I don’t know if it is or isn’t.
What I now do know, with certainty, is that the civil liberties of innocent Americans are being shredded without any due process whatsoever, on a routine basis, with data sharing among agencies, and it is being done in the name of “national security,” while delivering no actual security. If it did, the Boston marathon bombers would not have been a surprise.
Oh, wait, the Russians told us about those clowns. And we didn’t listen.
As for how much the Russians “know” - I’ve got to believe that with or without Snowden, they already knew quite a lot. Thanks to our lax immigration policies and US industries no longer enforcing background checks on employees for sensitive materials and projects, the Russians know most anything they want to know. The PRC also knows most anything they want to know - for the same reasons.
Hell, we’ve had Chinese nationals removed for spying from Los Almos, where they have access to nuclear secrets. The Chinese have absconded with sensitive and proprietary information from the commercial sector that is essential to the defense of the nation. And the “free trade” idiots, many of whom claim to be “conservatives,” see this as a perfectly fine outcome.
So in the big picture of things, I seriously doubt that Snowden, even if he has turned over whatever he has to the Russians, it isn’t all that damaging to the US from the Russians’ perspective. All the Russians can do now is laugh as they realize that the US has its very own version of the east German Stasi, who spied on everything and everyone, all day, every day.
Agree on everything and free trade too!
Think of NSA as just another Fderal jobs program. It could do a much better job if scaled back to 10% of what it is and spent 10% the money it does. This means no spying on every American and resident then storing this data. (except illegal aliens who mostly live off grid, pay cash, earn in cash etc)
Whew, I feel much better now knowing Snowden gave up his citizenship, family and fortune (as one of your fellow cowardice traitors stated) for basically nothing. Really? You can't be that stupid. I'm thinking you guys are Russian, you gotta be. Right?