The White House and the House Intelligence
Committee leaked dueling proposals last night that are supposedly aimed at
ending the mass collection of all Americans’ phone records. But the devil
is in the details, and when it comes to the National Security Agency’s unique ability to twist
and distort
the English language, the devil tends to wrap his horns around every word.
The House proposal, to be unveiled this morning by Reps Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger, is the more worrying
of the two. Rogers has been the NSA’s most ardent defender in Congress and has a long
history of distorting
the truth and practicing in outright
fabrication, whether in touting his committee’s alleged “oversight” or by way of his
attempts to impugn the motives of the once again vindicated whistleblower who started this whole reform
debate, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
As a general rule, whenever Mike Rogers (not to be confused with incoming NSA director Michael Rogers)
claims
a bill does something particular – like, say, protect your privacy –
it's actually a fairly safe assumption that the opposite will end up
true. His new bill seems to have the goal of trading government
bulk collection for even more NSA power to search Americans’ data while
it sits in the hands of the phone companies.
something particular – like, say, protect your privacy – it's a fairly
safe assumption that the opposite will end up true. Photograph: Chris
Usher / AP
