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We will never know for sure whether these agencies (the NSA especially) do what they want because the elected officials like the idea of getting illegal shit done OR because no sane official can cross them and live. Or rather what the mix is between those two motives. They really are parallel power structures...

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The best way to describe the government of the US, and as far as I've read any powerful ruling organization, is they end up running like a mob in that people might disagree with how something was done, boss might not like what enforcers are doing, people are getting politically whackes or punished for doing not exactly what boss told them, but above all else, they will be damned before someone outside the family knows about it. I believe the US IC is no different.

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