in world war ii, codebreakers gave us insight into the japanese warplanes.hey intercepted communications, help save the lives of the troops. after the war, the rise of the iron curtain and nuclear weapons only increased the need for sustained intelligence. in the early days of the cold war, president truman created the national security agency, or nsa, to give us insight into the soviet lock and provider leaders with information they needed to confront and avert catastrophe. we have benefited from both our constitution and our traditions of limited government. u.s. intelligence agencies were anchored in a system of checks and balances with oversights from elected leaders and protections for ordinary citizens. meanwhile, totalitarian states like east germany offered a cautionary tale of what could happen when vast unchecked surveillance turn citizens into informers and persecuted people for what they said in the privacy of their own homes. even the united states proved not to be immune to the abuse of surveillance. in the 1960's, governments spied on civil ri

he called them the world war ii codebreakers of today.the first five minutes of the speech was about how the nsa detects our security -- protects our security. not a lot of people are not going to believe it. a0 and powerful -- a) powerful -- how many movies heavy watchword seems like they are spying on you and keeping track of everywhere you go and willy- nilly oversight and the president says it is only categorically. all of that is nization.asian -- demo i do characterize effectiveness of these programs? over the course of the last few months we have heard about foiling several terrorist operations. the president and here i think was more on shaky ground. he's in multiple facts were supported, but gave us no examples of that. that is understandable. secrecy -- the only specific and lunch into was september 11. -- launched into was september 11. he said if n.s.a. had had the mega-data program, it would have realized that when one of the 19 hijackers called home to yemen, he was in san diego. the problem with opening up that pandora's bo

in world war ii, codebreakers gave us insight into the japanese war plans. they intercepted communications, help save the lives of the troops. after the war, the rise of the iron curtain and nuclear weapons only increased the need for sustained intelligence. in the early days of the cold war, president truman created the national security agency or nsa, to give us insight into the soviet block and provider leaders with information they needed to confront and avert catastrophe. we have benefited from both our constitution and our traditions of limited government. u.s. intelligence agencies were anchored in a system of checks and balances with oversights from elected leaders and protections for ordinary citizens. meanwhile, totalitarian states like east germany offered a cautionary tale of what could happen when vast unchecked surveillance turn citizens into informers and persecuted people for what they said in the privacy of their own homes. even the united states proved not to be immune to the abuse of surveillance. in the 1960's, governments spied on civil

in world war ii, codebreakers give us insight into the japanese war plans.s europe, intercepted communications helped save the lives of his troops. after the war, the rise of the iron curtain and nuclear weapons the need ford sustained intelligence gathering, and so in the early days of the cold war, president truman created the national security agency or nsa to give us insights into the soviet bloc and provide our leaders with information they needed to confront aggression and avert catastrophe. evolution, wes benefited from both our constitution and our traditions of limited government. u.s. intelligence agencies were anchored in a system of checks and balances with oversight from elected leaders and protections for ordinary citizens. meanwhile, totalitarian states like east germany offered a cautionary tale of what can happen when the vast unchecked surveillance turn citizens into informers and persecuted for people -- and persecuted people for what they said in the privacy of their own homes. in fact, even the united states roof not to be immune to the

he called them the world war ii codebreakers of today. the whole first five minutes of the speech was about how the nsa is protecting our security, our liberties. he even went turt than that. it's -- further than that. it's protecting the security and liberties of people around the world. now, an awful lot of people aren't going to believe this. but it, a, is a powerful morale booster at fort meade and, b, a powerful anecdote about the demonization of the nsa and the american intelligence community. how many movies, how many tv shows have you watched in which it looks like the ns, a is spying on everyone with no controls, with willy-nilly oversight. and the president pretty much said firmly and categorically all of that demonization by hollywood, by be television, by parts of the media is just hogwash. secondly, how did he characterize the effectiveness of these nsa programs, especially section 215? over the course of the last several months, we've heard a lot of attempts to defend them in terms of foiling various terrorist operations. th