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Comment by wmeredith | Hacker News Reader

At one point does the NSA become considered a terrorist organization in and of itself? It seems to me that they have stared too long into the abyss.

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They become a terrorist organization when they target civilians to cause terror. Fortunately there's no evidence that they do.

Terrorists are groups with relatively small power who use dramatic methods. The NSA is quite the opposite; as a governmental organization attached to a very powerful government they would lot be called terriers for their actions, but rather something like totalitarians or tyrants.

They already are in my book.

Can you expand on that? Under what definition of terrorism is the NSA a terrorist organization?

It seems to me that their intent to be as clandestine as possible makes them distinctly non-terroristic.

Spreading terror.

That's not their goal, though. If anything they'd prefer that everyone in the world didn't know they existed whatsoever, which is quite the opposite to what any terrorist group would like.

You could call what they do criminal, but it's not terroristic.

"Terrorism" is, admittedly, a very ill defined term. Academics have been arguing for decades about whether or not State actions against their own people can be labelled "terrorism" or not. Given that, I won't quote a dictionary or textbook definition, but rather say that I see them contributing as a part of a larger system that seems to meet some definitions of "terrorist", at least if you believe in the existence of "state terrorism".

It seems to me that their intent to be as clandestine as possible makes them distinctly non-terroristic.

Yeah, I'll admit that's an arguable point. I haven't even made up my own mind on the "intent" aspect.

All told, labeling them a "criminal" organization would probably be better, but I think it would be wrong to overlook the role they play in allowing the US government to use fear as a tool of control.

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