A panel discussion on CNN over the constitutionality and the necessity of the National Security Agency’s program of monitoring and logging Americans’ communications records exploded when the guests disagreed over whether this program represented on overreach of federal authority. The panel guests, a liberal columnist and a Democratic strategist, blew up over the necessity of that program and whether it violated American constitutional rights.



Salon columnist David Sirota and CNN political analyst and pollster Cornell Belcher squared off on Friday over the revelations surrounding the NSA’s information warehousing programs. While Sirota found the program to represent a significant overreach, Belcher said that this is a necessary element of a security regime required to prevent terrorist attacks.

“I wish we lived in a world where, you know, I could have it my way all the time and we as adults didn’t have to compromise certain things,” Belcher said. “What the government is doing is no different, quite frankly, then as a pollster what I do.”

He added that the NSA’s program is similar to what private companies like banks do when they monitor accounts for suspicious activity.

“That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” Sirota shot back.

“Is your bank watching your credit cards right now? Are tech companies watching what you’re doing right now?” Belcher asked.

“The Constitution constrains the power of the government,” Sirota argued. “That is different form an individual consumer’s relationship with a company that they’ve decided to get involved with.”

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Belcher said that there is nothing unconstitutional about this program because it is approved of in FISA courts. “This will go to the Supreme Court, in my opinion,” Sirota said. “I encourage you and everybody watching to read the Fourth Amendment and see if you think a mass surveillance system fits underneath that paradigm.”

The panel concluded by agreeing that there was not enough information on the successes of the NSA program to decide whether the program has been effective.

“Do you think people have not tried to kill us over the last four or five years?” Belcher asked. “I rest my case.”

“Where is your evidence that the surveillance made us safer?” Sirota pressed. “You have none, and that’s frankly what’s incriminating about the argument on the other side.”

Watch the segment below via CNN:

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