Also, every time Snowden does one of his interview he seems to be in good health & a good state of mind. How can he afford to be if he's on the run? Compare all that to Julian Assange for instance.

I've been against most of our intelligence agencies for a long time. I think they do more harm than good in general, but what about Chinese espionage? How do we counter that without intelligence? I think intelligence should be under the military only and limited to foreign actors. I wonder now what specific relationship NSA and the military have that the others in thr IA community don't have?

You posed a question and then answered it in the next sentence. Intelligence is required in this age. Intelligence goes all the way back to our Revolutionary War. Militiamen had an unspoken duty to wear an "intelligence" hat; ie.. if they saw something that the red coats were doing, they were motivated to share it with their militia.

Secondly, most of you guys dont understand the difference between statecraft intelligence, and military intelligence.. so when these types of discussions come up, you begin to paint a large brush on everything in the IC.

"I think intelligence should be under the military only and limited to foreign actors."

Yep! When it was known as the OSS, it seemed to do its job. If they're a part of the military, the President is their Commander in Chief ... right now, these orgs are nothing but separate nations of sort that don't have to answer to anyone anymore, but tend to blame the USA when they screw things up.

The role of the FBI is another one of those redundancies that are stupid at best. We have police at the state, county, and local level. Why in the hell do we need a Federal police force? I get that we may need some kind of Federal level of policing for those criminals that are wanted in two or more states ... but isn't that supposed to be the role of the US Marshals? The only thing the FBI should be doing is assisting police in the States and NOT handling cases ... that's another path to corruption in my opinion.

Loads of other departments need some kind of oversight/elimination too. ATF seems to have a mind of its own these days. What is the fucking point of it anymore? It seems like it's nothing more than a military group that's legally allowed to go after USA citizens ... however, since it is sold to the public as a glorified police force, that somehow makes it legal.

I could see one of these pissants corrupt the border into a force that keeps people IN the country (this is a job for the military in my opinion ... border patrol ... they're fine now and obviously doing what they are supposed to do, but it doesn't seem to take all that long for the DS to weaponize a department).

I cannot wait for the day when this country is overhauled and made back into a lean, mean, fighting machine! :-)