Clapper Over the Top on Data-Mining Practices

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright June 12, 2013

All Rights Reserved.                                             

        Causing more embarrassment to President Barack Obama, 72-year-old National Intelligence Director James R. Clapper finds himself  under the media glare after former CIA employee 29-year-old Edward Snowden exposed Clapper’s current spying practices as beyond the pale.  Recently an employee of CIA contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, Snowden saw fit to violate his confidentiality agreement and expose the NSA’s inappropriate surveillance of average American citizens.  With Justice Department Secretary Eric Holder under the gun for authorizing spying on private citizens and news reporters, Clapper’s stealth identity has come under media scrutiny.  Formerly head of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 1991-1995, Clapper hoped to keep his identity under the radar.  With the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper calling Snowden a whistleblower, it looks like Clapper’s department became overly zealous mining data in pursuit of terrorists.

          Coming from the DIA, Clapper had a distinguished military career directing he National Geospatial Intelligence Agency during Sept. 11 years where Vice President Dick Cheney gave more credibility to the DIA and Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans than the CIA, FBI or other domestic intelligence agencies.  Sept. 11 was a game-changer for former President George W. Bush and his VP trying figure out how Bin Laden slipped under U.S. radar causing the worst attack on the homeland in U.S. history.   “Well, you have to start somewhere,” Clapper told NBC News, referring to what looks like sweeping intelligence gathering methods.  Operating under codename PRISM, Clapper scooped up intel on average American citizens having no connection to anything even remotely tied to terrorists.  Clapper’s surveillance methods resemble the one-size-fits-all practices of Transportation Security Agency, known to target the elderly as much as terrorist-aged air travelers.

             Clapper’s military background leaves him somewhat tone deaf to Constitutional protections of the civilian population.  Operating under the Unified Code of Military, Clapper hasn’t made the transition to common civilian practices that follow the rule of law.  “These things are narrowly circumscribed,” said Obama, referring to the kind of targeted information gleaned Internet searches.  “They are very focused,” referring to government surveillance under the PRISM program begun by the Bush administration in the wake of Sept. 11.  When Snowden blew the whistle May 5 in the Guradian, he revealed that the government routinely scours untold numbers of cell phone records, emails and Web searches on millions of citizens completely disconnected from any terrorist activity.    Scouring Yahoo, Google and Microsoft accounts of millions of U.S. citizens completely removed from any terrorist suspicion raises serious doubts about Obama and Clapper’s claims of focused targeting.

              Now hiding in Hong Kong, the Justice Department wants to extradite Snowden to prosecute him for violating his confidentiality agreements.  Whether or not he committed acts of treason is anyone’s guess.  Under PRISM, the Bush administration asked for exceptions from ordinary court orders to investigate terrorist leads.  Seeking a faster response time, bypassing court orders was considered essential to pounce on terrorist leads in the wake of Sept. 11.  “In certain cases, the process of obtaining a court order slows, and in some cases may prevent, the government’s efforts to conduct surveillance of communications that are potentially vital to national security,” said Justice Department’s top prosecutor Kenneth Weinstein in 2007.  Congress approved eavesdropping without warrants or court orders back in 2007, enabling PRISM to collect virtually any-and-all data on foreigners, despite swooping up data on U.S. citizens in one big net.

          Instead of the mob mentality going after Snowden, the government should take inventory of its current intelligence-gathering operations that step on the First Amendment.  Taking a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t serve the purpose of PRISM to get quality leads on potential terrorists.  Looking into emails or transactions on popular Websites does nothing to seek out quality intel on potential terrorists.  “As a matter of due course, if you’re targeting something foreign, you could intercept an American,” said former Bush National Security Director Michael McConnnell, admitting mistakes happen.   Whether the Obama administration likes it or not, Snowden pointed out egregious abuses of the current system that’s become way too broad.  Wasting valuable manpower on combing through useless emails and Internet contacts, PRISM has become a colossal waste of time.  Snowden’s revelations raise serious doubts about the government surveillance programs.

               Whatever Snowden did to violate his confidentiality agreements must be dealt with accordingly.  Talk of prosecuting the 29-year-old for treason goes over the top and doesn’t deal with the colossal inefficiency built into today’s PRISM program.  Most citizens want the government to do its job of protecting U.S. national security.  What they don’t want t the government to do is waste precious time and tax dollars mining useless data that does not protect anyone from the next terrorist attack.  “To me collection of U.S. person’s data would me taking books off the shelf, opening up and reading it,” said Clapper explaining his definition of data collection.  Already admitting he’s targeting U.S. citizens, Clapper needs to reconsider what looks like the most inefficient possible way of mining data on potential terrorists.  Whether or not the information’s on the shelf, wasting precious government resources on useless date collection aids-and-abets the enemy.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.