Washington Post’s Barton Gellman Interviews Edward Snowden

The best interview so far. Here’s one exchange worth highlighting:

Gellman: “It is commonly said of Snowden that he broke an oath of secrecy, a turn of phrase that captures a sense of betrayal. NSA Director Keith B. Alexander and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper, Jr., among many others, have used that formula.”

[Gellman interjects: “Snowden noted matter-or-factly that Standard Form 312, the classified-information nondisclosure agreement, is a civil contract. He signed it, but he pledged his fealty elsewhere.”]

 

Crocodile Tears form the Telecoms

Ray on RT (40 seconds)

They get paid royally by NSA by violating the Fourth Amendment and deceiving their clients, and have become accustomed to being held harmless, like the senior U.S. officials who suborn them. They are now being exposed as charlatans and, worse still from their point of view, they are losing business big-time, especially overseas. And so, Please, Please, Mr. President, Help us redeem ourselves; help us now appear law abiding and super-sensitive to privacy concerns.

Sorry, too late. Will be virtually impossible (no pun intended) to rebuild trust in U.S. software and hardware. As for us, very hard to shed tears for the telecoms and Internet providers, who have been complicit in violating the U.S. Constitution simply to frenzy-feed on huge (taxpayer-funded) slop from the government trough.