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The US has organizations which look inward for terrorists - the FBI, DEA, ATF, TSA, local law enforcement, etc. We have our own country fairly well covered, with well-establish legal precedent and rules of engagement. The NSA is an intelligence gathering organization for the parts of the world we don't have covered, and its goal is to collect global intelligence. It doesn't treat anyone adversarially, as it has no "troops" with which to engage foreigners.

It's massively near-sighted to think there are no groups in the world plotting the harm of US citizens. You might not be part of those groups, but how do we know if we don't look at you?



>it has no "troops" with which to engage foreigners.

It has no troops, but it has the CIA, who can assemble a makeshift covert "troop" in no time.

>You might not be part of those groups, but how do we know if we don't look at you?

Exactly the reasoning soon to be used to allow domestic mass surveillance. Mark my words.


That is hardly the most significant thing I wrote in my comment.

edit: US citizens already get looked at by other government orgs. What you're talking about already happens.


> it has no "troops" with which to engage foreigners.

Well, if you ignore that thing where the NSA is an part of the Department of Defense, and that its director is also the commander of a sub-unified command of the US military, sure.


The NSA is not the DoD, so yes, it'd make sense to ignore that fact.


The NSA is part of DoD.




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