Perhaps I'm mistaken, but it seems we are experiencing a regression in the democratic rule of law these days, even in countries like Denmark.
The whole "we can't do that because secret stuff would be revealed and people put in danger" excuse seems to be used all too often of late, especially when that secret stuff appears to be illegal.
These cases are withdrawn and the public enquiry that follows will not show anything new.
- The press is free to dig and find out stuff - that's what they did here.
- Intelligence officials disagree about the NSA deal. Leadership wants to continue, line officer disagrees and goes to the independent control service for the security agencies.
- Several investigations are conducted showing differing results (independent control agency thinks laws are being broken, subsequent investigation found no wrong doing).
- Secret information is leaked, investigated by the security agencies and a case is brought.
- Courts decide on how the case can be brought and ultimately the case is dropped due to the Supreme Court wanting only partially closed doors (so the public will see some of it).
- ANOTHER investigation will now be conducted into how the Justice Department and/or the Prime Ministry has acted.
While many mistakes have been made by different parties here, the checks and balances work well. Nobody has any supreme power or anything here.
One cannot have a free and democratic society with organizations such as the NSA.
The fact that it's revealed now doesn't mean that it started now.
Part of me thinks this is how the world really works, and I'm not sure if it's good or bad.
Throughout Europe and the US we have rogue agencies, supreme courts telling governments to desist from actions and that they are illegal, governments ignoring those courts, unelected commissions drafting laws that go entirely against policies and other laws made by their parliaments, private surveillance firms being given a free hand to spy on governments, while the instigating governments officially sanction those actors.... John Le Carre would have considered it all too far fetched for his novels.
Just one thought; this is exactly the sort of disharmony that I would be rubbing my hands in glee over if I were a "non-Western" superpower running psyops and disruption programmes.