There are numerous questions about NSA surveillance: How much is going on, what information does it actually collect, are government officials telling us the truth, has it helped us capture or kill terrorists, and is the erosion of privacy worth the candle?
The Federalist Society had a superb panel on these questions at its National Student Convention in Florida last month. Two of the speakers really went at it, Prof. Randy Barnett of Georgetown and Stewart Baker, a former Bush Administration official. A recording of the panel is here, and is very much worth your time if you're interested in this issue. Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey also had some telling remarks.
My own views are, to be honest, insufficiently informed for me to say anything and be confident I'm right. On the one hand, the present Administration has shown itself to be less than either competent or honest in dealing with this powerful tool. On the other, we have seen what terrorists can do, and the need to prevent their success is prepossessing.
For however that may be, I ran across a take on the subject that's just too rich to pass up.
One of the real problems with NSA surveillance is the abuse that will inevitably follow. We've already seen that NSA spooks have committed abuses like spying on romantic interests. In situations like that, I would assert that the people who are abused like that have an absolute right to know what happened, who listened etc.