Posted on 05/28/2014 7:46:03 AM PDT by Seizethecarp
Edward J. Snowden says he was not merely a “low-level analyst” writing computer code for American spies, as President Obama and other administration officials have portrayed him. Instead, he says, he was a trained spy who worked under assumed names overseas for the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.
“I was trained as a spy in sort of the traditional sense of the word in that I lived and worked undercover overseas — pretending to work in a job that I’m not — and even being assigned a name that was not mine,” Mr. Snowden told Brian Williams of NBC News, in an excerpt released in advance of the full interview.
“They’re trying to use one position that I’ve had in a career here or there to distract from the totality of my experience,” he said, “which is that I’ve worked for the Central Intelligence Agency undercover overseas, I’ve worked for the National Security Agency undercover overseas and I’ve worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency as a lecturer at the Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy, where I developed sources and methods for keeping our information and people secure in the most hostile and dangerous environments around the world.”
“The reality is I never intended to end up in Russia,” he said in a second excerpt broadcast on NBC’s “Today Show.” “I had a flight booked to Cuba onwards to Latin America, and I was stopped because the United States government decided to revoke my passport and trap me in Moscow Airport. So when people ask why are you in Russia, I say, ‘Please ask the State Department.' ”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Wasn’t cute at all. Was a direct question. You aren’t serious enough to answer it. That’s your problem.
Cat's probably a double agent.
And I know that the NSA and what they do isn’t completely evil. They have, in point of fact, thwarted dozens of potential attacks on the homeland.
And you aren’t going to read about it either.
We need what the NSA does, and we need for it to be run by adults in Congress. It’s the latter part that isn’t happening. Same with the White House.
The epitaph on this administration is going to be ‘Abused Power from Minute One’.
See my comment #15, I covered that. Once he started talking about our intelligence gathering internationally, he crossed the line into treason.
That is what you are conveniently ignoring.
Agree on the "not everything is evil", but what I do know is that the NSA didn't stop numerous terrorist attacks on our soil, as well as foreign attacks (shoe bomber, underwear bomber, several military recruiting/base shootings, Boston bombing, Benghazi, etc.). That is a fact. We know this painfully well here at FR.
I believe the NSA is too focused on "total situational awareness" - ingesting everything from everywhere - versus focusing on mining info on the highest probability targets. With so much on their plate, they're equally ineffective in everything, while trampling on our privacy and liberties. The potential for abuse, or unintended consequences, is unthinkable and should not exist in the first place. (I have deep experience in commercial "big data", so I speak from a long history of creating actionable info.)
"We need what the NSA does, and we need for it to be run by adults in Congress. It’s the latter part that isn’t happening. Same with the White House."
I agree, but there's a dark side of the equation where the spook agencies lie to congress, the FISA court, and probably the president. They're experts at "nuance" and can easily exploit the ignorance of career bureaucrats.
Exhibit 1) The authors of the Patriot Act were not aware of the extent of domestic NSA surveillance (we could argue that they should have, but the NSA is very good at obfuscation and congress is very ignorant on all things technology and business, so they're easy to tell, as Clapper said - the "least untruthful" rendition of what they are doing). Yep, The NSA director said that!
Exhibit 2) The FISA court is a rubber stamp and since its inception in 1978, has only rejected a few out of many thousands of requests. e.g. 1,856 requests in 2012 and 1,856 approved. 100%.
"The epitaph on this administration is going to be ‘Abused Power from Minute One’."
Totally Agree!!! Or "Treason from minute one"...
#15 does not address my comment at all.
Here it is again for you: “You are saying that you would have gone along with what the NSA was doing instead of revealing their unConstitutional activities to the public?”
Please, read the above comment and write it out for me that you disagree.
It would go something like, “I would stand by and let unConstitutional activities continue even if I had the power to stop or reveal them.”
I’m dying to see that in writing because that’s a ball-sy thing to say.
You are being a tad dense. OK, a bit more than a tad. Considerably dense.
No, the NSA’s activities in the US are unsupportable. Does that clear it up for you?
And now onto the question I’ve asked that you’ve completely sidestepped. Do you agree with Snowden’s release of information in our international intelligence gathering? That would also be a yes or no question.
And if you answer no, the followup question is also a yes or no. Is that treasonous?
The merits of the information Snowden released can be debated. Snowden’s motives are highly questionable. Snowden’s claims he was an undercover spy are so specious to make me think he is suffering from some mental illness which probably explains his motivation. The CIA would not put an agent undercover only to give him a cover job as a network admin at ... wait for it ... the CIA.
Also, the NSA is a military signals intelligence (eavesdropping) organization. The idea of being a undercover agent for an organization primarily consisting of listening posts makes no sense.
These two points are obvious to anyone with any knowledge of national intelligence. Unfortunately, the network anchors who have interviewed Snowden do not know enough to ask a challenging question.
Calling me dense doesn’t make up for the fact that you didn’t read what I originally wrote and, instead, knee-jerked off a response that made some wrong assumptions. You reacted poorly and now you want to place some blame on me. That’s pretty sad.
And, yes, what he did after he revealed the unConstitutional activities of the NSA was treasonous.
I can’t believe I had to hand-hold you through every, tiny point of this; explaining it in detail like you would to a child... pathetic.
The Irony is Strong with this story:
Susan Rice denies Snowden's claims that he was an undercover spy working for the CIA hours before the NSA releases the 'one' inquiry email 'Ed' sent before leaking
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2643148/Susan-Rice-denies-Snowdens-claims-undercover-spy-working-CIA-hours-NSA-releases-one-inquiry-email-Ed-sent-leaking.html
And she's also got some land for sale in Florida, if you just fell off the turnip truck...
"Dueling Liars", with the tune for "Dueling Banjos" playing in the background.
All your Big Toe are belong to Gasden, Hulka... LOL! :)
He hates where this country is going and so do I. There's a difference.
Pleeeez, he is the enemy
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.