Put the Spies Back Into Spying

June 7 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. National Security Agency’smission is to gather information about foreign terrorists andforeign powers, not to carry out wholesale domesticsurveillance. Apparently, however, its technical capabilitieshave outrun all existing legal constraints. It is routinelyvacuuming up data about the communications of all Americans andcopying information flowing from servers run by giant Americanonline companies.

The NSA, now constructing a massive $2 billion data-storagefacility just outside Salt Lake City that will presumably becapable of chewing through everything each of us says, needs tobe newly reined in. After all, the most valuable intelligence isinformation from people everywhere, and we have access to thatgold mine only if the U.S. remains a beacon to the world.