Posted by Sir Four at 10:42am Jun 14 '13Indiscriminate searching through bulk communications data is unacceptable. The government must have a legitimate reason to search through anyone's communications and obtain a warrant. Thankfully, this seems to be how the NSA is operating. However, more transparency is required on matters such as: what type of auditing is done to ensure compliance with the rules? How secure is the data? What positive outcomes have been achieved with this program? Quantify the advantages of centralizing the data on NSA servers vs obtaining it as needed from service providers. Also, the executive branch should not be given such wide latitude in operating the program; there must be more congressional oversight.
My thoughts on Edward Snowden are not very positive. My impression is that in his mind, he's starring in a Hollywood movie right now. The excitement and the fame were at least as important to him as was publicizing the program. His story was full of sensationalist claims and falsehoods. For example, he claimed a salary of $200,000 when it was in fact $122,000. He claimed to be able to wiretap anyone, including the President--a claim that strains belief and has been called false by many experts. He claimed electronic access to every CIA location around the world--also debunked.
Snowden did not "blow the whistle" on any actual abuses of the NSA program. He offered no evidence of misuse of the data. His leak was to describe the program so that people could decide whether or not it "goes too far", not to expose any illegality. In so doing, he unilaterally decided to reveal state secrets. I'm conflicted on this, because I do want more public debate on this program. But I'm uncomfortable with any one person exposing classified information to the media, not because of abuse or illegality, but because something conflicted with their personal values.
It is being reported now that Snowden is sharing classified national security information with the Chinese government. To me, Snowden is beginning to cross the line into traitorous territory. We don't know exactly what classified documents he possesses, or what he may be sharing. I am not comfortable with him using his personal judgement on what he ought to share with the Chinese. Such decisions should be made by elected and appointed officials, not a rogue 29 year old with a thumb drive full of state secrets.
The Guardian's reputation ought to suffer, because they allowed an opinion writer (Greenwald) to pass unvetted information as straight news, and have been reluctant to issue corrections. Snowden's claims were reported as fact without even an attempt to confirm them or consult experts on their plausibility. Greenwald got what he wanted: a sensationalist story that achieved its desired effect, which was fanning the flames of NSA conspiracy theories (evidence of which can be found in this thread). While I often agree with the positions Greenwald has taken over the years, he is not a proper journalist and has a clear agenda. The Guardian editors ought not to have given him free reign in covering this story.
My view - Sir Four