Geof Stone on the NSA

"Geof Stone is a prominent civil liberties expert and advocate who is a member of the National Advisory Council of the American Civil Liberties Union [and a Professor at the University of Chicago Law School]. . . . After [Edward] Snowden's revelations and subsequent deep concern over government surveillance, President Obama appointed Stone a member of a special review group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies. The group was given essentially unfettered high-security access to our national security apparatus and ultimately made 46 recommendations on oversight of the National Security Agency, including how it collected telephone data on Americans and spies on international leaders." Given this access and background, his perspective on the NSA (and Snowden) might be of interest. As one can see in this interview, he came away with a generally positive view:

The more I worked with the NSA, the more respect I had for them as far as staying within the bounds of what they were authorized to do. And they were careful and had a high degree of integrity. My superficial assumption of the NSA being a bad guy was completely wrong.