If only they could<?strong> tell us how much good they're really doing, how many of our lives they save on a daily basis, how pure are their hearts and clean are their minds, then maybe it wouldn't matter thatthey all lie to us so goddamn much.

Most of the infractions involve unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the United States, both of which are restricted by statute and executive order. They range from significant violations of law to typographical errors that resulted in unintended interception of U.S. e-mails and telephone calls. The documents, provided earlier this summer to The Washington Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, include a level of detail and analysis that is not routinely shared with Congress or the special court that oversees surveillance. In one of the documents, agency personnel are instructed to remove details and substitute more generic language in reports to the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Moreover, my understanding is that those 2776 times do not represent 2776 individual violations but, rather, 2776 times the NSA violated the privacy rules. Each violation might contain thousands of unique infractions.

(And, not for nothing, because I always thought the real story was the information revealed, and not the nomenclature used to describe Edward Snowden, International Man Of Luggage, except for when NBC News blithely called him a "spy," but this story really ought to end the debate over whether or not Snowden is a "whistleblower" or not. He shared with The Washington Post -- and therefore, with the country that pays the bills for it all -- information proving that the government agency for which he worked regularly violated its own regulations, and that it at best actively deceived the responsible oversight authorities in both the Department Of Justice and in the intelligence community. If you don't think that's whistleblowing, well, you're James Clapper and you should lawyer up.)

(But Snowden really shouldn't sell out his father here. Bad form.)

And, of course, on this issue, the administration continues to be utterly hopeless.

The Obama administration has provided almost no public information about the NSA's compliance record. In June, after promising to explain the NSA's record in "as transparent a way as we possibly can," Deputy Attorney General James Cole described extensive safeguards and oversight that keep the agency in check. "Every now and then, there may be a mistake," Cole said in congressional testimony.

Ya think?

A notable example in 2008 was the interception of a "large number" of calls placed from Washington when a programming error confused the U.S. area code 202 for 20, the international dialing code for Egypt, according to a "quality assurance" review that was not distributed to the NSA's oversight staff. In another case, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has authority over some NSA operations, did not learn about a new collection method until it had been in operation for many months. The court ruled it unconstitutional.

Not that the FISA Courtis in any way relevant, either.

"The FISC is forced to rely upon the accuracy of the information that is provided to the Court," its chief, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, said in a written statement to The Washington Post. "The FISC does not have the capacity to investigate issues of noncompliance, and in that respect the FISC is in the same position as any other court when it comes to enforcing [government] compliance with its orders."

(An aside: Reggie Walton, scourge of Scooter Libby, is the presiding judge of the FISA Court? If I had any hope that someone could rein in the spooks, this would make me insufferably happy. However, if Reggie Walton is saying that the FISA Court's oversight capabilities are that limited, then my previous position of having no hope at all seems more like the proper one.)

But, of course, they are all honorable men.

In a statement in response to questions for this article, the NSA said it attempts to identify problems "at the earliest possible moment, implement mitigation measures wherever possible, and drive the numbers down." The government was made aware of The Post's intention to publish the documents that accompany this article online. "We're a human-run agency operating in a complex environment with a number of different regulatory regimes, so at times we find ourselves on the wrong side of the line," a senior NSA official said in an interview, speaking with White House permission on the condition of anonymity.

I like the fact that the White House insisted that this mendacious banality be granted the veil of anonymity. Don't want Our Enemies to kow how boring our bureaucrats really are. Anyway, whoever you are, the "line" that you find yourself over is your line. You agreed to it when you accepted the expanded powers that Congress granted you. Most of these things don't happen by accident. Most of them don't happen through confusion among the cubicles. (If they do, hire sharper people and train them better.) They happen because, if you grant a government a secret power, it will inevitably abuse it. If you show people a short cut, they'll take it. If you incentivize behavior -- and don't tell me that there wasn't a lot of careerism involved in breaking these rules -- then you will increase that behavior.

The May 2012 audit, intended for the agency's top leaders...

(Of course. Can't have the peasants knowing that they're being spied upon. We spy on our citizens in secret and make sure they don't know it. That's how we differ from East Germany because...freedom!)

...counts only incidents at the NSA's Fort Meade headquarters and other ­facilities in the Washington area. Three government officials, speak­ing on the condition of anonymity to discuss classified matters, said the number would be substantially higher if it included other NSA operating units and regional collection centers.

(I like the idea of an NSA "Regional Collection Center." Sounds like the friendly, green recycling section of your town landfill.)

But, don't worry, because Congress is on the case.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who did not receive a copy of the 2012 audit until The Post asked her staff about it, said in a statement late Thursday that the committee "can and should do more to independently verify that NSA's operations are appropriate, and its reports of compliance incidents are accurate."

Of course, one of the problems with the committee is that Dianne Feinstein is on it. The committee also should flap its arms and fly to the moon.

Members of Congress may read the unredacted documents, but only in a special secure room, and they are not allowed to take notes. Fewer than 10 percent of lawmakers employ a staff member who has the security clearance to read the reports and provide advice about their meaning and significance. The limited portions of the reports that can be read by the public acknowledge "a small number of compliance incidents." Under NSA auditing guidelines, the incident count does not usually disclose the number of Americans affected.

It's well past time for another Church Committee -- or, if you will, another Pecora Commission -- dedicated to a full exposition of the surveillance state and its place in our lives and in our democracy. No half-truths. No hedging. No James Clappers, slow-dancing with perjury and obstruction of Congress. Put people under oath and compel their testimony as to what is being done in our name, especially what is being done to us in our name. If we're going to have a "national conversation," then let's have a by-god national conversation, and let it be held in the place where we are supposed to have our national conversations on issues like this -- in the Congress, among our elected representative, out in the open and in the light of day. Let us at least have all the information so we can decide for ourselves how to keep ourselves safe. We are not fragile children. We're the world's oldest democracy. We should damned well begin to raise hell and act like it.

Absent that, here's what now should be taken as an operating procedure in any discussion of the NSA and/or the surveillance state. First, everything they say is a lie, or, at best, a quarter-truth. Second, any argument based on the fundamental premise of "Trust us," should cause the person making the argument to be laughed out of government service forever. Third, any defense based on the alleged safeguards of either the FISA Court, or the responsible committees of the Congress is prima facie worthless, whether it comes from your favorite pundit, your favorite congresscritter, or, especially, your favorite President of the United States. Fourth, Edward Snowden, International Man Of Luggage and flawed human being, has blown himself a helluva whistle here.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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