Who is Snowden, what is he?
Here’s an interesting interview with Edward Jay Epstein on Edward Snowden, found at Powerline:
If you look back, I figured out very early on that Snowden had only taken the Booz job in order to steal the files. The timeline dictated that conclusion, and later on he admitted as much, as Epstein relates. I also concluded quite early in the game that Snowden was/is a traitor. Epstein’s interview fleshes out some of the details of that, as well.
It’s a curious story with a great deal of information still unknown—such as the missing Hong Kong days.
He may be a traitor but as was the case with Gollum, it may yet prove that “he has had some part to play” (for good).
I would still rather know what he’s disclosed than not know.
Wouldn’t you rather know?
carl in atlanta:
I’ve written about the fact that the important things he disclosed were actually pretty much already known to anyone paying attention. Previous whistleblowers had revealed much of it, without compromising our security.
It’s not an either/or proposition. Snowden could have revealed much the same things without compromising our security, leaving the country, going over to the enemy, and (if you watched the Epstein interview) without part II of his theft, the part that REALLY compromised our security. There was no justification for that. And no, I wouldn’t want to know that part.
Neo:
I’ve watched the Jay Epstein interview. You’re right that Snowden gone way too far (so has Glenn Greenwald). However, on balance I’m still glad I know what I now know about the NSA. The dots may indeed have been out there for years “to anyone paying attention”, and maybe I’ve just been too much of a “LIV” to have connected them. I do recall paranoid-sounding rumors (a’ la the Birchers) and the “Big Brother is watching you” half-jokes. But honestly (and with a little shame for this admission), I just couldn’t have imagined that things are really as bad as they apparently are.
Yes it’s despicable that he gave highly sensitive and damaging info to the Chicoms and the Russians. But his revelations about the domestic eavesdropping hit me like a thunderbolt and I’m glad I now know that I really do live in a country with a government that spies on its own citizens. The damage done to our intelligence agencies and the military can be repaired over time. The personal betrayal by the federal government of the personal privacy of millions of its citizens – the people it’s supposed to be serving – creates more permanent damage, IMO. Time will tell, I guess.
The key question in my mind, when it comes to Snowdwn, is doth all our swains commend him?
I’m with carl in atlanta. Certainly Snowden’s release of classified data has hurt America and he can be fairly called a traitor, though I remain uncertain as to that being his motivation.
But like Carl, I do not think that the information about the NSA’s intrusiveness was taken seriously and given full credence. As I recall, my impression was that it was unsubstantiated rumor and it was also my impression that, that was the majority view of those who were even ‘paying attention’.
I have yet to see another source comment on it but I briefly caught a segment of Glen Beck talking on the radio about some other source revealing that the NSA possessed deeper capabilities, that if true, are truly chilling.
Namely, that the NSA now has the capability to create a fake email and have it sent from anyone’s email address to any other email address and have it appear completely authentic. That they can show faked proof that any computer with internet access has been browsing for pedophilia. That the NSA can provide apparently authentic proof that anyone is a terrorist sympathizer and supporter. The anyone is a pedophile, etc.
If this is so, then sooner or later or perhaps already, these capabilities will be used against political opponents by a lawless administration that has already demonstrated that it will use whatever means are necessary to achieve its ends.
If this type of political oppression does come to pass, Snowden’s arguably traitorous actions will pale before the larger tyranny of those he has exposed.
I take Snowden to be a self-actualized traitor.
He’s directly in the mold of America’s worst traitors.
His profile fits like A GLOVE.
That NSA didn’t see him coming — epic failure.
Too many ‘tells’ of which the savant idiots didn’t pick up a clue.
Does anyone doubt that John Roberts was blackmailed to decide that the individual mandate was not coercion to force individuals to engage in commerce, but was instead a tax? Snowden is no populist hero, but his revelations opened a lot of eyes to the extent DC will go to abuse the 4th in the name of safety. A government willing to abuse the 4th in the name of safety will always, unless checked, abuse the 4th to repress. DUH!
If Snowden is a traitor; he is a traitor against the national government – which is mostly an enemy of the American people and the whole idea of America.
Therefore, he’s on our side, doing the work of angels.
Putin is also the friend of America, since the more he harms Obama et al, the more we have a chance to narrowly escape the full tyrannical powers of Liberalism.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Thank you comrades Putin and Snowden. Get the bastards. Our media and governing elite won’t.
Mike,
You seem to assume that Putin’s aim is to damage Obama. Putin wants to regain Russia’s status and make his friends rich. He thinks Obama is an easy target, but he really doesn’t care about him. He cares about us, about undermining US influence in the world.
I don’t trust the NSA or any government agency under Obama, but I do want them to have the ability to monitor returning Western ISIS fighters, Russian internet hackers, and the Chinese who are stealing industrial secrets.
Expat,
You are assuming team messiah wants to stop ISIS from infiltrating our borders as thousands crash our borders, including those carrying drug resistant TB and ms-13 gangsters. You assume he cares about Russia and China’s desire to damage America. You may care, but your assumptions are a dead skunk on the road. The NSA, like the IRS and the rest of the fed alphwbet soup, is now locked and loaded and aimed at you and me.
We won’t know the full truth about Snowden for many years, if ever, since he was never caught and questioned. Some future Russian defector may tell us when Snowden came under Russian control, and it may have been a lot earlier than we now realize. In the meantime, we can simply observe that Snowden’s behavior and actions were indistinguishable from those of a Russian or Chinese spy. if it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck…
As for domestic eavesdropping, the NSA is a bit like the character in the movie Heat who says that “This information is beamed out everywhere, you just have to know how to grab it.” If people are concerned about their privacy, they might at some point want to think about being more careful about what they beam out there.
but I do want them to have the ability to monitor returning Western ISIS fighters, Russian internet hackers, and the Chinese who are stealing industrial secrets.
Returning from the Mexican-US border, is that who you want them monitoring?
In the meantime, we can simply observe that Snowden’s behavior and actions were indistinguishable from those of a Russian or Chinese spy.
You don’t know much about spycraft, do you.
There is NO WAY that Moscow would’ve ever wanted Snowden’s cover blown if he was an ASSET.
Period.
Stop.
Never, ever could happen. It’s never, ever happened with any other asset.
Snowden was self-actualized.
Get over it.
The LAST think Moscow would’ve wanted (after exposure) was that Snowden would make a pit stop in Hong Kong (Red China) so that their ultimate geopolitical rivals had first dibs on the stash.
Other than self exculpating NSA savant idiots, I know of no source that runs with the insane notion that Snowden was an asset of Moscow.
BTW, he would’ve been run by the GRU or its successor. (I can’t keep up with the legends cranked out by Center.
Expat – I do not think Putin’s main aim is to “get Obama”. I think he needs to “get Obama” in order to achieve his aims. I am all for it!
The single greatest threat to America is Obama. Period.
He can do more harm to us than Russia, China, and every terror group there is all doing there worst at the same time – combined. NO one can defeat America except for America. And Obama is the “God-damn America” President of Reverend Wright – and that is it.
Who destroyed Germany? Was it the Allies? No, they saved Germany. It was Hitler and the Nazis. Who is destroying America? Obama and the Democrats. End of story.
If America is ever restored, we’ll take care of Putin and all those monsters.
First we are stuck with our own monster, and he is a doozer.
There is NO WAY that Moscow would’ve ever wanted Snowden’s cover blown if he was an ASSET.
The only time an intel ring would blow the cover of their asset, is if they had a war or tactical operation that required sufficient penetration of enemy intel links that the advantage would be too high to be ignored, and thus the source would be burned. So far, neither China nor Russia is sufficiently at war with the US to require a list of all of NSA’s sources and contacts, to purge them. It’s a lot easier to turn the ones you know, dribble by dribble, to prepare for a longer conflict.