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13 Jun, 2013

Who Decides? | American Civil Liberties Union

By Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project

I’d like to make one major point about the NSA surveillance scandal that many people have made indirectly, or implicitly, or seem to have assumed, but have not stated baldly and explicitly. That point is how this incident has laid bare the arrogance of our national security officials.

Because there are really two separate issues behind last week’s revelations. The first is, how much surveillance of the American people should the government conduct? The second is, who should decide how much surveillance of the American people the government should conduct?

And on that second question, the government has arrogated to itself the power to make that decision, unilaterally, in secret, on behalf of the American people.

Read the rest: Who Decides? | American Civil Liberties Union.