Here's my rap to meet two obvious objections:
"It's not realistic." No-one's offering even odds that Ron Wyden will be the next head of the NSA. The point is to open political space by waging preemptive psychological warfare against the idea that someone is disqualified from heading the NSA if they are a civilian who believes that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are good law that apply to the national security state. Just as our campaign for Jeff Sachs to be President of the World Bank opened political space for the idea that the President of the World Bank can be a development expert rather than a banker or a politician, so this campaign will open political space for the idea that the head of the NSA can be a civilian who believes in the rule of law.
"We need more than a new person at the top to reform the NSA." This is beyond dispute. (Also true, obviously, about the World Bank.) It should also be beyond dispute that it's easier for people to grab onto an individual who represents an idea than it is for them to grab onto a technical reform. If you advocate that Elizabeth Warren head the Fed or the SEC, everyone knows what you're talking about: cracking down on corruption in high finance. This is about bringing the national security state into transparent compliance with the rule of law.
-- Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org naiman at justforeignpolicy.org