Has the destroying of his credibility already started? What's next? An uncovered rape case from his past?
If the NSA Trusted Edward Snowden With Our Data, Why Should We Trust the NSA?
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Re: If the NSA Trusted Edward Snowden With Our Data, Why Should We Trust the NSA?
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
ok...I will bite. TOR power initiate...7 proxies now!
OK..I am back from that link. The verbage was worse than sitting next to an insurance salesman before a flight.
Yea sorry about that - In retrospect I shouldn't have included a brain-deadening link
Re: If the NSA Trusted Edward Snowden With Our Data, Why Should We Trust the NSA?
#73I wouldn't be surprised if the #1 criteria for NSA grunt employees is patriotism. If he's prepared to sacrifice everything for his country than he seems to be the perfect candidate to me.
It is for CIA at least. Their tactic is that "we can teach you technical stuff in class after we hire you, we can't teach you patriotism if you already aren't". They like to hire ex-Marines. Someone was saying they also like to hire Mormons. The kink is that many patriots do actually understand and love the Constitution and if forced to routinely go against it in their line of works, a few will pull a Manning. That i…
I have heard from multiple sources that the CIA loves Mormons.
Language skills. No drugs. No alcohol. Does well in a hierarchical environment. Check, check, check and check.
It would be against the law to ask about the underwear.
Re: If the NSA Trusted Edward Snowden With Our Data, Why Should We Trust the NSA?
#74I don't think Slate is trying to crucify Edward Snowden. I think it was more "If a high school dropout with basic computer skills can win this contract, imagine what a talented hacker with malicious intentions could do", and just happened to attack Snowden a bit too much.
Even Slate admits, though, that they have no idea what level his computer skills are at or how good a fit he was for the job: >Yes, he could be a computing savant anyway—many well-known techies dropped out of school They're basically bemoaning his lack of official credentials.
Which is rather humorous considering how articulate he was in the video of him being interviewed by Glenn Greenwald. You can tell immediately he's not your stereotypical drop out.
Re: If the NSA Trusted Edward Snowden With Our Data, Why Should We Trust the NSA?
#75The very fact that Edward has the integrity to risk his life in the name of public interest means that he's exactly the kind of person the NSA should be trusting with our data. It's probably his combination of integrity and competence that let him get the access he did in the first place.
Re: If the NSA Trusted Edward Snowden With Our Data, Why Should We Trust the NSA?
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm pretty sure if you were involved with terrorist groups, you became aware of this sort of thing well before it made the front page of the New York Times. The idea that keeping it out of the press prevents the targets from knowing is naive.
Just sayin', at the operational level it pretty much always has to be a secret, at least while the monitoring is going on.
bin laden & co. knew the NSA process took 72 hours and adjusted their communications accordingly. the operational aspects (read: deficiencies) of many "important" monitoring functions is widely known by those who "need" to know.
Re: If the NSA Trusted Edward Snowden With Our Data, Why Should We Trust the NSA?
#77Please. This is not about can we trust them because someone leaked, any civic-minded person would have done what he did if they had big enough balls. Are we trying to say that out of the thousands of employees the NSA has no one else but this one guy felt there was something wrong with this program?
Re: If the NSA Trusted Edward Snowden With Our Data, Why Should We Trust the NSA?
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even Slate admits, though, that they have no idea what level his computer skills are at or how good a fit he was for the job: >Yes, he could be a computing savant anyway—many well-known techies dropped out of school They're basically bemoaning his lack of official credentials.
I think the real thing to take home here is that they trusted him and he broke that trust. Who else are they trusting that they shouldn't be?
I though the real issue was that we trusted the American government and they broke that trust?
Re: If the NSA Trusted Edward Snowden With Our Data, Why Should We Trust the NSA?
#79The author is full of stupid snark. Clearly Snowden is an exceptional individual; learning that he used to be a janitor, or whatever, shouldn't cause us to throw away all the evidence we have about him and double-take "they promoted a janitor ?". Perhaps the quality of his work matched his obviously high character, regardless of his initial lack of formal credential. This is IT we're talking about - classes are a jok…
The janitor making good, solving the famous math conjecture on the blackboard, is a Hollywood trope. Not sure why Slate is so adamant that the guy's story is a disqualifier. We don't know his story yet but this much is certain: he is by definition an exceptional individual.
It's not only a Good Will Hunting trope, but has a very relevant, very current real-life example that came to light a few weeks ago.
Tom Zhang, who now teaches at the University of New Hampshire, recently published a proof of the mathematically-famous twin prime conjecture for certain prime number pairs.
For quite some time, Zhang couldn't find work as a mathematician, and during that period, he worked as a Subway fast-food restaurant worker.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/that-figures-profe...
I believe I understand the point that Manjoo is making in his article, but both his choice of example, and the specific derogatory language he uses to express his reaction, makes it seem to me that he has some specific ax to grind about the nature of technical credentials and their social cachet.
Re: If the NSA Trusted Edward Snowden With Our Data, Why Should We Trust the NSA?
#80All of the comments taking umbrage that the article isn't celebrating Snowden's character are missing the point. While it is entirely possible that he was qualified or even overqualified for the position he had at Booz Allen Hamilton, nothing in his resume suggests that which raises the question who else has access to sensitive data and secrets? The answer could be that Snowden was an exceptional individual and that'…
The security clearance process basically looks for reasonable, honest Americans free of foreign influence. If government actors are abusing their power to such an extent that reasonable, honest Americans free of foreign influence feel morally obligated to blow the whistle, then there are going to be more leaks. It's not a flaw in the system; It's a safeguard against corruption and abuse of the system.
> The security clearance process basically looks for reasonable, honest Americans free of foreign influence.
ie: not gay and without financial debt