"This is not some conspiracy theory. It's happening, and no one seems to care." Maybe people are afraid. If you accuse the NSA of committing crimes that are on

"This is not some conspiracy theory. It's happening, and no one seems to care." Maybe people are afraid. If you accuse the NSA of committing crimes that are only slightly unethical (wiretapping US citizens), then you're instantly on "the list" of arguably the most powerful organization in the world. Not only would the story just end up being, "oh well, greater good", but the NSA would just slightly back off of the monitoring, then make sure that future leaks such as this do not happen again. They are not an evil nor dark organization, just one with a very important mission, and when you have the real big picture on the table sometimes the unethical option is required to maintain dominance and security. Imagine having the responsibility of protecting a country that is the #1 target in the world, that has 300+ million people within its borders that have the potential to cause major harm to the country, its citizens, and its allies. The NSA doesn't have a choice but to do everything in its power to maintain information dominance over the world. The NSAs mission statement requires it to protect the US and provide foreign sigint. They're technically not allowed to spy on US citizens but what if it was absolutely required to protect the country? How many people are really qualified to make that decision?