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It is no secret that the NSA has been spying on Americans and international citizens who pose no foreseeable threat to American national security, including heads of state. Though information is still coming to light regarding the breadth and depth of government surveillance, evidence suggests that the NSA has stored at least five years worth of metadata for “virtually every phone call in the United States.” Files leaked by former NSA employee Edward Snowden to journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Ewan McCaskill (of The Guardian), Barton Gellman (of the Washington Post), and a small group of other reporters, continue to provide startling findings regarding the surveillance state on a regular basis.
As more documents come to light, it becomes increasingly clear that the NSA has lied to the American people regarding their surveillance tactics. Not only have senior NSA officials lied about whether they were collecting data from Americans (they said they weren’t, they were), but they have told lies large and small about the logistics, limitations, and effectiveness of their work. Publishing a list of lies told by the NSA may be premature, as there are still mountains of Snowden documents that have yet be released, but there has already been enough misinformation from the NSA that the agency will be attempting to regain credibility with the American people for years to come. Here are the 10 Biggest Lies Told By the NSA.
The NSA Does Not Collect Data From "Millions of Americans" – James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence
This, of course, is probably the most important lie that American intelligence organizations have told us over the last several years, and they have told it to us over and over again. On March 12th of last year James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence was asked, "Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundred of millions of Americans?" Clapper replied, "Not wittingly." We now know that the NSA was collecting data from millions of American Verizon customers alone, not to mention users of every major telecommunications and social media service in the U.S. Of course, Clapper and the numerous intelligence officials who have told this lie before knew full well they were lying. In a recent interview Clapper said, "I thought, though in retrospect, I was asked a 'when are you going to ... stop beating your wife' kind of question, which is ... not answerable necessarily by a simple yes or no. So I responded in what I thought was the most truthful, or least truthful, manner by saying, 'No.'" Classy guy.
"NSA acquires valuable information through its upstream collection, but not without substantial intrusions on Fourth Amendment protected interests." – U.S. District Judge John Bates
Not only did the NSA lie to the American people about their communications with secret courts, but they lied to the secret courts. Under the Patriot Act, FISA courts were set up to handle NSA surveillance requests. Two judges who were a part of these courts, Judges John D. Bates and Reggie B. Walton have come forward with claims that the NSA lied to them on various occasions. Rather than apologize when Bates's accusations were made public, an NSA official stated, "This was a situation where there was a technological problem that could not be avoided, rather than any overreach" which is about as much of a "sorry not sorry" as you can get away with in government office.
"We are not 'rifling' through the emails of Europe's Citizens." – President Barack Obama
Snowden's revelations have not merely been confined to communications within the U.S. It turns out that the NSA has not only been intercepting communications between Europeans and Americans, but between Europeans and other Europeans. The NSA is able to rifle through European communications because they tapped fiber optic cables that transmit global emails and telephone calls. Of course, this behavior violates a number of agreements with various countries. For example, in April of 2002, America signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Germany stating that they would "abide by German laws and regulations governing the implementation of telecommunications and electronic information and processing." It may not surprise you to hear that spying on German citizens and on Chancellor Angela Merkel herself violates the agreement in the eyes of the Germans. Adding insult to injury, the U.S. came to the table with the possibility of a "no-spy" agreement going forward with Germany, only to have negotiations break down in short order.
"The great irony is we're the only ones not spying on the American people." – James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence
Not only did Clapper and company systematically mislead the American public, but he had the gall to hide behind mysterious bogey men to justify himself. Pre-Snowden NSA whistle blower William Binney accused the NSA of building a billion dollar facility to spy on the American people in Utah. Clapper dismissed this charge with a heated, yet flippant tone. After listing all of the government institutions that provide oversight for the NSA, Clapper said, "Either all of them are complicit in us doing this or the allegations are absolute baloney." With each passing day, it becomes more clear that this statement might have been one of the few he has made that isn't a lie.
"The NSA work force has executed its national security responsibilities with equal and full respect of civil liberties and privacy." – Keith Alexander, NSA Chief
Warrantless wiretapping of individuals under no suspicion of a crime clearly doesn't qualify as "equal and full respect of civil liberties." It would be one thing if perhaps the NSA just got carried away, if somehow, in their post-9/11 zeal they simply couldn't see the forest for the trees. However, prior to Edward Snowden there have been numerous whistle blowers who have come forward attempting to point out that civil liberties have been violated. These concerned employees were threatened with criminal charges and their homes were raided. This has been happening since 2001. Two of the earliest objectors to the NSA's policies, Bill Binney and Kirk Wiebe, were profiled in a recent Deadline documentary and appeared on NPR's Fresh Air, detailing the NSA's "cover-up first, ask questions later" approach. Not only has the NSA ignored the civil liberties of Americans, but when their own employees brought their shortcomings to their attention, they were punished.
"There have been cases where [NSA Officials] have inadvertently made false representation, and they themselves have discovered it and corrected it." - Susan Rice, National Security Advisor
You see, none of the items we have listed previously are lies, they are just "inadvertent ... false representations." Thanks for clearing that up Ms. Rice. It's easy to see how you could think that you are spying on no one when you are actually spying on everyone, or that you could think that you have cracked over fifty terror cases using illegal surveillance when the actual number is closer to zero. It's only appropriate that our Orwellian national security apparatus closed out 2013 with a lie attempting to explain away the lies they had been caught in throughout the rest of the year.