Jeb Bush ‘nervous’ about NSA attacks

Former-Gov Jeb Bush (R-FL) said that he’s “nervous” about excess criticism of the nation’s intelligence agencies. Shortly after news broke that two people had tried to ram the gates of the National Security Agency’s headquarters in suburban Maryland, Bush rose to the defense of the agency and its mission. “I’ve always been nervous about the attacks on the NSA, and somehow that we’re losing our freedoms by keeping the homeland safe,” Bush said. “I think we need to be really vigilant about that.”

Bush has been a staunch defender of the NSA, which grew in stature during the George W. Bush Administration in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "The president has to lead, has to explain to people that he’s actually enhanced the intelligence capabilities in many ways, because the technology has gotten better,” Bush said. “But he never defends it; he never explains it. He never tries to persuade people that their civil liberties are being protected by the systems we have in place,” he added. “If people knew that, I don’t think there would be any doubt that they’d want to have the ability to identify people from the outside that may be trying to coordinate with people on the inside.”