Merely making a tool that is used in an atrocity is traditionally not enough to condemn a toolmaker.
Consider the extraordinarily extreme case of Bruno Tesch. He was hung because he provided his pesticide for the express purpose of killing humans, knowing that this is what it was for. This was evidenced by the sale of the pesticide without the standard warning odorant, and witness testimony. Conversely, I am unaware of anybody that was hung for manufacturing train cars.
An NSA employee may claim ignorance, and assert that they were told the systems they helped develop were only to be used for legal and ethical purposes. If this is work that they did before various NSA revelations became public, they might even be believed and therefore excused.
Consider the extraordinarily extreme case of Bruno Tesch. He was hung because he provided his pesticide for the express purpose of killing humans, knowing that this is what it was for. This was evidenced by the sale of the pesticide without the standard warning odorant, and witness testimony. Conversely, I am unaware of anybody that was hung for manufacturing train cars.
An NSA employee may claim ignorance, and assert that they were told the systems they helped develop were only to be used for legal and ethical purposes. If this is work that they did before various NSA revelations became public, they might even be believed and therefore excused.