> I don't really understand why not doing it to US citizens makes it ok. I can imagine one would find it permissible to use such techniques against your enemies

> I don't really understand why not doing it to US citizens makes it ok. I can imagine one would find it permissible to use such techniques against your enemies, but this is very clearly also about your allies. Because of conflict of interest. When you're persuading people outside of the US of something you're presumably doing it in (at least nominally) the US' best interest because as a citizen of the US your personal interests are also aligned with those of the nation (at least at the scale these operations work at). Turned internally there's all sorts of messy conflicts like political parties using the tools to gain power, agencies using the tools to gain funding, etc.