Source: Huffington Post
In an interview with HuffPost Live, Carnegie's Rachel Kleinfeld argued that the revelations about U.S. surveillance programs give countries like China and Russia an opportunity to accuse the United States of double standards and are likely to undermine U.S. objections to Russia's and China's attempts to impose greater national control over the Internet.
Kleinfeld suggested that the leaks also highlight the problem of overclassification of U.S. government documents, which has resulted in an ever-increasing number of U.S. citizens with top level security clearance. She further argued that from a national security standpoint, excessive government secrecy can ultimately undermine the government's objectives by creating a citizen backlash. According to Kleinfeld, an adequate balance needs to be struck between security needs and governmental transparency.