J.R.McHale

[**Amateur Hour in Intelligence Gathering**](http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2013/10/25/amateur-hour-in-intelligence-gathering/)

“The NSA spied on other people too much, and it bungled the protection of its own secrets. Imprudence matched with incompetence doesn’t lead to anything good. We need a thorough airing out of this mess, with personnel changes where appropriate, so that the NSA can stop doing things it ought not to be doing and instead spend its energy making sure that it does a good job on what we really need it to do . . . . It’s time to call in some grown ups to clean up the mess: we would suggest a series of congressional hearings combined with a blue ribbon, bipartisan commission to review what’s happened, to consult with our key allies, and to make recommendations. We need to do this not because intelligence gathering is bad and NSA surveillance is unnecessary. We need to do it because intelligence gathering and surveillance are so important, but so dangerous, that they must be done right.”

—   **Walter Russell Mead** at [**ViaMedia**](http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2013/10/25/amateur-hour-in-intelligence-gathering/)