When GOVERNMENTS BECOME large, voters cannot exercise close OVERSIGHT, otherwise known as political POWER.

NSA is a very CONSERVATIVE culture legally. Our LAWYERS at NSA were notorious for their CONSERVATISM up through the MORNING of September 11th, 2001. The single most consistent criticism of the NSA legal office by our congressional oversight COMMITTEE was that our legal office was too conservative.

Preventing STAFF from having too much influence and decision-making power is fairly EASY. APPROPRIATE procedural safeguards can be installed to prevent staff from, among other THINGS, self-dealing, making decisions in an isolated manner, or committing funds without OVERSIGHT.

The lesson is the IMPORTANCE of never becoming untethered to OVERSIGHT and ACCOUNTABILITY.