Thursday, September 05, 2013

NATIONAL SECURITY - Do Leaked Secrets Cause Damage?

"Will Leaked Secrets Damage Efforts by the U.S. Intelligence Community?" PBS Newshour 9/4/2013

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour):  When former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked classified documents to the press in May, he revealed extensive U.S. spying operations carried out on enemies and allies alike.

Last week, The Washington Post published a detailed account of the so-called black budget, money the U.S. government spends on spy operations.  It was also revealed that U.S. intelligence agencies have been reading the personal e-mails of the presidents of Mexico and Brazil.

At his press conference with the Swedish prime minister in Stockholm today, President Obama denied that the U.S. was eavesdropping.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:  I can give assurances to the publics in Europe and around the world that we're not going around snooping at people's e-mails or listening to their phone calls.

What we try to do is to target very specifically areas of concern.  And there may be situations in which we're gathering information just because we can that doesn't help with us our national security, but does raise questions in terms of whether we're tipping over into being too intrusive.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  For more, I'm joined by Craig Whitlock of The Washington Post.  He's written many stories based on the Snowden leaks.  Plus, Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, and Stewart Baker.  He's former general counsel at the National Security Agency.

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