Lawmakers ‘Disturbed and Angered’ After Classified Briefing Reveals Extent of Snowden Defense Leaks

PJ Tatler ^ | February 5, 2014 - 1:45 pm | Bridget Johnson

[Olog-hai]

Leading members of the House Armed Services Committee emerged from a classified briefing on the Edward Snowden leaks this afternoon “shocked” at the amount of information he reportedly leaked beyond the NSA surveillance programs.

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the Armed Service panel’s Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee and also a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the briefing on the defense consequences of Snowden’s leaks was “very highly classified,” and therefore details couldn’t be discussed. …

[The Working Man]

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the Armed Service panel’s Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee and also a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the briefing on the defense consequences of Snowden’s leaks was “very highly classified,” and therefore details couldn’t be discussed.

---

I always find this amusing, our enemies know what was leaked, our government knows what was leaked but we the citizens don’t have the right to know what was leaked even though our enemies already know what it was.

It’s like that movie scene— You can’t handle the truth!!!

[FredZarguna]

Clearly a diversion so people won't question our spy agencies complete incompetence.

What is shocking is the poor trade-craft revealed in giving a person of such low technical capacity access to this level of information. There are programmers working on top secret projects who can barely function because their work is so compartmentalized that they can only code exactly to spec, but this jackass -- who was some kind of network technician -- had access to secrets across the spectrum.

It's all either a complete lie, or an indication of genuinely staggering stupidity by our spymasters.

[OneWingedShark]

Media Blacks Out New Snowden Interview The Government Doesn’t Want You to See -- 30 Minute Interview.

Compare and contrast the text of this article with Snowden in his own words, keeping in mind the integrity of the government*, and I think you may find yourself thinking of him as a hero rather than as a villain.

IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE FAR FUTURE THERE IS ONLY GOVERNMENT. [Direct Link]
The Tao of Republican Orthodoxy [Direct Link]	The Modern Democratic Party & You [Direct Link]

* — In light of the IRS-targeting, the Fast and Furious and Benghazi investigations, and the passion that our leadership presents with respect to abuses of government authority.

[palmer]

genuinely staggering stupidity by our spymasters.

Have you used SharePoint? It is software of staggering stupidity from design to delivery. Because the NSA decided to use it, they were forced to hire 1000's of Snowdens to run it. Microsoft and NSA dug that hole together. Snowden had access to about a million documents in that server and there is evidence that he took them all.

[stockpirate]

Ii hope Snowden wins the Noble Prize my guess is the senators are upset because he revealed how badly they are putting the screws to us.

[Fledermaus]

Agree. How does a low level contract employee get this much access?

[cripplecreek]

Its what happens when government has to make work for cony contractors.

[dforest]

LOL, you have just nailed it! Your comment should be published.

[tanknetter]

See post #5. I’m familiar with SharePoint, and agree with what that post says. I’m absolutely floored to learn it was used in a highly compartmentalized classified environment.

[dforest]

Obviously, Snowdon had better capabilities than he is being attributed with. I think maybe the low capabilities lie on the side of our government since such a low IQ hire could be capable of doing so much damage.

Seems to me, we the people, need to be hounding the low IQ of our leaders rather than low IQ hires. Or are they all such whores that our secrets are easily for sale? Gawd, they all make me ill.

[SeeSharp]

...who was some kind of network technician

When I would really get annoyed at the network admins I used to call them tape hangers. I'm old enough to remember when that was an actual job and the people who did it were about as smart as the average network administrator.

[driftdiver]

A lot of this message and what classified is meant to keep Americans from knowing.

[freedomfiter2]

It just shows who our government’s real enemies are.

[drypowder]

Gee, do you think they’re mad because they’ve been caught and are now some political broker’s bitch??

[no-to-illegals]

hand over mouth ... (snicker).

[Revolting cat!]

Brbra Streisand! If it's already out, why don't they tell us what it is?! Why don't they tell us the nature of the secrets at least. Me thinks that prosecution is trying to build up its case.

[FredZarguna]

Agreed, Sharepoint is stupid. However, you can't really blame the vendor for the uses to which the customer puts software.

NSA technical managers should have realized that suitability to task was an issue very early in their evaluation process -- in fact, as part of due diligence during procurement.

The fact that their design would have required 1000's of Snowden's, let alone that 1000's of Snowden's would have had this breadth and depth of access should have been clear long before implementation.

If they didn't understand that during implementation, their security people should have during life cycle. If their security people did not, then counterintelligence people should have.

If I worked for the FSB or the Chinese MSS the first question I would be asking myself is: "How much of what Snowden has is real, and how much of it is horsesh!t I am being deliberately fed?" American Intel cannot possibly have failed on this many levels."

And, given that we know that NSA lies to Congress -- even to the Intelligence Committees -- I would be asking myself that same question as a Senator or Congressman.

[MHGinTN]

Maxipad Waters knew her president had records, lots of records, with lots of dirt. She couldn’t keep her mouth shut, which is typical of racists.

[sergeantdave]

” my guess is the senators are upset because he revealed how badly they are putting the screws to us.”

Pretty much, that is so. The neo-con troskyites are pissed that Snowden exposed the depth of their treason, as represented by McCain, Graham and Kerry. Then we have a bunch of Soros Nazi trolls here on FR who don’t want it known that they work for Hillary and the commie US State Department.