Key:
Sharing intelligence on a particular topic with an ally is not akin to providing raw commercial, industrial, personal, political, and military data covertly obtained from Americans and our allies to Israel.
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Statement by Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper on Allegations of Economic Espionage
September 8, 2013
It is not a secret that the Intelligence Community collects information about economic and financial matters, and terrorist financing.
We collect this information for many important reasons: for one, it could provide the United States and our allies early warning of international financial crises which could negatively impact the global economy. It also could provide insight into other countries' economic policy or behavior which could affect global markets.
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One statement heard often in defense of NSA and this storage is “let them do it, I have nothing to hide!” You personally may not if you have no personal information, but nearly everyone else does have information they do not want shared. This information is not illegal or criminal, but personal such as health, business strategies, future plans for love and life, financial situations both good and bad, political or religious views and many other written or video pieces of life. It is my belief that Edward Snowden did what he did out of the highest love of the Constitution and at the highest level of patriotic whistle-blowing to protect that Constitution.
Suppose there is another person far less patriotic and obsessed by money and power still working for NSA at the same level as Snowden. What is to prevent this person from downloading files on business plans of corporations and individuals, financial information of many entities and perhaps most damaging, political information on policies, financial sources and human flaws of a candidate to act upon by an opponent and offer these for sale?
In a presidential or other national election, such information could be catastrophic in determining the outcome. I am sure that only a very small number of NSA employees could ever act in this manner, but look at what Snowden did by himself. It would also seem that NSA condones lies to protect itself if “necessary” as witnessed by James Clapper, the head of U.S. intelligence, telling a congressional panel and the entire country that the government does not collect massive information on U.S. citizens purposefully.
What would covert files for money do to the NSA? Perhaps what is all right for the boss to do should be all right for the employees as well. I cannot excuse such unnecessary lies, “no comment” would work just fine. Clapper chose to willfully commit perjury in my view, and has he been called to account for his lies as Snowden has been for his patriotic whistle-blowing?
In the last few weeks, the Supreme Court blocked police from rifling through a personal cellphone because of the large amount of personal data that can be found there. When Snowden’s efforts get to that court as I believe they must, what will the court say about the NSA policies of attempting to collect everything while lying about it?
It is my belief that when government data collection is added to the volumes of commercial personal data they can access under present regulations and also pirate information, there will be enormous amounts of individual information available for exploitation.
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