Conor Friedersdorf Peeks at My Ideology

Over at the Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf takes a peek at my ideology in response to my critique of the Washington Post's recent story on NSA collection of email contact lists overseas. I'm glad he did. Without this story, I might not know what I believe:

Wittes isn't just saying that the benefits of revealing this information are outweighed by the security risks. His claim seems to be that there is zero public benefit. He treats that conclusion as if it's so obvious that the Washington Post reporters may themselves agree that there is no benefit. He speculates that the newspaper published the article out of a desire to reveal secrets as an end in itself. His claims are worth highlighting because they tell us a lot about the mindset of NSA defenders within the national security establishment.