Yesterday's other hearing...

While Fox so-called News kept the focus on yesterday's congressional hearing on Healthcare.gov, there was another round of question-and-answer that is a much bigger cause for concern. NSA director, General Keith Alexander, and James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence were called before the House Intelligence Committee to answer questions about government spying. Both men defended the National Security Agency's practice of spying on world leaders, and denied claims of gathering intelligence on Europeans.

General Alexander said that information collected on French and Spanish citizens was not “information we collected,” it was handed over by intelligence services in those countries. Mr. Clapper argued that spying on world leaders – even our allies – was “a fundamental given,” because those countries spied on our nation too. And, both men said that intelligence collected was “invaluable” because it provides American leaders with an idea of how those countries will act towards the United States.

Essentially, their entire defense amounted to “the ends justify the means.” The only apology was from Mr. Clapper, who said, “to be sure, on occasion we made mistakes.” We must put an end to our government spying within the United States without a warrant, and our national security agencies should be more transparent with out allies about U.S. surveillance in their countries.

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