right now—the one hijacked by National Security Administration defenders throwing temper tantrums, tossing out fear-mongering platitudes and trying to prevent any scrutiny of the agency.

You don't have to look far to find this sad spectacle. Tune into a national news program and you inevitably will hear pundits who have spent the last decade mindlessly cheering on wars and warrantless wiretapping now echoing the talking points emanating from surveillance-state apparatchiks like Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.).

This week, these two lawmakers, who head the House Intelligence Committee, summarized all the bluster in a press release that should be enshrined for posterity. In an attempt to defend the NSA, the bipartisan duo breathlessly claimed that whistleblower Edward Snowden ended up “endangering each and every American” by exposing the government's mass surveillance (i.e., metadata) programs. Additionally, they insisted that “the harm to our country and its citizens will only continue to endure,” they indicted Snowden's patriotism and they said his disclosures of the NSA's unlawful and unconstitutional programs “aligned him with our enemy.”

If these talking points and all of their media-promoted derivatives had been backed up by a tranche of corroborating facts, you might be able to argue that they represent a productive if caustic contribution to the conversation about national security. But the facts now leaking out of the government's national security apparatus are doing the opposite. They are debunking—rather than confirming—the NSA defenders' platitudes. .........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.com/article/16126/in_the_debate_about_the_nsa_will_facts_trump_fear/