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Clapper Over the Top on Data-Mining Practices by John M. Curtis Copyright June 12, 2013 All Rights Reserved.
Causing more embarrassment to President Barack Obama,
72-year-old National Intelligence Director James R. Clapper finds himself
under the media glare after former CIA employee 29-year-old Edward Snowden
exposed Clapper’s current spying practices as beyond the pale. Recently an
employee of CIA contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, Snowden saw fit to violate his
confidentiality agreement and expose the NSA’s inappropriate surveillance of
average American citizens. With Justice Department Secretary Eric Holder
under the gun for authorizing spying on private citizens and news reporters,
Clapper’s stealth identity has come under media scrutiny. Formerly head of
the Defense Intelligence Agency from 1991-1995, Clapper hoped to keep his
identity under the radar. With the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper calling
Snowden a whistleblower, it looks like Clapper’s department became overly
zealous mining data in pursuit of terrorists.
Coming from the DIA, Clapper had a distinguished military career directing he
National Geospatial Intelligence Agency during Sept. 11 years where Vice
President Dick Cheney gave more credibility to the DIA and Pentagon’s Office of
Special Plans than the CIA, FBI or other domestic intelligence agencies.
Sept. 11 was a game-changer for former President George W. Bush and his VP
trying figure out how Bin Laden slipped under U.S. radar causing the worst
attack on the homeland in U.S. history. “Well, you have to start
somewhere,” Clapper told NBC News, referring to what looks like sweeping
intelligence gathering methods. Operating under codename PRISM, Clapper
scooped up intel on average American citizens having no connection to anything
even remotely tied to terrorists. Clapper’s surveillance methods resemble
the one-size-fits-all practices of Transportation Security Agency, known to
target the elderly as much as terrorist-aged air travelers.
Clapper’s military background leaves him somewhat tone deaf to Constitutional
protections of the civilian population. Operating under the Unified Code
of Military, Clapper hasn’t made the transition to common civilian practices
that follow the rule of law. “These things are narrowly circumscribed,”
said Obama, referring to the kind of targeted information gleaned Internet
searches. “They are very focused,” referring to government surveillance
under the PRISM program begun by the Bush administration in the wake of Sept.
11. When Snowden blew the whistle May 5 in the Guradian, he revealed that
the government routinely scours untold numbers of cell phone records, emails and
Web searches on millions of citizens completely disconnected from any terrorist
activity. Scouring Yahoo, Google and Microsoft accounts of
millions of U.S. citizens completely removed from any terrorist suspicion raises
serious doubts about Obama and Clapper’s claims of focused targeting.
Now hiding in Hong Kong, the Justice Department wants to extradite Snowden to
prosecute him for violating his confidentiality agreements. Whether or not
he committed acts of treason is anyone’s guess. Under PRISM, the Bush
administration asked for exceptions from ordinary court orders to investigate
terrorist leads. Seeking a faster response time, bypassing court orders
was considered essential to pounce on terrorist leads in the wake of Sept. 11.
“In certain cases, the process of obtaining a court order slows, and in some
cases may prevent, the government’s efforts to conduct surveillance of
communications that are potentially vital to national security,” said Justice
Department’s top prosecutor Kenneth Weinstein in 2007. Congress approved
eavesdropping without warrants or court orders back in 2007, enabling PRISM to
collect virtually any-and-all data on foreigners, despite swooping up data on
U.S. citizens in one big net.
Instead of the mob mentality going after Snowden, the government should take
inventory of its current intelligence-gathering operations that step on the
First Amendment. Taking a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t serve the
purpose of PRISM to get quality leads on potential terrorists. Looking
into emails or transactions on popular Websites does nothing to seek out quality
intel on potential terrorists. “As a matter of due course, if you’re
targeting something foreign, you could intercept an American,” said former Bush
National Security Director Michael McConnnell, admitting mistakes happen.
Whether the Obama administration likes it or not, Snowden pointed out egregious
abuses of the current system that’s become way too broad. Wasting valuable
manpower on combing through useless emails and Internet contacts, PRISM has
become a colossal waste of time. Snowden’s revelations raise serious
doubts about the government surveillance programs.
Whatever Snowden did to violate his confidentiality agreements must be dealt
with accordingly. Talk of prosecuting the 29-year-old for treason goes
over the top and doesn’t deal with the colossal inefficiency built into today’s
PRISM program. Most citizens want the government to do its job of
protecting U.S. national security. What they don’t want t the government
to do is waste precious time and tax dollars mining useless data that does not
protect anyone from the next terrorist attack. “To me collection of U.S.
person’s data would me taking books off the shelf, opening up and reading it,”
said Clapper explaining his definition of data collection. Already
admitting he’s targeting U.S. citizens, Clapper needs to reconsider what looks
like the most inefficient possible way of mining data on potential terrorists.
Whether or not the information’s on the shelf, wasting precious government
resources on useless date collection aids-and-abets the enemy. About the Author John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma. |
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