Regarding the March 11 news article “Snowden: Mass surveillance backfiring”:
“Transparent intelligence” is an oxymoron. The general public — not to mention the American Civil Liberties Union, the South by Southwest conference, technology experts and Edward Snowden — should in no way be dictating how we go about intelligence-gathering. This needs to be done by intelligence experts in conjunction with our legal system. Unlike Mr. Snowden, who is not an expert on intelligence, encryption and the Constitution simply because he was an expert system administrator, the National Security Agency has broken no laws.
The ACLU’s Christopher Soghoian said: “The goal here is to make it so they cannot spy on innocent people [just] because they can.” As a former cryptanalyst, I am acutely aware of the lengths to which NSA analysts go to avoid privacy intrusions. This goal was met long before Mr. Snowden came along. Although the goal, as Mr. Soghoian phrased it, may not be “to blind the NSA,” beware of the law of unintended consequences. The next catastrophe will be laid at the feet of Mr. Snowden and those who lionize him.
Eva Shidle, Ellicott City