NYT editor's blog: Snowden’s Questionable New Turn
By DAVID FIRESTONE
When Edward Snowden first began leaking documents he purloined from the National Security Agency, he seemed to have a clear sense of purpose. He wanted to let Americans know that their government was secretly spying on the phone records of millions of innocent citizens, infringing on their civil liberties, and that it was demanding information on some of the Internet traffic flowing through American computer systems.
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Mr. Snowden’s actions, though illegal, exposed programs that many people, including lawmakers of both parties, believed had gone too far. The leaks showed how the intelligence community had used the cover of secrecy to expand and abuse its domestic surveillance powers, surprising even people who had written the post-9/11 laws on which these powers were supposed to be based. They have spurred a useful and important debate on whether those laws should be changed.
In the last few days, however, Mr. Snowden’s leaks have taken a questionable turn. He told the South China Morning Post that the United States had hacked into many Chinese computer systems, including those at universities and businesses. And yesterday he showed documents to the Guardian revealing that the N.S.A. and its British counterpart had spied on politicians from around the world who attended the 2009 G-20 summit in London....The N.S.A. was created to spy on overseas communications, and there is no serious debate about whether it should be doing so. Revealing that it was monitoring the computer traffic of foreign countries, and listening to their leaders, sheds no particularly useful light on the N.S.A.’s mission, or what most people believed its activities to be....In an online chat today with readers of the Guardian, Mr. Snowden expressed outrage that the United States would hack into civilian computers overseas, which he called “nakedly, aggressively criminal acts.” And he came up with an odd formulation for what the N.S.A. should and shouldn’t be doing overseas:
“Congress hasn’t declared war on the countries,” he wrote. “The majority of them are our allies, but without asking for public permission, N.S.A. is running network operations against them that affect millions of innocent people.”
So apparently he believes that the United States shouldn’t engage in spying except for countries with which it is at war. Of course, we’re not at war with any countries right now, only with Al Qaeda and its allies, so that would mean shutting down all non-terror spying activities. The idea that we should unilaterally discard a practice — however distasteful — used for centuries by virtually every country that can afford a spy service is naïve. Every industrialized country spies on every other, in part to learn just how much they are being spied on. What exactly was it he believed the intelligence world did when he first started making money by working for it?
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/17/snowdens-questionable-new-turn/
= new reply since forum marked as read
and he doesn't understand the ABCs of threat assessment and contingency planning?
This thread was alerted on. The alert failed miserably (0 - 6). 
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[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
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At least they'll not be able to use the alert again for 24 hours.
That says something.
... made it worth posting. glad you enjoyed! 
... but this Snowden bit seems to have seriously rattled your cage. The tone of your posts regarding this seem to be dripping not with sarcasm, but desperation. 
regarding this are beyond Desperate. You poor poor little hysterical thing 
I'm being attacked by a pack of pit bulls in the Olive Garden!
"It's not so much that you don't buy Snowden or his "bullshit."
It's more so the fact that at literally every turn, you are there to toe the line for this administration. It's transparent and I think a lot of people are starting to notice. "
...another just-arrived poster engaged in psychobabble and self-declaring to think for "a lot of people."
Enjoy your stay, and don't make me start...
