NSA OFFICIAL: It’s just safer and politically expedient for everyone to remain blissfully ignorant

Inside the NSA: Peeling back the curtain on America's intelligence agency

It boasts the largest car park  in the world. The operations  centre is guarded by a retinal scanner. But once inside,  you've got a license to snoop  on anyone, anywhere

In the full light of day

There is still so much we do not know about what NSA does and how it does it, which is what scares people the people the most.

Since President Obama came into office four and a half years ago, a few brave and foolhardy officials have suggested that perhaps it might be useful to restore somewhat a semblance of openness and transparency about NSA's work in order to dispel public concerns that have lingered since the New York Times first disclosed in December 2005 that the agency had spied on Americans without court warrants beginning shortly after 9/11. But these suggestions were perfunctorily shot down in short order by White House officials, who frankly have become accustomed to operating behind a veil of secrecy rather than in the full light of day of public scrutiny.

A now retired NSA official told me last year: "I hope you do not expect to learn anything about our ops any time soon. The reason this stuff is so secret is that it would scare the pants off a lot of people... It's just safer and politically expedient for everyone to remain blissfully ignorant."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/inside-the-nsa-peeling-back-the-curtain-on-americas-intelligence-agency-8658016.html