Posted on 06/06/2016 12:50:22 PM PDT by Lorianne
Former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor-turned-whistle-blower Edward Snowden had greater interactions with the agency before leaking documents to journalists about its surveillance programs, a Vice investigation has found. The findings challenge the U.S. government's narrative that Snowden had not tried to warn officials before his leak.
Snowden has always claimed he tried to raise his concerns with the NSA before leaking classified documents to journalists. The documents, published in May 2013, revealed widespread surveillance of American citizens by the NSA.
Snowden fled first to Hong Kong and then to Russia, where the government granted him asylum and where he currently resides.
“I had reported these clearly problematic programs to more than 10 distinct officials, none of whom took any action to address them,” Snowden said when he testified before the European Parliament in 2014.
Hundred of documents obtained by Vice through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit show Snowden had greater contact with NSA officials than initially revealed, including a face-to-face meeting with an official.
The documents show that, after the leak, NSA officials denied having a face-to-face interaction with Snowden.
“Our findings are that we have found no evidence in the interviews, email, or chats reviewed that support his claims,” an NSA official wrote in an email.
While it remains unclear if Snowden explicitly raised concerns about the NSA’s surveillance programs, the documents show Snowden asking specific legal questions to a greater degree than the government previously acknowledged.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibtimes.com ...
Incompetence of government officials and workers does not excuse Snowden’s actions.
And now for many he is a hero
Question:
What is lawful, abiding by a rule/regulation that is contrary to the Constitution or adhering to the Constitution itself and exposing those ignoring the constraints of the Constitution?
Oh, it was more than incompetence.
I'm thankful he revealed the utter deceitfulness of our government against Constitutional Rights. They've yet to be held accountable.
Just remember to keep things in perspective: he's done more for your free speech and privacy than the entire GOP in the past decade.
When I was a contractor at a cleared facility I can tell you how they would have reacted had I gone to them with legal questions about what they were doing, because I did just that. First, you are supposed to deal only with your contracting agency or the boss you report to. Going above or around either or both would likely get you fired. In my case I went to the people who paid me, as this was a highly unethical but not secret issue. The guy who wrote my check told me I could approach my titular boss. I was told in no uncertain terms to STFU. This was something he was doing because he was ordered to do it. End of story. Not willing to give up so easily, I simply asked him what he would tell his customer if the equipment they had no business using because it no longer belonged to them was lost or destroyed. (A very real possibility.) He turned bright, vein-popping red and told me to get out. (I had to wipe the spit off.)
He went and had a talk with the executive VP and they did not do what they were planning to do. But my tenure was short.
It wasn’t incompetence, it was a flat out crime. It’s illegal as hell what they were doing. He’s a hero for exposing the treason.
I hope he has a nice afternoon wherever he is.
I'm in a different role now, and I am now pigeonholed into the 'stay in your swim lane' culture.
I plan to leave that and go back into the private sector. It sucks like this.
Everyone, I agree that what Snowden exposed, needed exposing and that lots of people need to be fired, even jailed. I just think that Snowden’s actions have consequences. He, too, committed treason and crimes, which need to be addressed.
Nope. There is no other method.there is no “whistle-blower” method he could have used. This was a policy of Bush and Obama and our government.
The only way to expose it is exactly what he did. It isn’t treason....ever, to expose blatant unconstitutional activity.
What you said.
Incompetence may not, but malfeasance to their constitutional duties sure as hell does.
“The only way to expose it is exactly what he did. It isn’t treason....ever, to expose blatant unconstitutional activity.”
I remain unconvinced that it was unconstitutional activity he exposed as opposed to foolish and counter productive.
I believe that what happened was that changes in tech made eavesdropping on phone calls easier, and the prior checks for risk/reward were steadily eroded. I believe that the digital switches that became standard in the 1990’s, allowed the NSA the technical ability to tap over 50% of all phone calls in the world.
In the 1950’s tapping a phone call required a technician to install a tap in the phone line. This required a set of memos (at a minimum) explaining what was expected to be gained (low bar, but stopped the worst abuses), this also ensured multiple people approved the tap.
The digital phone switches just required a set of code to be inserted into the switch and the recording device at NSA got the phone call. There seems to have developed a culture of let’s tap that line because we can, forgetting that someone has to listen to all these calls.
The more snowden stuff comes out and the more stories of other persecuted whistleblowers come out.... the more i warm up to liking snowden....
The government SHOULD run on the CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED which means all secrets should have a live span of less than 20 years....PERIOD EXCLAMATION POINT EXCLAMATION POINT!!!#!!!!!!!!!!
State secrets of perpetuity should only be the mark of a dictatorship or monarchy. PERIOD.
The treasonous behaviors of those keeping certain information supposedly “secret” MUST also be taken into account.
For instance hypothetical: if the us govt. was in contact with extraterrestrials during the 1950’s and signed any treaty or agreements with them. Joe six pack voter MUST KNOW ABOUT IT. And the government is CONSTITUTIONALLY BOUND TO DISCLOSE THIS! If not we are no longer a government “of and by the people”.....
Personally, so long as he didn't sell the data or give it to foreign intelligence services, I might be fine with giving him a pass.
Tapping and recording phone calls domestically requires a search warrant that has very specific rules. The 4th amendment does not allow blanket searches of every phone in America. Furthermore it is the capturing of every text message, and email domestically.
For extra fun throw in the legalities of the military agency NSA, engaged in domestic spying on US citizens. I remember something about “papers and effects” in the 4th amendment.
This was criminal and they knew it. This also is why Obama signed that EO designating the USA as a battlefield. It legalized the effort to create an American stasi.
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