Guardian: We have published 1 pct of Snowden leak

“Tell me who Snowden could take his concerns to? He would have been fired and the story buried forever. And you know that”

I don’t think I can respond to abject nihilism.

How about responding to abject reality?

USA Today has published an extraordinary interview with three former NSA employees who praise Edward Snowden's leaks, corroborate some of his claims, and warn about unlawful government acts.
Thomas Drake, William Binney, and J. Kirk Wiebe each protested the NSA in their own rights. "For years, the three whistle-blowers had told anyone who would listen that the NSA collects huge swaths of communications data from U.S. citizens," the newspaper reports. "They had spent decades in the top ranks of the agency, designing and managing the very data collection systems they say have been turned against Americans. When they became convinced that fundamental constitutional rights were being violated, they complained first to their superiors, then to federal investigators, congressional oversight committees and, finally, to the news media."
In other words, they blew the whistle in the way Snowden's critics suggest he should have done. Their method didn't get through to the members of Congress who are saying, in the wake of the Snowden leak, that they had no idea what was going on. But they are nonetheless owed thanks....

(emphasis added)

Spying on Americans is EXPLICITY FORBIDDEN under the Patriot Act.

Londo: Refa, any force attempting to invade Narn would be up to its neck in blood -- its own!
Refa: We have no intention of invading Narn. Flattening it, yes -- but invading it? We will be using mass drivers. By the time we are done their cities will be in ruins, we can move in at our leisure!
Londo: Mass drivers? They have been outlawed by every civilized planet!
Refa: These are uncivilized times.
Londo: We have treaties!
Refa: Ink on a page!
--Babylon 5: "The Long, Twilight Struggle"

Is it worth al Qaeda or other terrorist groups having access to info wherein they may be better able to avoid detection?

Al Qaeda already knows how to avoid detection: use couriers.

These snooping programs are useless for fighting real terrorist threats. In fact, they impede the fight against real terrorist threats -- if the government hadn't been so flooded with irrelevant data illegally harvested from honest citizens, they might have noticed the warning signs for the 9-11 attack (they got specific tips about foreigners wanting to learn how to fly a plane but not how to land one) or the Boston Marathon bombing (the Russians already knew about one of the bombers, and sent a warning to the US government).

Lava Bit was a co-conspirator with Snowden. They refused a search warrant.

Wrong again.

On August 8, 2013, Lavabit suspended its operations, and the email service log-in page was replaced by a message from the owner and operator Ladar Levison. The New Yorker suggested that the suspension might be related to the National Security Agency’s "domestic-surveillance practices". Wired speculated that Levison was fighting a warrant or national security letter seeking customer information under extraordinary circumstances, as Lavabit had complied with at least one routine search warrant in the past. Levison stated in an interview that he has responded to "at least two dozen subpoenas" over the lifetime of the service. He hinted that the objectionable request was for "information about all the users" of Lavabit.
Levison explained he was under gag order and that he was legally unable to explain to the public why he ended the service...

The refusal was to an illegal demand for a tap on all e-mail users, not to a lawful warrant (the service routinely cooperated with the latter).

IMO Snowden is a gifted amateur.
If someone like him can glean all this secret data and get away with it then just imagine what trained operatives from China, Russia and the Mossad can get.

Excellent point. The people parroting the lamestream-media attacks on Snowden's whistle-blowing should be ashamed of themselves, both for defending a criminal regime and for abject stupidity.

thinking that nsa which is almost an equal to the communist stasi secret police in east Germany and blatant violation of the 4th amendment is treason, how is Snowden a traitor for exposing treason within the goverment.

SNowden is the antithesis of a traitor

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