And you just took the NSA at its word? Also, the question isn't only about what Snowden did but why he did it. And then, the big question, "So the fuck what?" Like the NSA being a huge amalgamator of data and the most pervasive and notoriously opaque branch of the espionage services isn't the basis of 99% of all spy literature? Gimme a break.
Everyone is spinning madly, wildly, but to what effect? On one hand you have civil libertarians shocked, shocked to find that a multi-billion dollar agency dedicated to intercepting and analyzing telegraphy is actually intercepting and analyzing telegraphy. Then you have hawks who are just shocked, shocked to find that things already widely held to be true now have marginally more grounds for being believed. Of all the second term Obama Administration pratfalls, this seems the least consequential to me. Hey, the White House was using the FBI to strong arm a journalist in a manner reminiscent of Genghis Khan and people hardly turn a hair. Somehow the fact that included in the "public" in "public knowledge" is also the NSA turns out to be a danger to the Republic? Feh. The only reason Snowden's revelations are titillating is that he divulged them in Hong Kong and is now going all Julian Assange deep cover "the ricin tipped umbrella is aimed at my leg, get me to Cuba, Uncle Vladimir!" routine.
no subject
Everyone is spinning madly, wildly, but to what effect? On one hand you have civil libertarians shocked, shocked to find that a multi-billion dollar agency dedicated to intercepting and analyzing telegraphy is actually intercepting and analyzing telegraphy. Then you have hawks who are just shocked, shocked to find that things already widely held to be true now have marginally more grounds for being believed. Of all the second term Obama Administration pratfalls, this seems the least consequential to me. Hey, the White House was using the FBI to strong arm a journalist in a manner reminiscent of Genghis Khan and people hardly turn a hair. Somehow the fact that included in the "public" in "public knowledge" is also the NSA turns out to be a danger to the Republic? Feh. The only reason Snowden's revelations are titillating is that he divulged them in Hong Kong and is now going all Julian Assange deep cover "the ricin tipped umbrella is aimed at my leg, get me to Cuba, Uncle Vladimir!" routine.