What information does Snowden have that the NSA is so concerned about?

[kentuck]

From what Glenn Greenwald has stated, he has a lot. He could release in one minute more information than has ever been released. What do you think is in that information??

For starters, we might learn a lot about the Middle East? Maybe we might learn that the government knew all along there were no WMD's in Iraq? Perhaps they kept that hidden from the American people just so they could keep their war going on and keeping the contracts flourishing for their friends at the Carlyle Group and Booz Allen Hamilton?

Or perhaps we might learn there were assassination plans of other leaders? We don't know what might be released? We can only guess.

But, I think it is safe to say that he has released nothing yet compared to what he might release? It is disturbing that Greenwald is quoted as saying that our country "should get on its knees and pray" that he does not release the other information?

What could he possibly be holding that is so important to our intelligence operations??

[cantbeserious]

1. The Obvious Would Be That The US Government Pays For The Data

Nothing Like Learning That Citizens Are Paying Taxes To Spy On Themselves.

[MADem]

2. Ask Putin--he's already got all that info, and he doesn't want any other nation to have it.

Glenn Greenwald is inviting any country that wants a look at Snowden's "goods" to go kill him, basically. Once Snowden is axed, the floodgates are released, is what he's saying, in essence.

Glenn Greenwald needs to stop playing a petit-Assange and inserting himself in the story. If Snowden ends up dead in the transit lounge, Glenn Greenwald will have his blood on his hands.

[wandy]

3. +1

[cantbeserious]

4. If That Was The Case, Snowden Would Not Be Living In A Transit Hotel

eom

[MADem]

5. Not sure what that has to do with anything.

It doesn't matter if he's in the 2nd floor of the Novotel, a capsule in the capsule hotels, or in the VIP section that is off limits to regular people, or even in a dacha that Pootie has "designated" as part of the transit area.

He's in limbo, no matter where he's parking his ass.

[cantbeserious]

7. The Response Was To The Insinuation That He Sold Information

eom

[MADem]

20. He could be staying in a luxury dacha with super high speed internet.

Pootie Poot can designate ANYWHERE he'd like as a "transit" area that is not part and parcel of Russia proper. He designates the bus that takes people to the Novotel as a transit area, he designates the 2nd floor wing of the Novotel as a transit area.

If he wants, he can designate anywhere--from a penthouse suite in the best hotel in Moscow, to a cell tucked away in the Lubyanka building--as a "transit area."

Putin is king, he does what he wants. And who knows if Snowden "sold" his information or had it taken from him--either knowingly, or unknowingly?

There are drugs out there that will make you do whatever a person wants--and you'll look entirely normal while you're handing over your life savings, your passwords, your darkest secrets, to someone who has drugged you.

The Russians are pretty good at getting what they want. They are also very skilled in psychological warfare. If Snowden gets on a plane to anywhere, that'll be because they've hounded him out of there. The clock is ticking, Obama's trip is coming up in a month and a half, and Putin can't have it both ways--unless Snowden's Russian "asylum" turns into imprisonment, and a crew from USA is allowed to debrief him.

[cantbeserious]

26. Not Likely If The Russians Had Actually Paid For Information

eom

[MADem]

27. A nice dacha might be part of the package. Or, it's a private place for a debriefing.

An even better place if you want to administer a drug that will make your guest more persuadable.

If he's staying in the transit hotel, it's three hundred bucks a day, eat in meals are forty to sixty each. Ka ching. Even though it is a dump it isn't cheap.

[arely staircase]

54. I think it is reasonable to assume the Russians are sophisticated enough to drain those computers of

their data without having to pay for it. Snowden gave it all to the Russians simply by taking those laptops to Russia.

[cantbeserious]

55. An Easy Presumption To Make - A Harder Presumption To Prove

eom

[arely staircase]

56. I can't even prove Snowden or Putin exist

But it I assume they do. And I assume Putin has all of the data Snowden stole.

[cantbeserious]

57. One Probably Knows The Common Phrase An Assumption Makes An ......

Last edited Sun Jul 14, 2013, 03:18 PM - Edit history (1)

eom

[arely staircase]

58. yeah, it is a lazy saying because it implies one should never make assumptions

we make them every day. when they are based on common sense, experience, etc. they can be useful. based on fear, prejudice, etc. not so much. i don't know if the technology exists to drain a computer remotely of its data. But if it does the Russians have it and if they have it they have used it. That is just common sense. If Snowden has accessed the internet with any of those computers it is a no brainer.

[cantbeserious]

60. Absolutely Correct - And In This Case Where All Anyone Has Is Speculation - Assumptions Are A Slippery Slope

eom

[kentuck]

62. But even if they haven't got more information...?

We should still rebuild our entire military defense system, don't you think?? We should be able to do that with "only" a trillion or two dollars.

[Hekate]

77. US tech firms that send employees to China are concerned enough about intellectual property theft...

... that they make a point of having their employees take "clean" laptops with them. Not "cleaned up" and not simply encrypted. New, empty of everything but the task at hand.

The Chinese (and the Russians) are extremely sophisticated in their data-vacuuming abilities.

I think Snowden is so outclassed he must be gasping like a fish if he has realized it.

One source:

http://www.law.com/corporatecounsel/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1359312802334&thepage=1&slreturn=20130614202247

For Western lawyers working in China, doing business can require a curious combination of legal skills and 007-like stealth. Leave your laptop in your hotel room? Expect it to be searched. Call up a website to check the weather? You might load code that pulls data off your hard disk. Does your PC weigh more than it did when you left the States? That could be a homing device, implanted on the sly and now transmitting information about the merger your client is planning. It might sound like stuff from a James Bond movie. But the threats are real, say law firm technology chiefs—and worrisome.

The perils of using technology in China isn't a topic that law firms like to talk about publicly. "This is a very, very sensitive subject in our firm," says one chief information officer who declined to talk about the topic, even on a confidential basis. Says another: "Public statements might be considered the equivalent of 'poking the bear.' On this topic, I believe we are better served staying quietly diligent."

The U.S. government has been less reticent. On its website, the U.S. Department of State advises travelers to China that Internet and telephone use "may be monitored on-site or remotely, and personal possessions in hotel rooms, including computers, may be searched without your consent or knowledge." In February 2012 national intelligence director James Clapper told the House intelligence committee that "China and Russia are of particular concern. . . . Entities within these countries are responsible for extensive illicit intrusions into U.S. computer networks and theft of U.S. intellectual property."

Read more: http://www.law.com/corporatecounsel/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1359312802334&thepage=1&slreturn=20130614202247#ixzz2Z4M6baWD

[cantbeserious]

83. With The Latest Revelations - Sounds Like Precautions We Need To Take To Thwart The NSA

eom

[MADem]

82. Oh sure...but they could be giving him "nice accommodations" to show him what swell guys they are...

Out of the goodness of their hearts, of course....



Gotta add one of those because some just don't take the point...

[morningfog]

10. That is just absurd. Are you trying to pre empt

Snodwden's death charge?

[MADem]

17. "Pre empt Snodwden's death charge?" Are you saying he is suicidal?

Not sure what your point is, there....

[morningfog]

18. I don't see yours either. It seems to me you are predicting his murder

and laying foundation to blame.

[MADem]

21. I am saying IF he ends up dead (that is not a prediction, that is a conditional statement),

then Glenn Greenwald is to blame because he sic'ed potential assassins who want Snowden's information on the guy.

Snowden is sitting in Russia saying "I haven't done anything to hurt the USA."

His pal Glenn is sitting in Brazil saying "Ewwwwww, Eddie's gonna blow up the world, just you watch! If he ends up dead, it's ALLLLLLL gonna come out!"

Those are two very different messages.

Further, Snowden asked Russia for asylum on Friday.

On Saturday, Russia said "Asylum? We didn't get no steenkin' request for asylum...?"

I think Snowden has listened to too many blowhards, and has overplayed his hand. Putin doesn't need to care about him anymore, particularly if he already has all the information Snowden was carting around. If that's the case, Snowden is a tissue in the wind....

[morningfog]

22. IF he is killed, suspect number one will be the US.

[MADem]

25. That's rather counter-intuitive. According to GG, if he ends up dead, he's got some sort

of system in play that will "release the hounds," as it were.

Killing him reveals all the "stuff" he had--so why, pray tell, would USA trip that mousetrap? That wouldn't be a good move for them.

However, if the Chinese didn't drug him and steal his shit and throw him on a plane to Russia, and if the Russians haven't done likewise, maybe they want a peek. If they have already grabbed his junk, I'm sure there's a government or two out there that might want to put eyes on his stuff, and if that's what it takes to do that, well...who knows what people are capable of?

[morningfog]

49. Who knows if there is actually such an insurance release trigger.

The claim has been oft dismissed. It is in Snowden's interest to raise that claim in hopes of saving his life, but I don't know if there is actually such a mechanism in place. The primary player that wants to see Snowden disappeared is the US. In fact they are almost alone in benefiting from his being shut up.

If the US disbelieves his insurance claim, they would not let it stand in the way.

[MADem]

50. GG needs to stop saying there is--it will get his Hot Story killed.

Here's GG -- once AGAIN -- making the story all about HIM and his fearless fight against the 'PTB' while saying (in the passive voice, the chickenshit) exactly what I just said--that there is a "If he dies, the info flies" trigger.

That Snowden has created some sort of "dead man's switch" - whereby documents get released in the event that he is killed by the US government - was previously reported weeks ago, and Snowden himself has strongly implied much the same thing. That doesn't mean he thinks the US government is attempting to kill him - he doesn't - just that he's taken precautions against all eventualities, including that one (just incidentally, the notion that a government that has spent the last decade invading, bombing, torturing, rendering, kidnapping, imprisoning without charges, droning, partnering with the worst dictators and murderers, and targeting its own citizens for assassination would be above such conduct is charmingly quaint).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/13/reuters-article-dead-man-s-switch?commentpage=1


So yeah, waaah, waah, waah--bottom line, though, if he ends up dead, it could be ANYONE who wants to see what "goods" Snowden has, or anyone who just wants to cause "harm" to the USA and might not even give a shit about the info he says he has.

By now, USA already KNOWS what he has. By now, China and Russia already know what he has. But that's not to say that others might not want to have a peek. OR...they just might want to "blow up" the USA for stupid reasons--like say, because they object to gays in the military or right to choose--and that's one way to make that happen.

GG painted a bullseye on Snowden, and now the little shitheel is crying because people are noticing.

[flamingdem]

37. Remember what happened on Friday

Obama called Putin.

All of a sudden the Ruushins are saying we didn't get no steenkin request for asylum... wonder what Obama said to Putin to make those requests disappear !

[MADem]

41. Maybe something like "We've got one of yours...a guy named Viktor...

doing a 25 year stretch in federal prison. Want him back? You know what to do..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Bout





Snowden shouldn't have quit school like that. It's amazing the stuff you can learn when you study the history of the world. I get the feeling the guy doesn't know anything about Mother Russia past Boris Yeltsin...

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Hubby and I have been going back and forth

He believes they honestly have no idea...and are thinking worst case. I think he got the Crown Jewels

Either explains the fixation.

[Savannahmann]

15. I'm leaning towards your line of thought.

If the case is as it appears, that once you're in the Top Secret Network, that is to say the dedicated military/intelligence network that handles the Top Secret Data, you have access to everything. Then it would appear that they failed to properly compartmentalize anything. Snowden could have as you say, the crown jewels. (Interesting side note, the report on the CIA conducting illegal operations in the 1960's was called the Family Jewels. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Jewels_(Central_Intelligence_Agency) )

It's an interesting read, if you like long reports about a decade of violations of the law that were never punished. (Where are the law and order types on that kind of thing)

If the Government was so unwise as to put all the eggs in one basket, as seems to be the case, then you are left with little option but expecting the very worst to come true. Every dirty trick, every illegal operation, every infiltration of progressive groups would be out there in the light of day if Snowden has them.

But if you are aware of that kind of illegal operation, then you have to assume that Snowden does have it.

The peace during the Cold War was maintained by Mutually Assured Destruction, or so the story goes. We could not attack the Soviets, because while we would destroy them, they would certainly return the favor. Apparently Snowden thinks he can set up a similar scenario. One where if he gets nicked, killed, or just vanishes (I wonder who does that sort of thing and if that is some of the information they are worried he has) then it is likely that this secret information would be dumped.

If you were a friend of Snowden, a confidant, even an associate. I'd be very careful right about now. If the Government is willing to violate the Vienna Conventions to search President Morales' plane, then who knows what they would do if they had reason to suspect that a friend of his was holding the information, or the key.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. As a side note

My description is a nod to the Church Committee.

It is ugly.

[bobduca]

36. good point about his friends and the keys..

they are probably large, and consequently unbreakable by brute-force cryptographic analysis, and the govt. would need to resort to
"rubber hose" cryptography whereby the key holder is tortured until they reveal the keys to the archives.

[Savannahmann]

39. That might work, if they know who has the info, and who has the keys.

But there is an old saying, no matter how much you torture someone, they can't give up a secret they do no possess.

[bobduca]

47. Right

I hope his insurance policy works as intended and discourages illegal rogue nation type actions from us or our client-states.

[Thinkingabout]

8. Greenwald is washed up as a creditable journalist, probably part of a scheme who used

Snowden as a patsy, left him dumped in a transit zone of Russia. Bet Snowden did not see this coming. Greenwald might get the tables turned on him and Snowden just blow the cover off the scheme in return for a lessor sentence. Snowden has had diarrhea of the mouth before and probably let it go again. Greenwald continues to threaten and he needs to be investigated. Follow the money and we will find the head of this one.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. The daily nonsensical stir

[Thinkingabout]

12. Maybe the crown jewels will help somebody but the charges remain and somebidy forgot to beam me

Up Eddy. Greenwald has lost credibility and now I place him in the rags line.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. More shit stirring

[Thinkingabout]

19. So you think your comments cures Greenwald's creditability, dont think so. Your type of answer is

More of the we love Snowden club, does not change my mind in the least, it is still the Spy and Lie detail.

[Coyotl]

33. As if Greenwald's credibility depends on a post deep in a thread on DU. ROFLMFAO

[nadinbrzezinski]

46. Yet more shit stirring

That is all you do.

And your handle is the top of irony

[Mojorabbit]

70. Yes and it is tiring. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

71. It is time to call it what it is

[Mojorabbit]

72. Yes it is. nt

[MNBrewer]

42. In an age when "creditable journalist" = "stenographer pool", I suppose you are correct

However, in my view his credibility as a journalist remains untarnished.

[jmowreader]

11. NSA is concerned about every piece of information

And my bet is, Snowden copied every damn thing he could get his hands on in the three months he worked at Booz Allen.

The NSA's worst fear is that Mr. Snowden will turn out to be as bad as Jonathan Pollard, the asshole who sold the Radio Signal Notation catalog and the National SIGINT Requirements List to Israel...who then turned around and traded them to the Soviets in exchange for some imprisoned Soviet Jews.

[MADem]

24. I remember that. Remember the WALKER scandal?

Everyone got to re-do their frigging clearance because of that mess. What a pain in the ass. That was before computers were ubiquitous, when everything was still filled out with a damn typewriter or by hand:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Anthony_Walker

Those freedom loving Russians were up to their asses in that business!

[jmowreader]

38. Remember James Hall?

James Hall was working for the Soviets AND the East Germans.

Hall was such a greedy fucker he sold the same documents to the Stasi and to the GRU, who unbeknownst to our asshole shared information. And when the GRU guy and the Stasi guy showed up at their meetings with piles of identical documents...they got pissed and turned him in. I can just imagine the Field Station Berlin staff duty officer the night they did..."hello, this is Boris Badenov of the Soviet Second Chief Directorate, and one of your soldiers really needs to go to jail..."

[MADem]

40. Busy little basstid, wasn't he?

Talk about no honor amongst thieves!

[jmowreader]

53. He really was

A little topography here: google Teufelsberg and you'll see pictures of Field Station Berlin, where James Hall did most of his spying. The building topped with the thing that looks like a dick with a set of balls (this is no joke) was the operations building. The second and third floors had raised computer center floors.(About a year after I got there, we got a memo from the station commander: the floor is not a refrigerator. Someone from Fort Monmouth came in to evaluate our cooling capacity, picked up all the floor tiles, and discovered over fifty six-packs of soda people had put down there to keep cold. This had gone on so long that some of it was in steel cans.)

Back to James Hall. When he was there, the copier was on the second floor, in the foyer between the two ramps leading to the workspace, so it would be easy to get to. And James Hall, who had his own car, would put manuals on a library cart, push them out in the hall, and copy for hours on end. There was no control over the paper supply; if you needed a case of paper you just got one.

During the investigation, lots of people said they saw him doing this but everyone thought he was just working hard.

When I was there, the copier was downstairs in a room under two-man rule (if the room was occupied two people had to be in it at all times), you had to fill out a form to get anything copied, a staff sergeant had to sign paper requests, and the library cart was in the colonel's office with plants on it. Later on they moved the copier upstairs - to right in front of the watch officer's desk.

[MADem]

59. HAHAHAHA!!! "The floor is not a refrigerator!"

I've known people who have done that in similar situations! Hey, you gotta get your cooling where you can!

Nowadays, they have copiers that take your credentials to get 'em started--they will say how many copies you made, and even keep a copy of the image "stored" in memory.

Of course, nowadays, who needs a copier, really? Go in there with an iPhone and take pictures of every page--funny how everything old is new again. James Bond always had the jazziest "micro cameras" that were, so we thought at the time, impossibly small! The size of a cigarette pack!! The size of a PEN! The size of a boutonniere!

[jmowreader]

68. We had metal detectors at the doors, and they were VERY sensitive

There's definitely enough metal in an iPhone to set one of them off; if you tried to get in there with a checkbook calculator it would catch you, and people tried that shit. They have obviously loosened up on the list of prohibited items; you couldn't bring in any electronics, no magnetic media, if you tried bringing in blank loose paper (notebooks were okay, but they looked through them when you went in or out) you had to use it on site...

It would have been nice to have had copiers like that, but James Hall was assigned to FSB from 1982 to 1985. Back then, the copier was a rather primitive thing. "I want a color copier!" "Okay...you want me to paint it red or blue?"

Seriously, guys, if I was a special security officer at one of these places you wouldn't be hearing about this shit, because the things Snowden and Manning used to get all the secrets out of the SCIF never would have gotten in.

[MADem]

79. They'd have been better off to go for the "paper camera!"

A high end version of drugstore cameras, plastic lens, plastic casing and 35 mm film. The plastic lens is superior to the average, store bought one, and being w/o metal in the thing, can pass through a metal detector!

Then, of course, BECAUSE there's the whole metal detector thing, so the first three or four shots are no good, probably, AND the film has to be developed...but it would work.

Of course, old Jimmyboy managed to steal the stuff and use the government copier to do it, too--the brass of him!!!

[jmowreader]

84. That's the kind of thing you use when you're stealing the other guy's secrets

[backscatter712]

14. Crimes committed by our government.

The feds are worried about being exposed running a criminal enterprise.

That and they want Snowden whacked for breaking National Security Omerta.

[1-Old-Man]

23. The depth of existing programs and the existence of more programs

We haven't seen so much as a scratch on bathe surface of what they do and how they do it.

[Waiting For Everyman]

28. I don't believe it's this, but the top of my wish list would be

proof establishing to what degree our government was involved in 9/11.

[allin99]

29. where all the cia are all around the world maybe

[hootinholler]

30. Rosters, safe house locations, etc.

Doesn't take too much imagination.

[pnwmom]

31. He claims to have had access to the names of US assets all over the world --

in other words, all the Valerie Plames and their associates.

[Coyotl]

32. The most obvious would be that Republicans are spying on Dems and altering the course of Democracy.

How could they NOT abuse this power for political ends? After all, they are the Republicans!

Post-Snowden Statement, the real question now is, "Have Republicans been spying on Democrats?"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023233275

[DirkGently]

88. I think we'd all be surprised if they hadn't. Proof would be fascinating ...

[Samantha]

34. I think they believe they MUST make an example of him

If they do not, there are a boatload of disgruntled Federal employees who could start spilling even bigger security secrets. I think that is their greatest fear.

Sam

[temmer]

35. false flag attacks committed in the Bush/Cheney era /nt

[randome]

43. You fell for this schtick with Assange. Now you're going to fall for it again?

Unbelievable.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]

[kentuck]

44. What are you talking about??

Care to elaborate?

[randome]

45. Assange claimed to have secret banking documents.

And only a select few knew the cryptographic key that would unleash the 'Kraken' on America's banking system should anything happen to him. Specifically, he promised that Bank of America would be destroyed.

But then, quite unsurprisingly, the key was lost or stolen or whatever the hell it was, and the banking documents were never released.

Scores of people had the archive of secret documents downloaded and waited with baited breath for the release of the key.

It never came.

Greenwald is working from the same script. He has nothing. He is a liar same as Snowden.

On edit: Or they did release the encryption key and nothing happened. I forget exactly. The point is it was bluster and pointless threats.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]

[kentuck]

48. I had not read that?

Do you have a link that might help?

[randome]

51. Google 'Assange poison pill'.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021145676

He's been threatening to do this for more than 3 years now. I don't recall if anything ever happened with that or if his followers are still waiting for their 'Go' signal.

Assange had nothing. Greenwald has nothing. They are all bluster.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]

[MADem]

52. What Greenwald has is a desire to be at the center of the story, even as he's being passed by.

He's still going on about getting Snowden killed:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/13/reuters-article-dead-man-s-switch?commentpage=1

He's not copping to the fact that it's HIS FAULT this discussion about his "life in danger" is even a topic in the news.

I think he'll do anything to stay relevant.

[randome]

64. And if Snowden had anything near the access he claims...

...he would have released info that proved his ridiculous claims. So I doubt he has anything and I think Greenwald is talking out of his ass for the reason you say.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]

[snappyturtle]

61. Just so we keep things straight, I've looked up Greenwald's interview

with the Argentinean newspaper La Nacion where he made his on the knees remark. His remark says that the U.S. should be on its knees praying or begging (depending on the translation) but all agreed the reason to pray is for safe keeping of Snowden.

(Reuters) – Fugitive former U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden controls dangerous information that could become the United States’ “worst nightmare” if revealed, a journalist familiar with the data said in a newspaper interview.

Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who first published the documents Snowden leaked, said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday that the U.S. government should be careful in its pursuit of the former computer analyst.

“Snowden has enough information to cause harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever had,” Greenwald said in an interview in Rio de Janeiro with the Argentinean daily La Nacion.

“The U.S. government should be on its knees every day begging that nothing happen to Snowden, because if something does happen to him, all the information will be revealed and it could be its worst nightmare.”

[kentuck]

63. Somebody once said...

It's better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent, pissing in...

[MADem]

65. It's not a question of "us" having him anywhere, with Greenwald encouraging ANYONE who has a beef

with the USA for any reason to go kill the guy....

Don't like the US position on automatic weapons and want to get back at them?

Angry at a war the US participated in?

Angry at America for a foreign policy they undertook, past or present?

Mad that women are allowed to/are not allowed to exercise choice in some parts of America?

Think America isn't sufficiently "godly" or is "too religious?"

Think that (name a group of people that a person might hate) have "too many rights?"

Think that "the gubmint" is up in your business too much, or that taxes are too high?

Hate the guy in the White House?

Want to see America "eat shit" just for fun, as a charter member of the USA Haters club?

Want revenge? Here's how to get it, thanks to one intrepid "reporter" (who has made himself part of the story with unseemly enthusiasm). Glenn Greenwald has told every fruit loop, whack job, nutcase, grumbler with a gun, and person in need of confinement for the safety of themselves and others how to make a "really big stink." Go get Eddie, and watch the sparks fly, he says.

And what a story that would be....for HIM.

If what he said is true, the LAST person wanting Snowden dead would be anyone in the US government. However, everyone from Iran to North Korea and points in-between and far beyond might have a reason to think that might be a good idea, just to "embarrass" USA.

There have always been people who want to blow it all up; and GG is telling them this is the way to do it. He is an irresponsible ass, and if anything happens to Snowden, the blood is on his hands.

[kentuck]

66. What should we do?

As a country?

Should we try and negotiate with Russia for his release? Or should we invite him back in with limited immunity, but still liable for a short jail term? If we can prevent further embarrassing info from being made public, should we make a deal with the "traitor"? Or just let the chips fall where they may? What do you think?

[MADem]

67. If he really has some serious info, like names of contacts?

Trade him for Viktor the Arms Dealer/Spy.

If he has nothing, or "not much?" Leave him to sweat it out. It's getting to the point where Pootie has had his fun, and he's starting to worry that Obama won't show up at the Sep meeting--he wants Snowden gone ASAP. Maybe Pootie will do something "sweet," like offer to smuggle Snowden onto a regular AEROFLOT plane (they fly over the eastern portion of the USA, well INLAND, too) and then--OOOPS--arrange for the plane to have some sort of oddball engine/hydraulic "failure" and need to land in Tennessee or someplace--damn the bad luck!

Everyone has to get off the plane while they fix it...and "someone" recognizes Snowden~!

We, of course, don't have that bullshit made-up rule about our transit areas not being "in" the USA. We can and will arrest someone if they are wanted for a felony and they are in a transit or sterile zone.

I think we already know what he has, but I don't expect the government to share that kind of thing. At least not now.

[kentuck]

73. I don't think "Pootie" would do anything to look bad in front of his people..

So, I don't think he would give up Snowden since he is like a hero in Russia.

I do think the US is making some very attractive offers, thru John Kerry, to the Russian government if they will turn him over.

In the meantime, they should be covering all the assets. They should be moving to a different country and switching locations over the board. For example, if they are in Russia, they should maybe go to India, and vice versa, until all the assets are in different countries than they are now.

Otherwise, I do not see any options for Snowden except to accept Russian protection? He can later attempt to escape but it might be a very tough chore? He doesn't want to be stuck in Russia because he knows their security is much better than our own at this time.

Because nothing, NOTHING, that is on a computer is safe. Someone should notify the NSA to go back to paper communications and locked safes and keep the contacts to a minimum. Otherwise, they will be giving up our secrets forever.

[MADem]

76. Pootie Poot would be SURE to make it appear to be an unfortunate accident of fate.

It would enable him to rail against USA and shout "Damn the bad luck!" all while laughing into his hand.

He might even float some halfassed conspiracy theory that "Murica" aimed a laser at the AEROFLOT airliner and "brought it down" because they "hacked into Russian communications" or some bullshit like that. Upshot? Pootie Poot -- who is the most repressive ruler of Russia since the Soviet Union was disbanded--comes off like a progressive hero (never mind all the real progressives he has rotting in jails across his land).

Plausible deniability--it's what's for dinner! With Borscht as a starter!!!!

Russia has already gone back to typewriters, FWIW--they're very afraid. We have to hope our HUMINT assets are protected.

[Hekate]

80. Very well said. Do you think Snowden realizes he's been had yet?

Greenwald is enjoying being the center of attention -- I wonder if he really gives a flying fig what fate befalls Snowden. It's all good for GG -- he can blog forever about it.

[MADem]

81. Maybe. I think he might have thought he was playing patriot games and helping the Paulbot cause,

both at the same time (a two-fer), but if he had it to do over again, I think he'd do a rewind and head for the Senate Intel Oversight Cmte.

Hard to know what he thinks of Greenwald at this point--eventually he has got to realize that it ain't getting better...and GG is very much involved in making it all worse.

[RC]

85. Does Snowden read DU?

Then probably not, as far as being had.

[MADem]

87. Hard to know what he thinks, really...but the Russians are very good at psychological persuasions.

If they want him to think something, they can probably persuade him to think what they want.

[arely staircase]

69. names of human intelligence assets? nuclear launch codes?

how we monitor Iranian weapons research? the names of the Navy SEALS that killed bin Laden?

who knows?

[1-Old-Man]

75. The NSA has nothing to do with anything like that

Human intelligence assets are within the purview of the CIA. The NSA deals in electronic and communications intelligence. They are two much different worlds.

[arely staircase]

78. dude says he could hack into anything

President's email, etc.

[Hekate]

74. If we knew the answer to that, the stuff wouldn't be classified, would it?

We already know there were no WMDs, and that was under Bush II, so that particular issue is a non-starter. Keeping certain docs related to that classified would no doubt fall under some law about secret info, and wouldn't be the "fault" of the current administration.

I'm guessing that Greenwald is keeping this going for his own purposes, to extend his 15 minutes of fame and keep sticking his thumb in Uncle Sam's eye. I'm wondering if any enjoyment Snowden ever had in this enterprise has worn quite thin by now.

[DirkGently]

86. I'm interested to hear what they were doing in 2011

that caused even the FISA court to say the PRISM law was being interpreted unconstitutionally. Maybe whatever the supposed "fix" was for whatever that behavior was is available.

I'd be super curious as what the illegal "interpretation" of the Constitution was then, and how it's changed now.

[Zorra]

89. No, he said the US government should be on its knees and praying, not the country.

Big difference.

Snowden may have the information that would immediately spark a domestic democratic revolution of some type.

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