Greenwald: Snowden Docs Contain NSA 'Blueprint'

[ProSense]

Greenwald: Snowden Docs Contain NSA 'Blueprint'

By JENNY BARCHFIELD

Edward Snowden has very sensitive "blueprints" detailing how the National Security Agency operates that would allow someone who read them to evade or even duplicate NSA surveillance...Glenn Greenwald, a columnist with The Guardian newspaper who closely communicates with Snowden and first reported on his intelligence leaks, told The Associated Press that the former NSA systems analyst has "literally thousands of documents" that constitute "basically the instruction manual for how the NSA is built."

"In order to take documents with him that proved that what he was saying was true he had to take ones that included very sensitive, detailed blueprints of how the NSA does what they do," Greenwald said in the interview in Brazil, where he lives. He said the interview took place about four hours after his last interaction with Snowden, with whom he said he's in almost daily contact.

<...>

Greenwald told The AP that Snowden has insisted the information from those documents not be made public. The journalist said it "would allow somebody who read them to know exactly how the NSA does what it does, which would in turn allow them to evade that surveillance or replicate it."

<...>

"I think it would be harmful to the U.S. government, as they perceive their own interests, if the details of those programs were revealed," said the 46-year-old former constitutional and civil rights lawyer who has written three books contending the government has violated personal rights in the name of protecting national security.

- more -

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/greenwald-snowden-docs-nsa-blueprint-19665239

Keep talking.

Greenwald tries to do damage control
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023244823

[ProSense]

2. Welcome to DU.

You may want to direct your question to AP/ABC.

Again, welcome. Enjoy your stay.

[Scurrilous]

3. Thanks.

"...he's very resigned to the fact that things might go terribly wrong and he's at peace with that."

Well, if you keep talking Glenn...

[struggle4progress]

4. Morons

[ProSense]

7. He's digging a deeper hole for Snowden. Consider

this claim from the OP article, albeit editorialized:

Despite their sensitivity, the journalist said he didn't think that disclosure of the documents would prove harmful to Americans or their national security.

Now, here is a disclaimer from a July 1 piece by Der Spiegel:

SPIEGEL has decided not to publish details it has seen about secret operations that could endanger the lives of NSA workers. Nor is it publishing the related internal code words. However, this does not apply to information about the general surveillance of communications. They don't endanger any human lives -- they simply describe a system whose dimensions go beyond the imaginable. This kind of global debate is actually precisely what Snowden intended and what motivated his breach of secrecy. "The public needs to decide whether these policies are right or wrong," he says.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/secret-documents-nsa-targeted-germany-and-eu-buildings-a-908609.html

He turned over information that could "endanger" lives, and Greenwald spends the weekend making implicit threats.

[struggle4progress]

14. Yep. Nice illustration of Greenwald's standard MO

[UTUSN]

5. K#5 (or whatever), come on, Glen spill your damned guts. n/t

[Andy823]

6. Interesting

"Greenwald told The AP that Snowden has insisted the information from those documents not be made public. The journalist said it "would allow somebody who read them to know exactly how the NSA does what it does, which would in turn allow them to evade that surveillance or replicate it."

So Snowden does not want them to go public, yet Greenwald just told the AP that Snowden has these blueprints and that's really a good idea? Doesn't this kind of let anyone who wants to "evade or replicate" the program know Snowden has what they want? I would think it might be a better idea to NOT tell the world this bit of information!

It seems like Greenwald is getting Snowden in more trouble every time he talks to the press. With friends like this who needs enemies?

[MannyGoldstein]

8. Allowing a noob to get all of that info is astonishing

Seems like the folks running intelligence should all be fired, if for no other reason then their own security was criminally atrocious. And for lying to Congress.

Remember how the head of the IRS had to be fired immediately for the outrageous! outrageous! Non-scandal he had zero to do with?

[randome]

15. It's bad enough Snowden stole what he did.

But I doubt Greenwald knows what he's talking about. Or he and Snowden could be lying again.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]

[flamingdem]

9. Hmm. More slide shows

That's pretty vague.

[ucrdem]

10. Slyboots Snowden downloaded dynamite on the down low . . .

from Wikipedia

[flamingdem]

11. That's damning! But I really think he's got them with this:

...pssst top secret weapon blueprint

[randome]

16. The NSA has a 'back door' into Angry Birds! Of course!

How could we not have seen that coming?
[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]

[mstinamotorcity2]

12. Just too many Security clearances

given to outside Contractors. Thanks Shooter good looking out.

[SidDithers]

13. DU rec...nt

Sid

[ProSense]

18. Welcome back.

Will you make it to post #2?

[moondust]

19. Unless Greenwald is a top-level analyst at NSA,

he does not know what's current and what's outdated or what's important and what's not. Even analysts at NSA may not know what pieces of what puzzles are important to what foreign intelligence agencies.

Demagoguery of the worst kind.

[ProSense]

20. Exactly. n/t

[Scurrilous]

21. Snowden ‘Worst Damage’ US Has Ever Faced, Greenwald Claims

<snip>

"Could Edward Snowden do “the worst damage” the United States has ever faced in its history? That’s the gist of a statement that The Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald made to Argentina’s La Nación and then sorta kinda halfheartedly took back yesterday.

If you read Spanish, Alberto Armendariz’s interview with Greenwald about the Edward Snowden mess can be found by clicking right here. The sentence that had all Twitter in a rage on Saturday is this:

“Snowden tiene suficiente información como para causar más daño al gobierno estadounidense él solo en un minuto del que cualquier otra persona haya tenido jamás en la historia de Estados Unidos.”

Reuters translated that statement to say: “Snowden has enough information to cause [more] harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever had.”

Considering that the United States has been involved in two World Wars, a devastating Civil War, and several near-misses with nuclear war or accidents in the Cold War era, that would seem fairly difficult to achieve unless Snowden plans to reveal nuclear launch codes or something on that level.

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

Considering that the United States wouldn’t go on its knees to Nazis, Nikita Khrushchev, or Osama bin Laden, Greenwald seemed to be expecting a bit much. Twitter erupted."

Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/847474/snowden-worst-damage-us-has-ever-faced-greenwald-claims/#rhi16SQRcezF0GDT.99