Is 'free as in libre' hardware really any protection if the NSA intercepted your device at the border and planted undetectable MITM malware/hardware? Are you really gonna take the whole thing apart and check every chip for modifications?
The "free as in libre" part would make it much more difficult to create an undetectable MITM. You might have a much greater diversity of hardware, so they'd have to find and maintain more exploits. The full software/firmware stack would be verifiable by cryptographic signature. The hardware itself could be checked by looking for chips that don't match other units from the same lot, either visually or behaviorally, and even x-raying the components if necessary.
No. And Stallman (unfortunately) doesn't seem to focus too much on the security aspect of it. His focus is mostly on the freedom, as in ability to copy/modify/do-as-you-please aspect of it.
