63 Federal law. He later told a Libertarian gathering, at which Ron Paul also spoke, “Law is a lot like medicine. When you have too much it can be fatal." Paul also ardently opposed any form of gun control. Not only did Snowden support this position in his Internet postings, but so did his girlfriend Lindsay Mills in her own on-line postings. Most relevant to his future activities at the NSA, Snowden whole-heartedly agreed with the position of Paul on the dangers inherent in government’s surveillance of US citizens. Paul described the CIA, the organization which had forced Snowden out, as nothing short of a “secret government” and that "In a true Republic, there is no place for an organization like the CIA." He also railed against NSA surveillance. As is clear from Snowden’s Internet postings, he, like Ron Paul, expressed doubts about the competency of the intelligence agencies of the U.S. government. Snowden’s own disillusionment about the government may have begun with his rejection, and perceived mistreatment, by the Special Forces of the US Army. It was almost certainly reinforced by his ouster from the CIA. He later told the Guardian that he was disillusioned as early as 2007 when he learned about the CIA’s methods in compromising Swiss citizens. He also told the New York Times after he arrived in Moscow that he came to realize while working in the CIA that any attempt redress these wrongs against him by working through the system would only lead to further punishment for him. His critical view of the US government only hardened during the years he worked at the NSA. He described his NSA superiors as “grossly incompetent,” as he later explained to a journalist from Wired magazine in Moscow. At the NSA, he said employees were kept in line by “fear and a false image of patriotism.” He said that he saw his fellow workers cowed into “obedience to authority” and his superiors induced to break the law. He became particularly concerned with what he called the “secr