“When the president first came on board, we had a huge set of mistakes that we were working through in 2009,” he told the audience. “He said essentially, ‘I can

“When the president first came on board, we had a huge set of mistakes that we were working through in 2009,” he told the audience. “He said essentially, ‘I can see the value of these, but how do we ensure that we get these within compliance and that everything is exactly right?’ ” That suggested that Mr. Obama had questioned the execution of a program he had inherited from President George W. Bush, but satisfied himself by having the N.S.A. set up what the general called a “directorate of compliance,” an internal watchdog group. So back in 2009 they were breaking the law in a myriad ways. Now, they're breaking the law in fewer ways. In the meantime, two things happened: 1) They set up an "internal watchdog" (the effectiveness of that is secret and disputable) 2) They came up with secret laws to make the stuff they were doing anyway legal. Which of those two do you think had the biggest effect on reducing the amount of illegal stuff they were doing? I continue to think that government departments that commit crimes should be eliminated by either the judiciary or the legislative branch, illico. There can be no excuse for widespread criminality in government.