Unfortunately, there are far too many examples of those very people abusing these tools. They shot the "sense of honor and duty" argument point blank just for allowing these things to exist in the first place.

If what you say is true, there would have been more than one honorable person to step up and say "hey, wait a minute." In the case of XKEYSCORE, there was precisely one, and he's basically been marooned in Russia for over a decade (and funny enough, XKEYSCORE still exists and is likely still utilized in the exact same way [1]).

Never underestimate the effect the threat of character destruction—and by extension, loss of income—will have on even the most honorable person's psyche. In situations involving matters like these, it's always far more likely that the "pressure" will be ratcheted up until the compliance (read: keep your mouth shut) rate is 100%.

[1] https://documents.pclob.gov/prod/Documents/OversightReport/e...