Geoffrey Stone (Obama's law mentor) becomes an apologist for Henry KISSINGER in order to try and defend Obama's position

Geoffrey Stone hired Obama to teach Constitutional Law.
You can certainly see where some of Obama's ideas about what is lawful or Constitutional come from.

The relevant clip is from about 17:00 in

Absolutely NONE of Geoffrey Stone's apologist arguments hold water.

Chris Hedges is absolutely RIGHT.
This is about a government run by criminals commiting illegal acts that they want to keep secret.
It is also about retaining a free press and an ability to investigate the inner workings of government, without which there is no reason to suppose the government won't commit any abuse that they like.
Without which democracy cannot survive.

As Chris Hedges says, the government has already done plenty of illegal things - illegal pre-emptive war, kill lists without due process, unlimited warrantless surveillance of Americans with effectively no Congressional oversight etc.