CNN: "It's time to break up the NSA"

[villager]

The NSA has become too big and too powerful. What was supposed to be a single agency with a dual mission -- protecting the security of U.S. communications and eavesdropping on the communications of our enemies -- has become unbalanced in the post-Cold War, all-terrorism-all-the-time era.

Putting the U.S. Cyber Command, the military's cyberwar wing, in the same location and under the same commander, expanded the NSA's power. The result is an agency that prioritizes intelligence gathering over security, and that's increasingly putting us all at risk. It's time we thought about breaking up the National Security Agency.

Broadly speaking, three types of NSA surveillance programs were exposed by the documents released by Edward Snowden. And while the media tends to lump them together, understanding their differences is critical to understanding how to divide up the NSA's missions

<snip>

The second is bulk surveillance, the NSA's collection of everything it can obtain on every communications channel to which it can get access. This includes things such as the NSA's bulk collection of call records, location data, e-mail messages and text messages.

This is where the NSA overreaches: collecting data on innocent Americans either incidentally or deliberately, and data on foreign citizens indiscriminately. It doesn't make us any safer, and it is liable to be abused. Even the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, acknowledged that the collection and storage of data was kept a secret for too long.

<snip>

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/20/opinion/schneier-nsa-too-big/

[riderinthestorm]

1. Yup. nt

[LittleBlue]

2. K&R. Break it up and dipose of the bulk-collection division

It needs to end

[daleanime]

9. +1

[Thinkingabout]

3. Perhaps we should follow the Russian lead and air the phone conversations.

[rhett o rick]

4. LOL. Break up the NSA. Who and with whose army? The NSA is possibly more powerful

than the president. Congress cant walk and chew gum let alone break up the NSA.

[jakeXT]

6. Well, Snowden worked for the CIA, I bet the CIA and its heads like Patraeus, who got into trouble

for an email affair, would love to have a weaker NSA.

[rhett o rick]

8. I think the CIA and NSA are in the cabal. Just sayin. nm

[bvar22]

13. The CIA, the NSA, the FBI, the DEA, and Homeland Security.

The Monster has many heads,
and many defenders.

[rhett o rick]

16. The defenders are those that are afraid of the truth. They live in denial bubbles and get bitter

and lash out at whistle-blowers, investigative journalists, progressives, and anyone else that dares to speak truth to power and challenge their denial bubbles. I think their obsession with the punishment of Snowden is their own distraction from the truth.

[grahamhgreen]

23. And they've been eavesdropping on congress as well.

[rhett o rick]

24. I doubt if it's a surprise to Congress. nm

[spin]

5. If we don't do something soon we will end up living in a nation far worse than the one portrayed

in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Soon you will have to be very careful what you say here on DU.

Another thing to remember is that if we continue down the path we are now on, the rich will become richer and we will all slave for them.

[jeff47]

7. It depends what you want it to actually do.

The problem with just splitting the "defenders" from the "attackers" is the "attackers" have a history of not sharing all their techniques. For example, the CIA has a history of not sharing human spying techniques with the FBI.

I'd argue the best split is between the developers and the implementers. The NSA develops new technology to attack and defend communications and networks. Agency-to-be-named-later is actually responsible for implementing the attacks. Agency-to-be-named-later-#2 is responsible for implementing the defenses.

[AtheistCrusader]

10. Um. It already is. CIA, NSA, NRO, NGIP, GDIP, Justice Dept, ODNI, DOD's SRP, DFCIP, DHS, ED, SD,

even the fucking treasury has a hand in the Intelligence 'black budget'.

Overlap, and duplication of effort everywhere.

[MindMover]

11. You missed at least one, DEA .... efficiency is not in the intelligence budget .... nt

[AtheistCrusader]

12. Damn, you're right.

[bvar22]

14. WOW... a decent article with depth and context from CNN.

CNN even rightly credited Edward Snowden.

Worth a Rec from me.

[villager]

15. Who knew they'd be capable of it!?

Well, I guess when it's a guest op-ed...!

[rhett o rick]

17. And now it will be on the "bad source" black list. nm

[blackspade]

18. Good article

Thanks for posting.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

19. OH NOES! This would validate everything Snowden did...

and DUers would go mental.

[bemildred]

20. Bruce Schneier, he's the man. nt

[SoapBox]

21. Break up CNN first.

[villager]

22. Why "first," instead of "too?"

More localized control we can have over our governance, or our media, the better.