*Originally published pre-2020 and preserved as part of our archive project. Get E-International Relations delivered to your inbox, free of charge. As you sign up, consider becoming a paid subscriber, or make a donation, to support our work.

The NSA (National Security Agency) has been savaging the US Constitution lately by secretly collecting data on almost every US citizen.  But most of that evil work has been done by citizens obeying orders from true believers in the security state.  In their hearts, they are heroes.  It (the security state), however, has no heart.  The key to understanding this dilemma is to recognize that the Intelligence Community (‘IC’) bureaucracies have mastered the art of getting “good people” to do “bad things” in the name of “national security.”  There are just enough real maniacs on earth to frighten the hyper-vigilant at all times, even though actual deaths to real terrorists in North America are objectively far less each year today than deaths to bee stings, lightning strikes or televisions.[i]

So while I mention serious damage to American civil liberties and even to national security due to the recent growth of NSA activities, I need to be clear that this damage was done mainly by people with good intentions.  In their minds, they are protecting the innocent from dangers posed by murky and sometimes stateless actors called “terrorists.”  The IC clan is largely sincere, partly because they are told constantly that they are patriots by the bureaucracies that hire them, and which enforce the secrecy rules that enable such dysfunction.  9/11 provided an excuse.  But bureaucracies run on money, not consciences, ‘free will,’ ethics or love, so counting on them to enforce any restraint is a fool’s conclusion.  Bureaucracies are in it for the money, period.

The Illusion of Oversight

This overreach was enabled by 9/11 and a supine Congress whose “oversight” mechanisms were designed to fail decades ago, and have done so tragically.  This was first told me by a sitting US Congressman, Bruce Vento (D), and strongly reinforced by the Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence at that time, Sen. David Durenburger (R).  24 years later, Congressman Alan Grayson wrote that “government oversight is a joke”.[ii]  Obsession with secret power, and indifference to Constitutional law, much less oversight or agreements on prudent intelligence sharing, has damaged our national security seriously by offending vital allies who don’t like to be spied on any more than loyal citizens.[iii]

Spy agencies undoubtedly need some secrecy, but there are big differences between necessity and obsession.  Agents may be killed, or “turned” if detected, and communications once known to be tapped by secret police are seldom used again for serious business.  So some secrecy is essential for spies.  However, that easily becomes an obsession with secrecy common to intelligence agencies that can blind them to important things that are obvious to outsiders.  For example, Americans generally do not like to be targeted by weapons of war that we paid for.  Surprised?  The NSA is. Their bulk collection program turned what was originally an intelligence weapon of war directed at terrorists abroad, into a domestic tool used to scan most communications of almost all citizens at home.  The only people surprised by public disgust at this are security gremlins deep inside their very secure cocoons, who ask sincerely “Why don’t our citizens trust us to collect all their telephone calls and emails?” Allied heads of state also do not like to be treated like criminals when it comes to surveillance by any “Big Brother”, including the US.  Widespread distaste for such activities was a big surprise to the NSA, which felt that if it could eavesdrop on anyone’s communications it should, then did, then lied about it.[iv]

What ethical lapses are shown by the NSA revelations?  To what extent are these system properties rather than episodes of individual activity (like espionage) which could occur even in theoretically perfect systems.  At least as important, what can America do at this time to restore the balance?

Major Ethical Lapses and System Failures

The security clearance system (at least in America) systematically weeds out people with strong consciences in the name of “protecting the people” or the state.  But the real concern is that very conscientious people will not always keep horrid crimes secret.  This secrecy is required by the nondisclosure contracts all must sign.  There is nominal instruction in “ethics” for the IC[v] and large reams of legalese explaining why employees should never steal from the government or lie to their superiors (even if lying to the rest of the world is part of their daily work). Career employees quickly learn, however, that taking a real ethics complaint to the Inspector General’s office is a quick path to a bad assignment, or even dismissal if you persist.  IG offices are where scandals go to die, not get fixed.  If genuine whistleblowers go to media of any kind, they........

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