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The NSA and federal government have lost the presumption of reasonableness in my eyes... rl3 mentioned no motive, and the possibility of a compulsion is a great hypothesis. if so, it's just one more example of the government persecuting the mentally ill to inflate their numbers (like the FBI agents who incite schizophrenic individuals to act on a hare-brained "bomb plot", and then bust them).

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I'm not sure I really follow where you're going, but NSA is a very different organization from the FBI. Not only is this not good press for them, but probably there isn't any press that is good for them. They work best when they're being ignored, and the only time I can remember them seeking attention was that talk by the head of TAO early last year.

No press good for the NSA doesn't mean that no press for them is good for the rest of humanity (everyone has to consider NSA as a threat, really, not just non-USA-persons). Is is good for even US taxpayers to not know where $60+ billion dollars a year go? Is it good for US taxpayers to not know that every byte of Internet communications gets stored for later use against them?

I don't think so.

They are all part of the federal system, which does not work in the interest of the US public. yes, there are different factions within it (as with any large system) but they are all self-interested and controlled by global elites (not surprising, but also not the best for the public).

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