Please tell me how he has put people in danger by confirming that we're being spied on. I keep hearing people talk about the gloom and doom of him releasing some super secret methods that are going to result in us all dying, but no one has been able to say what exactly he gave away that's going to result in our doom. The same people that say this are also saying that he didn't tell us anything we didn't already know and that we're all putting this information out in the public anyway, so we shouldn't be surprised. This is such an absurd contradiction. Which is it?
The government has spied on Americans for years. The FBI used to bug the oval office for (*)(*)(*)(*) sake. Why is everyone acting like this is some big new problem? Oh right, because there is a "(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)" in the whitehouse. I forgot.
There is a big difference between what you think you know and what you know. Snowden seriously damaged national security because he released information about the existence of programs, what they were targeting, and how they were being targeted. Most thinking people were not that shocked that this was going on but they didn't have the confirmation and the details. Snowden provided that, and therefore provided a path for terrorists to take to avoid being detected. The toothpaste can't be put back into the tube, so the effectiveness of those programs have been permanently degraded. Meanwhile, Snowden has de facto defected to China. I'm sure he'll have all kinds of fun things to tell them.
What path is that? Provided they had any effectiveness in the first place. If the federal government wanted to protect the lives of Americans at home, if that were their true agenda, then they would instead help dismantle the violent street gangs, protect innocents from them, and reclaim the communities they take over. THEY are the ones who are killing innocent Americans. Except for 9/11, a fluke because we were so stupid to let terrorists take weapons onto planes, THEY are hardly a big threat by comparison. This is the proof that protecting people is NOT the real agenda.
The rotten SOB told our enemies how we can find out what they are up to, and now they can figure out ways to get around our bugs. Smart people never let an enemy know what they know or how they know it.
So, terrorists were unaware that facebook comments, forum posts, phone records, email/etc could be monitored? Wow, and these terrorists are smart enough to destroy America? lol
If you think your 'enemies' were unaware of being monitored you're incredibly naive. We spy on Russia, they spy on us and have done forever. What ordinary decent people are uncomfortable with is the indiscriminate dragnet collating information from a civilian population. If our rights to privacy can be overridden by some nebulous appeal to 'national security' (a useful catch-all concept if there ever was one), then all our rights are similarly compromised if the government deems it appropriate. By the way, there's a very simple way of defeating electronic bugging. Send a letter.
that bastard! admitting the us has a secret government and spying on everyone in the country how shocking! degraded? you mean programs that should never have been created in the first place because they VIOLATE our rights.
far more people fear the government than any joker living in a cave on the other side of the planet. - - - Updated - - - he is a hero! americans love him! the government hates him as it should be.
Sure, that's what I said, "there is a big difference between what you think you know and what you know." But terrorist still used email and phones. Even when they were using data hiding techniques like steganography, they were still using email. Unless you go to a complete courier system, like Bin Ladin, you are going to have to use electronic communications. Sometimes they slip up. It was mistakes by the Germans that gave the British their breaks for decypting German military communications during WWII. Did the Germans practice Communications security? Sure, but sometimes they slipped up... - - - Updated - - - State worshipping psychosis? LOL! Of all the insults I've received on forums, I've never gotten that one before!
