Posted on 06/10/2013 7:25:14 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
You've probably heard by now that the man responsible for the NSA leaks of surveillance programs is a 29-year old high school dropout who was a contract worker for the NSA, Edward Snowden.
Snowden is being lionized by both left and right -- at least, those who are reacting emotionally to his revelations. They are, indeed, serious and dangerous. The potential to make the US a police state is great, as is a loss of any sense of privacy for the individual.
The potential is also there to head off terrorist attacks. And revealing these surveillance programs almost certainly gives terrorists who are paying attention a means to avoid detection.
But Snowden insists he did nothing wrong:
The man behind the largest leak of classified information in the history of the US National Security Agency (NSA) has chosen to make his identity public, despite the potential consequences for himself and his loved ones.
Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old employee of defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton and former CIA technical assistant, said he had never intended to remain anonymous. "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," he said.
The revelation of Snowden's identity came after the US Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, said on Sunday that he had asked the Justice Department to launch a criminal investigation into the leaks, telling NBC News, "It is literally gut-wrenching to see this happening, because of the huge grave damage it does to our intelligence capabilities... this is a key tool for preserving protecting the nation's safety and security."
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
And using a credit card! Hell, Barney Fife could track him down.
:-)
Indeed. Many of the people I worked with at cisco never completed their undergrad degrees. One of the surest signs I now see in the tech industry is a hard requirement by HR on degrees. I got into arguments with HR drones about the requirement for degrees in various positions. The HR drones want them, as far as I’m concerned, they’re utterly optional.
The hard truth is that most of what any four-year school teaches you is irrelevant to success in the computing industry.
Matter of fact, I’ll go so far as to say that the vast majority of what anyone would be taught in any four-year school is *utterly* irrelevant to success in the computing industry. The only exceptions I’d make would be for EE’s working on bleeding-edge hardware.
But software work needing a computer science degree? Pfah. I’ve met a dozen or more really bright people who are college drop-outs or “never-went’s” who taught themselves everything a BS in CS would have - and much more. Most of what I did on most days was a CS-background job, and I taught myself most everything a CS major would learn - and more - in my first six months out of school when I pivoted my career path to meet reality in the future.
Gates is just one of those people, most notable because of his huge success with MSFT.
In the future, degrees will be worse than useless. The end of the college/university system is upon us, and not a moment too soon. Hopefully, academia is destroyed and broke before our country is.
I could understand if Holder had CIA or NSA hire the NBPP thug that was outside the PA polling place last election. And of course illegals with no papers will be hired for sensitive government jobs by this administration - that's a given with the most corrupt, least transparent President in US history.
Of course there is something off about this. About a 50% chance it is a false flag, nut, or just a PR stunt by someone.
But it is interesting the amount of reaction he is getting.
Some of the most talented IT people I’ve worked with had no college degree at all. They were college dropouts. In truth because they couldn’t handle sitting in classes all day. They wanted to do computers. All day. Every day. English lit? Not so much with that.
If you’re not hiring them for English lit do you really care if they know who Jane Austen or Thackeray were?
Heck, by the time the students get their degree their knowledge is obsolete.
Hero, as long as his releases go as have these early ones, that is, addressed to the American public and their good. If he releases info more advantageous to our enemies than for America’s good, I could change my opinion.
As far as Clapper goes (or can be thrown), he is a proven liar before Congress regarding these matters. He deserves to be behind bars or worse, even now. He has lost all presumption of honesty.
The corruption and trends toward police state seem to have driven Snowden thus far. Having watched a lengthy video, I believe he comes across as completely knowledgeable whereof he speaks. His integrity is convincing to me and his story jibes entirely with what I know to be facts.
Hayden is not to be believed that the NSA can be trusted. Snowden has shown sufficient proof to the contrary, and I’m sure that’s just the tiniest tip of the iceberg of problems.
Obama now has an incredibly long history of election fraud and manipulation. He and his henchman will not stop unless forced from their past behaviors. Such CANNOT be allowed to continue, as with 138% democrat turn-outs at polls.
This administration has in wholesale fashion cashiered America’s Fourth Amendment. Treason against the OATH! Let the impeachment proceedings and trial begin.
HF
Well he did say he was not going to “hide”....but then identified himself after all.
What did he stand to gain by disclosing who he is? Unless of course he’s certain he’ll be tracked down....which no doubt he figured out along the way. Fact is he did not have to disclose who he is....
He had no intention of being anonymous. I don't believe his motive is altruistic.
Hero.
And people should be careful about believing anything the government says about him. Of course they’re going to call it Chinese espionage. Expect to have kiddie porn conveniently found in his home too.
Then ask yourself: if what he’s saying isn’t all true, why is the full weight of the US government surveillance and propaganda machine being directed at a fraud?
I’m hinky about the whole thing.
An NSA agent just defected to China with details about our electronic surveillance. China is engaged in hacking its way into our networks.
Meanwhile Obama is negotiating with China some kind of agreement having to do with hacking. Probably he will agree to not hack into their networks and they’ll agree not to get caught too often hacking into ours. Meanwhile China has the goods on how we do our surveillance.
We know what the defector has released to the press to justify his defection. We don’t know what he is trading for asylum.
<...”He had no intention of being anonymous. I don’t believe his motive is altruistic”...>
I don’t either, but I do wonder what his basic motive is in making himself known.....did he not consider the affects on his family members enough to remain anonymous?
There’s just too many questions about this guy...regardless of what information he’s given....and further did he really reveal anything that wasn’t already brought to the attention of the public? Not really.
It’s a mistake to call him a hero at this juncture...he’s a whistleblower and I’m not convinced he’s revealed anything significant enough that wasn’t already known.
It’s a mistake to call him a hero at this juncture...he’s a whistleblower and I’m not convinced he’s revealed anything significant enough that wasn’t already known.
As concerns the policy of vacuuming up all this data, we should avoid getting wrapped up in the personality or life story or right or wrong of the leaker - that’s just an interesting personal story but what we now know is much, much bigger than the motives or fate of one individual. In addition to the privacy and Chinese angles, one has to question the competence of our government. Does it really make sense to outsource so much of our intelligence activities? Can secrets known by many thousands of contractors really be kept secret? Are we wasting our money on collecting data that we are unwilling or unable to do anything useful with (a la Boston, where the Russians handed us the terrorists on a platter, at least twice, and our government did next to nothing with the information)?
TSARNAEVs.
PRISM didn’t identify or catch them.
So why do we have this giant vacuum that violates the Fifth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure?
-——I’m not convinced he’s revealed anything significant enough that wasn’t already known.-——
I’m not sure of that either. We don’t know, or at least I don’t know, of any person or organization of a political nature that was spied on. For instance, no evidence of infiltrating the Romney campaign
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