Bloke did us all a favour telling us about Prism..

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/aug/02/telecoms-bt-vodafone-cables-gchq



Once they get smart meters in everyone's home the circle of intelligence gathering will be complete.

Sorry, Mr Snowdon is not a whistle blower, the guy is traitor and a criminal.

In the UK alone, there are 1000s of people working for the intelligence agencies who handle 'classified' (aka a protectively marked) material. They all know the score when signing the official secrets act upon entry. Then there's ongoing vetting several times a year where the importance of secrecy is underlined.

Just because you have a political point to make, or are unhappy morally with an aspect of what your employer are doing, there are procedures to follow that allow to to raise that matter.

Spilling all to wikileaks or the Mail is NOT the answer. Where the hell would we be if even just 10% of our intelligence community decided to follow this idiot's example?

Yes I know it's popular to be clever and suspect all sorts of anti citizen covert ops are going on. But the truth is that the vast majority of the UK intelligence agencies do amazing work which protects us - almost all of it away from our eyes.

Ill conceived breaches of secrets such as made by Snowdon or that other US loud mouth put operations in jeopardy and lives at risk. He does not get any admiration from me. In fact, I hope he has a miserable time in Russia and runs back to the US in a couple of years to face his punishment

As I understand it Snowdon did not leak information vital to the security of the nation state.

He blew the whistle on how nation states (The UK and USA) gather information from on-line sources.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23123964





Potential terrorists will of course be using the internet and should be tracked like this but you of course have no idea what GCHQ are reading in your emails or the file they are building on you for the sites you visit. Maybe that innocent looking joke you 'liked' on facebook will come back and bite you in a job application sometime in the future?

The nature of communications today means they have to gather information thus but how do we know they are not keeping information they shouldn't be? There are no checks or balances.

Of course SOT you are to be excused on how you 'read' the story as most of the news outlets portrayed the man as a nasty criminal.

The Americans playing hard ball shot themselves in the foot by threatening the Russians and Snowdon with life imprisonment, you can be sure as part of his asylum deal he will be spilling all sorts to the Russians now!!

With respect, my post (like yours) represented my opinion. I do not need (or want) to be 'excused'. TBH, I find this word/term when used in this context as rather patronising, as I am big enough and ugly enough to understand how the media work and manipulate the news agenda.

It's quite simple: He is a criminal. He broke the law by disclosing information which was classified. He knew what he was doing. It is absolutely impossible for any of us to know the effect of his leaks on covert operations, information gathering or relations with other stakeholders, including other nations intelligence agencies, but it is not likely to have positive outcomes for these groups is it?

I dont think he is a 'nasty criminal' (when compared with the news last week of the Polish couple who abused that poor child) as I more than understand that he broke the law for what he sees as ideological reasons, but when we are talking of national security, that is not an excuse. The Woolwich killers would also claim they killed soldier Rigby for ideological reasons - that's hardly a defence either is it?

IMHO (if I am allowed one!) he has betrayed the people he was charged with protecting, and just like a corrupt policeman, or a bent judge - and should face the consequences

Fair dinkum if I sounded patronising then I apologise.

But how do we know the reasons as to why the information was classified in the first place was reasonable? To my mind we take much on trust from the authorities in our so called own interests.

I am a signatory to the OSA in that I have had access to material which would normally be deemed classified and not for public dissemination. Some of this material is harmless and is/has been openly for sale in ebay and other places. Items such as operating manuals for personal weapons and or military maps if British Zones in Germany. All clearly marked restricted of classified.
If I was to offer this up for sale then I put myself in potential jeopardy of a life sentence simply because I have signed the paper.

It may be that those selling this stuff have broken the law but were never pursued as it was not in the public interest I don't know.

So this brings us to Snowdon, is the USA or UK at greater risk of attack from the material he has disclosed or as a nation are we all better off in that we are much more informed in how our Governments spy on us.

The corrupt policeman or bent judge acted for personal gain. By the looks of it Snowdon did not. Those who attacked Drummer Rigby did so on the pretext (presumably) of some grievance against the British Army's involvement in Afghanistan, they actually killed someone. Snowdon has not and I doubt he ever had access to material to put individuals at risk anyway.

All he did was inform us of how Governments routinely listen to personal communications, telephone/email and other of most of the population something a lot of us have known about for years anyway. A quick google of Menwith Hill will tell you that.

Governments will look for ever more creative ways to spy on its citizens, Some political parties will use information to smear opponents (we are seeing some of this currently) to try and keep themselves in power. You can be absolutely sure the Tories are lookign for as much dirt on Farage and his cohorts as possible so they can unleash it at the correct time to damage (in in doing so enhance) their election chances.

It is a very fine line which separates these two and the distinction of surveilling a population to protect it becomes blurred with surveilling a population to subjugate it. It is for this reason persons like Julian Assange and Snowdon will always be vilified by Governments as they threaten the very levers which at some point keep those Governments in power.

Putin standing up for Truth, Justice and the American Way, whilst the US Govt. stands up for mass surveillance of the population, torture, imprisonment on suspicion of dissent and assassination of its own citizens.

Funny how things turn out eh!!

I'd bet the deal with Russia involves Snowdon giving lots of info on US systems in return for a year's grace. I presume the Russians left him at the airport until he got desperate enough to do the deal. If the Americans hadn't gone off half cocked then they may have still been able to salvage something from this..

Bradley Manning's mum has some very interesting things to say on this subject in the Mail on Sunday.

Bradley Manning is a different kettle of fish. His disclosures it is suspected directly led to the deaths of US assets in Afghan...

The material he leaked to Assange was sensitive..

If a paper is 'protectively marked', it's not for the reader to decide whether it's sensitive or not. The originator/author of the paper (or in some cases, a committee) will know why the specific marking has been added (Restricted, Secret etc).

Manning and Snowdon are plainly wrong to disclose any PM material -

That is the very same argument that Hitler's murderous henchmen hid behind.

When we have lost our ability to make moral judgements and follow our conscience then we truly deserve the horrors that will inevitably follow.

Oh dear. So much suspicion!

I work with protectively marked material every day. I know (and accept) the penalty if I disclose anything so I follow the rules to the letter

Does that make me like one of Hitler's murderous henchmen??