NSA Defender Claims Thousands Of Abuses By NSA Shows 'The System Is Working Well'

from the they-can't-be-serious dept

Been wondering how the usual pack of NSA defenders would be trying to spin the revelations of massive violations of the law by the NSA? I've assumed that most would focus on the fact that it's claimed (without real evidence) that these abuses were "accidents" or "typos" (by which you also alert NSA agents exactly how to abuse the system without getting in trouble for it: just make it look like a typo). And here we have a version of this that I expect to see a few politicians trot out. Jason Healey, who is a former "director of cyber infrastructure" for the White House from 2003 to 2005. has trotted out the trial balloon claiming that these thousands of abuses mean "the system is working."

NSA 'privacy violations' reflects system working well. My 1st job was writing such violation reports, ensure US info was purged from system

— Jason Healey (@Jason_Healey) August 16, 2013

We'll wait while you try to stop laughing. Need a bit more time? Okay. *Glances at watch* Okay, now, seriously, I'm assuming his argument is that the fact that there was a secret report noting all of these thousands of abuses means that the "auditing" and "review" process within the NSA proves that those processes "work" in "catching" abuses. This is wrong on so many levels. Let's discuss just a few, because, really, we don't have all day:

1. Just because this report notes thousands of abuses, it doesn't mean that many other, potentially worse, abuses didn't happen and just didn't make it into the report. In fact, given how widely the systems appear to be abused, this seems almost certain. The NSA argues that random errors, typos and accidents lead to the mistakes in the first place, yet now we're supposed to believe that there were no such errors in collecting the list of violations and abuses? Really?
2. As we've been discussing, the way these abuses are classified actually makes it painfully obvious to any NSA analyst worth his or her pocket protector just how to abuse the system and get away with it. If these abuses were rare, and not an everyday occurrence, it would be harder to get away with. But with multiple abuses every single day, it's not difficult to disguise a purposefully abusive search into one that looks "accidental."
3. The fact that there are so many abuses, and that the number has grown over time shows that the system is clearly not working. If it was, they'd be reducing the violations consistently.
4. Just because an abuse is written up, it doesn't excuse the abuse happening in the first place.

And, as mentioned we could go on and on and on. But, honestly, how can anyone want to be taken seriously and then argue that thousands of abuses of the law and violations of the privacy of Americans "reflects [the] system working well"? About the only way it shows the system is working well is if the plan was to spy on Americans against the law all along.

Filed Under: abuse, jason healey, nsa, nsa surveillance