

'Let Me Stress How Shocking NSA Revelations Are': View From Inside Defense World - panarky
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/10/let-me-stress-how-shocking-these-nsa-revelations-are-a-view-from-inside-the-defense-world/281052/

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panarky
"At the risk of Godwining the email, this is the essence of the 'banality of
evil' in the precise Arendtian sense of the term."

"Those charged with assessing the risk we face are the same ones who will be
blamed for underestimating it. They are also the ones who benefit by
overstating the dangers."

"The national-security complex was charged after 9-11 with this credo: 'Never
Again'. This is a mission so absolute that it permits no cost-benefit analysis
of any kind."

"The surveillance-state apparatus creates a chilling effect on the very
democratic activity that is prerequisite to its dismantling."

