The NSA Director is engaging in a rhetorical scam in Tuesday's Congressional testimony. He is testifying about "THESE PROGRAMS" as a stew. So he is justifying the inappropriate surveillance by including it in a jumble of all other anti-terrorist programs. He is testifying about a GROUP of ALL NSA activities, in order to justify individual, specific surveillance that is under scrutiny. He is saying that "THESE PROGRAMS" prevented terrorism -- NOT the particular practice being challenged. In effect, the NSA Director is arguing that that if *ANY* activity by the NSA is justified, therefore *EVERY* intrusion into our privacy is justified. If SOME of NSA"s programs are appropriate and necessary, therefore ANYTHING that the NSA does must similarly be swallowed hook, line, and sinker without distinction. The NSA is refusing to make any distinction between appropriate and inappropriate surveillance activities.
The examples that are being given all involve (a) international phone calls, not domestic calls within the United States and (b) individuals for whom there was probable cause to obtain a court order to wire tap their communications.
But Keith Alexander's testimony today for the National Security Agency (NSA) is so dishonest that we have to start to ask not whether Edward Snowden is a traitor, but whether NSA Director Keith Alexander is a traitor.
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