How these agencies have manage to thrive for so long, and continue to do so, remains utterly baffling to me. In the US, the FBI, the NSA and the CIA (and I'm su

How these agencies have manage to thrive for so long, and continue to do so, remains utterly baffling to me. In the US, the FBI, the NSA and the CIA (and I'm sure others) have been caught red-handed on so many occasions and ... nothing happened, and it seems nothing ever will. They'll get a slap on the wrist, sometimes, and maybe some new legislation will be devised, only to be bent again. Of course, it's far from being limited to the US, this happens the world over. Then you get stories like this one from Adam Curtis about MI5 in the UK [1], which show that these events are not simply pervasive, they're essentially the raison d'être of these agencies and their leaders. The very fact these people think they are not accountable to the public and/or their eleted representatives should tell us right off the bat where their interests actually lie. Those who seek and abuse power will do so regardless; it seems the least we could do as relatively civilized socities would be to not sponsor those people in the first place. By any morally acceptable standards, these people are criminals and their only legitimacy stems from the government backing they get. [1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/entries/3662a707-0af9-3149-963f-47bea720b460 http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/entries/3662a707-0af9-...