Posted on 06/13/2013 1:41:35 PM PDT by Kaslin
Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald wrote that Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old former intelligence analyst who leaked information on huge U.S. data mining operations, "will go down in history as one of America's most consequential whistleblowers." House Speaker John Boehner called Snowden "a traitor." Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein railed that he had committed "treason."
My synopsis: Snowden is scary -- because the government and private contractor Booz Allen Hamilton entrusted him with sensitive national secrets.
Snowden is clearly intelligent. It's not your average high-school dropout who lands a six-figure job that serves him up the keys to the intelligence kingdom. He was shrewd and brave to come forward as a leaker rather than remain in the shadows.
But Snowden is not so smart as he thinks. He told Greenwald the reason he leaked: "I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded." Oddly, he said that in Hong Kong.
"When you race to China," observed Richard Grenell, former spokesman to four U.S. ambassadors to the United Nations, "then you just look like a buffoon."
Some differentiate Snowden from Pfc. Bradley Manning, who pleaded guilty to nine espionage charges and is facing more serious charges. Manning dumped hundreds of thousands of unredacted documents that put many others' lives at risk.
"I haven't seen any information that would suggest that the Snowden revelations put any intelligence operatives in danger," said Hoover Institution foreign policy fellow Kori Schake. And: "It didn't require the Snowden revelations for al-Qaida to figure that we were tracking them electronically."
I wonder how many more Snowdens are out there among the nearly 1.5 million Americans with "top secret" credentials who work for the government or private contractors. The intelligence community has given baby-faced technicians access to top-secret documents without making sure they understand the need to be true to this trust.
Manning was in his early 20s when he started giving away America's secrets. Snowden is not old enough to serve in the U.S. Senate -- yet this unelected IT guy thinks he has a right to determine which information should remain classified.
It makes you wonder whether U.S. intelligence has gotten too big, whether the spy community is tasked with culling more information than it can process. Schake sees a weakened "mission focus."
As Grenell sees it, "the federal government just keeps throwing money at problems, and there are very few bureaucracies that have an ongoing evaluation program of how the program works." After being flagged, according to law enforcement, the Tsarnaev brothers planned their Boston Marathon bombings undisturbed; Snowden's supervisors failed to notice that his attitude had taken a dangerous turn. Quoth Grenell, "We have to go back to the drawing board and reprioritize."
Perhaps it is time to put more of the human factor into the intelligence field. As Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., noted at a Senate intelligence hearing Wednesday, just because you're a champion swimmer doesn't mean you should be a Navy SEAL.
I wonder if it occurred to the government that it wouldn’t be a problem if they only wanted the young IT guys to spy on known enemies and not everyday American citizens.
Tells me all I need to know about John Boehner.
“Some differentiate Snowden from Pfc. Bradley Manning, ....”
As I still have more than two functioning neurons; count me amongst those who make that distinction.
There is a huge difference between gathering evidence against certain individuals and then presenting that evidence to a court for a warrant to gather information on them and just gathering in all information about all individuals to be used as some petty, or not so petty, tyrant sees fit.
I was willing to bend a little bit on the secret warrants before this relevation. A small piece of tyranny used for a little while to protect the larger freedoms seemed reasonable. Now, they don’t even feel the need for a warrant to collect information, they probably also track the location of cell phones. It’s just another symptom of a totally out of control government.
Snowden didn’t reveal anything other than the fact that US government had turned it’s apparatus against US citizens. He should be awarded the Medal of Freedom.
Oh God, here’s more blame the lowly IT guy... He was an admin, of course he had access to this stuff. He can’t provide access to these systems if he doesn’t have it himself.
I love how there is all this outrage against IT now, “HE SHOULDN’T OF HAD THIS ACCESS!”. Only a lawyer who is used to screwing people out of their money would be shocked by this.
Panetta gave out classified information to many. He gave info to Movie Producers and the general public. It led to the deaths of several Americans. Where are the charges? Where is the TRAITOR label? Selective prosecution! That is what Snowden is trying to point out.
Panetta gave out classified information to many. He gave info to Movie Producers and the general public. It led to the deaths of several Americans. Where are the charges? Where is the TRAITOR label? Selective prosecution! That is what Snowden is trying to point out.
I regard the “young” in the title of the referenced article as a subtle ad hominem to cast doubt on Snowden. After all, note that Bill Gates was about 20 when he co-founded Microsoft. And Snowden grew up in computer age.
Boehner is an idiot.
Why is it commonly accepted he is or was in China? I would not tell where I was actually going.
They shoulda hired an H-1B for the job...
I personally know a super-intelligent IT guy making six figures that can write his own ticket. He is a college drop-out who got fed up with the liberal clap trap that they spew..
Given this particular conversation, I think you're being kind.
The NSA was given the job of spying on those who would harm us. As I understand it, they were specifically NOT supposed to be routinely spying on AMERICANS, HERE IN AMERICA.
Now it turns out they've been routinely spying on ALL OF US. AMERICAN CITIZENS! HERE!
Not only that, but HIDING it from us.
I don't know why anybody finds this acceptable.
Won’t get anything done then. I’m sure there are many guys there that are cheap. But there’s also gotta be smart ones to actually do stuff.
Our supposed representatives have sanctioned all of this.
EXACTLY.
It's the same response I have to the American Library Ass. (ALA) who got their panties in a wad when the Bush administration was potentially asking for details on who'd accessed some research materials. If you don't keep records once a book has been returned, then there is nothing to later try to suppress/reveal.
Same with those who took issue in Fornigate when Monica Lewinski's book purchases were reviewed (to sync up with something said I think in a phone call or email). IF the bookstores weren't busy keeping tabs on their customers, then there wouldn't be such data.
Now the grocery stores keep tabs on your purchases (they'll still do it even if you avoid the discount cards, I've seen some swipe a driver's license to "verify" a check, and they'll keep tabs if you use a debit or credit card).
This puts the finger on the problem I have with this guy.
I hear all this highfalutin' talk about how he's saving the country by blowing the whistle on something bad (if true, it's pretty bad), but it bugs me we have workerbees who decide they have veto power over the operations of which they are employed. I don't think this Snowden person is sharp enough to know what needs to be classified.
There is a difference between being a criminal and civil disobedience: Going to jail for your beliefs. He didn't, instead he fled and is hiding. This gay Manning guy has more substance than Snowden.
What did Aaron Swartz know?
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