General Hayden Former NSA Director: "This Is not A Constitutional Issue"

[Bitware]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq_c-RNTxTk

[Spendulus]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq_c-RNTxTk

Let's stop right there, as there is zero authority on whether something is constitutional on the part of the head of the NSA.   In fact, if not you or I, then certainly a Congressman would be capable of speaking on that subject.  Ultimately, such a question is decided by the courts.

But never - ever - should it be decided by the NSA, as part of their mandate has always been to do covert ops - lie, cheat, steal, as the case might require. 

Therefore, the statements in the video can be understood in context.

More lying.

[FoBoT]

http://networkedblogs.com/Mdde0

This is about state-sponsored spying, not personal privacy. The U.S. government has decided the best, most defensible way to fight whatever it deems threatening (now or in the future) is not to create a dossier on every human being on the planet — that would be totalitarian! Instead they’re merely building the infrastructure that enables them to do so both at will and retroactively. All they’re doing is merely collecting anonymous “metadata”. That’s true insofar as it goes (though as a programmer I must protest the abuse of the term “metadata”, which typicaly refers to “data about data”, whereas phone numbers, emails, Facebook likes and the like are “data about us”) but, like most spin, the argument routes around the point with expert precision.

[darkmule]

The NSA making a statement about what is constitutional or not is like Hitler saying a certain food is kosher.