The current flap about the "release" of information regarding NSA and other government snooping into the lives of almost everyone in the U. S. (and a large part of the world) is really amusing for several reasons. First, as regards the Constitution and second, as regards the purpose of government secrecy in general.
After the recent absurd flap over the Second Amendment (clearly, the most important and most beloved freedom God ever created), the lack of concern over Amendment #4 is, if not disturbing, at least laughable.
For those not familiar with this document, the text is quite clear.
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The key phrase, in this case is "probable cause." Just because a "star chamber" court issues a writ saying it's okay for some government employee to check up on everybody does not mean that the government employee (i. e., the employee of "We the People,") can do so just for the hell of it, and without public scrutiny, as in a "normal" court. What, then, constitutes "probable cause" cannot be evaluated or challanged, as in "normal" court procedures. Star Chambers are in the province of kings, emporers and dictators, not democratic republics.
This brings us to the second point, the question of secrecy itself. Who is to be prevented from knowing? If we examine the long history of "outed" secrets, the real purpose of such secrecy is to keep the American public from knowing. The Pentagon Papers scandal was not, in the end, the release of the papers, but the documentation of the outright lies told by the military to the American people and the Congress. All the Watergate "leaks" were secrets about outright criminal activity by the President and his henchmen.
The real "security" involved in so many secrets is the job security of elected officials and government employees at the top of the power food-chain. The people being kept in the dark are the American people. Our enemies work hard to learn the facts about real secrets, and often succeed in learning them. They can even be irrelevent to actual events.
Amercian code-breakers were reading Japanese codes even before WW II. The British were reading German codes. The Soviet Union had direct access to the "secretist" of secret navy codes for years and years because they had some well placed spies. In the first two cases, the situation was actual war, and the outcome could be effected - perhaps because the time scale is relatively short. In the latter case, the long-term effects of Soviet intelligence success had no effect whatever on the outcome of the 40 year "cold war." The Soviets lost.
Our enemies are not stupid, nor are they naive. They are not the "bad guys" of "24," nor the villains of Hollywood movies. They are, at the top, intelligent, sophisticated people, with access the high level technical skill. If they do not, for sure, know what the NSA is capable of, they, certainly, suspect, and would act accordingly. In a recent interview by Andrea Mitchell on CNN, James Clapper, Head of National Security, cited two (count 'em, two) plots foiled through the use of information gleaned through similar spying programs, both from 2009. That's four years ago. In four years the technology has improved and expanded exponentially, the data gathered more detailed and the quantity of stored data mindboggling, yet he could not - or would not- cite more recent successes. Our enemies are not stupid. It is worth repeating.
I am certain the second time a jihadist was blown up by a missle while on a cell phone, Al Quaida figured out that their people were being tracked by cell phones. I am also certain that, after the two plots cited by Clapper were discovered, the top folks asked their techi experts what the U. S. might be capable of, guessed that tracking phone calls was possible and took pains to counter that.
The only people who did not know were the innocent shlubs in the U. S., the details of whose lives were being collected as fodder for power.