Do we need the NSA?

[Rev. Rye]

I'm in the "we need it" camp. I denounce in the strongest terms the illegal monitoring of US citizens, but cryptography (code-making and breaking) is one of the most important functions of a military apparatus, and the NSA is the best in the world at it.  Now, it can be argued that this could be consolidated into another branch (CIA, or Army maybe) but I think that's a different question.

Plus, the NSA is the world's largest employer of mathematicians. As a mathematics major, that's important to me .

Really, if we keep the NSA for all the cryptography and the warranted spying, I think it might be best to change its name, because all the Big Brother shit has certainly tainted its name beyond repair. At this point, I doubt we'll ever see the day when "National Security Agency" doesn't become synonymous "Orwellian abomination that has no business whatsoever which the government of a country prides itself on being the leader of the free world."