Ben Wizner talking:
NSA program called Bullrun, where we learned that the NSA, even as part of its mission is to secure the Internet, secure communications, protect us from cyber-attacks by strengthening encryption, was simultaneously undermining, systematically, encryption standards around the world so that its spies could break into these communications. The problem is, a backdoor for the NSA is a backdoor for everyone else, too. It’s a backdoor for hackers. It’s a backdoor for China. It’s a backdoor for criminals. There’s a fundamental tension between this cybersecurity mission, which is to defend the country and the safety of communications, and the aggressive spying mission. And the NSA had fundamentally favored the spying and surveillance mission over the security mission in a way that put all Americans’ and really all the world’s communications at risk. So if this recommendation is adopted, I think it’s a very important one.
this is a response to everyone who says that all of these programs are about terrorism. Look, there are not a lot of terrorists. There’s not enough terrorism in the world to justify these tens of billions of dollars that are being spent to build these massive systems that don’t target people, but sweep up all of the world’s communications. Clearly, there has been mission creep in what the NSA is doing. They’re collecting the information because they can. They are allowing their capabilities to drive their policy, instead of our laws and values to constrain our capabilities.
In its report, the NSA review panel suggested the NSA is engaging in cyber-attacks on financial systems or accounts. The panel recommended, “Governments should not use surveillance to steal industry secrets to advantage their domestic industry; (2) Governments should not use their offensive cyber capabilities to change the amounts held in financial accounts or otherwise manipulate the financial systems.”
this is a response to everyone who says that all of these programs are about terrorism. Look, there are not a lot of terrorists. There’s not enough terrorism in the world to justify these tens of billions of dollars that are being spent to build these massive systems that don’t target people, but sweep up all of the world’s communications. Clearly, there has been mission creep in what the NSA is doing. They’re collecting the information because they can. They are allowing their capabilities to drive their policy, instead of our laws and values to constrain our capabilities.
— source democracynow.org
Ben Wizner, an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union and director of its Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. The ACLU his also helping to coordinate Edward Snowden’s legal defense.