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Comment by nanidin | Hacker News Reader

I do think something needs to be done. I don't think that something is to completely dismantle the NSA - that's as reactionary as the PATRIOT act was with regards to 9/11.

The USA has some of their most brilliant crypto/security/intel guys working at the NSA. What happens with them when they are no longer getting paid? They go private I suppose. Is that in the best interest of the country? Or would it make more sense to reign in the NSA and declare the spying illegal, or some other less radical approach that keeps the good guys around and gives them something better to do than record every phone call and text we make?

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Most countries have intelligence apparatus of course, no reason the USA shouldn't have something fulfilling the NSA's role.

But if there's one thing this debacle has shown me it's that there's not just a few bad apples playing fast and loose with checks and balances and constitutional safeguards. The rot extends throughout the NSA, the secret courts and secret oversight committees, literally up to the president.

I don't know what form the eventual reforms will take, but if they're going to achieve anything they will have to be extremely extensive. They will have to go well beyond a slap on the wrist for the NSA.

> Most countries have intelligence apparatus of course, no reason the USA shouldn't have something fulfilling the NSA's role.

This isn't terribly compelling to me.

I've never understood why we don't question the validity of both the NSA and the CIA, post-Cold War. Especially when our government just invented an entire war paradigm based on vague threats and the "terrorist" label, which can be applied to anyone the government wants at will.

The old paradigm of state secrets is, IMO, outdated and no longer useful. We should be marching towards total transparency of government. With the Internet and cellphones and cameras everywhere, governments can no longer hide in darkness. They have done very bad things in our name. We know better today, and shouldn't have to accept that this is just the way it is.

I'm sure some of the smartest people in the world would have no trouble finding other better uses of their time. Being afraid of what these guys would do if they went private is a boogeyman type argument, just like this scary "terrorism" stuff the politicians love.

The next logical step in the progression would be to secretly sponsor Communists to suppress the NSA and their sympathizers. In a decade or two if the Commies get out of control, we'll be able to complete the cycle of history by funding al-Qaeda to fight them.

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