Halp Do you think Edward Snowden did something good or bad overall?

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Oct 1, 2004
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So if you haven't been watching or reading the news, then go huff kiki's Cuban vag. To everyone else, is Edward Snowden's leaking of classified NSA documents overall a good thing or a bad thing?

Personally, I think it's a noble deed, but the end result will be nothing changes. You?
 
I think he's an attention whore who likes to make things up and greatly expand the truth.

He claims to have a computer on his desk that could wiretap the president? Yeah.... you're superman dude, keep living your fantasy
 
clearly an expert on everything with all access after 3 months
He worked for another company before that I thought?

Regardless, his deed is in the end worthless. They have come out with more political posturing to discredit him though. In the end he will have given his life for nothing.
 
I think he's an attention whore who likes to make things up and greatly expand the truth.

He claims to have a computer on his desk that could wiretap the president? Yeah.... you're superman dude, keep living your fantasy

The claim raised my bullshit flag pretty high. That being said, something like this is certainly information that the public deserved to know. This, unlike the Manning case, actually deserves whistleblower protection. I doubt much will come of it and it's one of those things that everyone pretty much guessed was already happening and has been happening for many years now but considering the government can get secret warrants, instant warrants, and even retro-active warrants there's no excuse for this besides trying to avoid judicial oversight.

I would bet that the system isn't being used for anything truly nefarious and its focus is indeed on external threats but that does not justify its existence. Given the information currently available I believe exposing this was the right thing to do and the method by which it was exposed was also right.

on a personal note, I've had to prepare and give multiple briefings on this shit while facepalming at the fact that AFN is showing fox news and msnbc as they plaster ts noforn documents all over the screen. so as a citizen, I think it was a noble act. as an IAO, fuck this guy.
 
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The claim raised my bullshit flag pretty high. That being said, something like this is certainly information that the public deserved to know. This, unlike the Manning case, actually deserves whistleblower protection. I doubt much will come of it and it's one of those things that everyone pretty much guessed was already happening and has been happening for many years now but considering the government can get secret warrants, instant warrants, and even retro-active warrants there's no excuse for this besides trying to avoid judicial oversight.

I would bet that the system isn't being used for anything truly nefarious and its focus is indeed on external threats but that does not justify its existence. Given the information currently available I believe exposing this was the right thing to do and the method by which it was exposed was also right.

on a personal note, I've had to prepare and give multiple briefings on this shit while facepalming at the fact that AFN is showing fox news and msnbc as they plaster ts noforn documents all over the screen. so as a citizen, I think it was a noble act. as an IAO, fuck this guy.

Assuming the cover story is correct that they need warrants to access specific info from the DB, I'm not sure I have a problem with it. Hell, Verizon and everyone else are already storing that data for themselves, so does it really matter who the government serves the warrant to? We all know this stuff is being recorded, I just hope there are checks in place. Probably too pollyanna of me tho...
 
I don't claim to know what his motivations were, and frankly I don't even care what they were, but the American people deserve to know what their representative government is up to at all times. I cannot view the disclosure of widespread government information gathering, especially regarding its own citizens, as anything but important and necessary.

Do I think it will change anything? Of course not, but that's not the point. We need to know. We always need to know.
 
Except its not against our own citizens, ever. FISA strictly forbids that.

To use FISA, the government must show probable cause that the “target of the surveillance is a foreign power or agent of a foreign power.” and get a warrant. Only about 20k of these warrants have been issued since 2008. That may seem like a lot, but to give you an example FBI exercised 80,000 wiretap warrants (and those are against citizens, as theyre allowed to do that) in 2011 alone.
 
Except its not against our own citizens, ever. FISA strictly forbids that.

To use FISA, the government must show probable cause that the “target of the surveillance is a foreign power or agent of a foreign power.” and get a warrant. Only about 20k of these warrants have been issued since 2008. That may seem like a lot, but to give you an example FBI exercised 80,000 wiretap warrants (and those are against citizens, as theyre allowed to do that) in 2011 alone.

Your statement doesn't make sense. Didn't FISA allow them to record all this cellphone metadata on EVERY American?
 
It is your belief that neither the CIA nor the NSA nor the PRISM system is collecting general email or cell phone record information about the American people via sweeping computer flagging and other implemented software measures?

Lean forward and speak slowly and clearly into the area of my left breast pocket. No reason.
 
Except its not against our own citizens, ever. FISA strictly forbids that.

To use FISA, the government must show probable cause that the “target of the surveillance is a foreign power or agent of a foreign power.” and get a warrant. Only about 20k of these warrants have been issued since 2008. That may seem like a lot, but to give you an example FBI exercised 80,000 wiretap warrants (and those are against citizens, as theyre allowed to do that) in 2011 alone.

Ahem
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5987804