Nick Gillespie: 4 Principles for a Libertarian National Security State

How out of control is the surveillance state? So bad that nobody at the National Security Agency (NSA) had any idea of how its controversial phone-call-tracking program even worked. Even the spies, it turns out, don't know what they're up to. Writes Nick Gillespie: 

This is as outrageous as it is dispiriting (and predictable). But a dozen years after the 9/11 attacks ushered in the global war on terror, there's no reason that we should have to live in fear of our government's efforts to keep us safe and warm.

Here are four basic principles that should inform what might be called a libertarian national security state. That is, one that helps to protects us without routinely transgressing constitutional guarantees to privacy, due process, freedom from illegal searches, and the right to be left alone.