What will terrorist learn from Edward Snowden leaking of classified documents?

[warrior1]

I think it's an important question to ask.

Probably change their MO, more importantly you have to believe that there are good people who do work at these agencies trying to protect us.

I don't have an answer and I'm not looking for a fight.

Is Edward a hero?

Has he made it harder to find terrorist?

The world isn't a one hour tv show that crime can be stopped with fancy fictional tech equipment.

I don't like what he did, but I can see how someone in his position would feel given how bad the world really is.

I still support President Obama.

[treestar]

1. What did he release?

[warrior1]

2. methods

chain of command

[Laelth]

3. In my mind, he's a hero.

I am not alone, as you will see from the comments following this article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance

-Laelth

[MineralMan]

4. Probably not much. I assume they know they might

be watched in their communications. A guy who is involved with terrorism would have to be pretty stupid not to imagine people were looking for him. Dontcha think?

[warrior1]

5. how would you find a terrorist?

what methods?

You would want to crunch numbers, find patterns, locations, money.

A lot of these systems of collecting data have been around for a very long time, it's getting to were do you start looking.

Leaking these methods will make it harder.

[AzDar]

6. Terra! Terra! Terra! Gotta keep us safe, don'tcha know?

... Sounds like goddamned vintage Dick Cheney-spew. I'll take my chances in a country where a government regularly spying on its citizens is still considered an abomination, thanks.

[warrior1]

7. really?

That is a sad comment you just made. I feel sorry for you.

[AzDar]

9. Seems only fitting, as I certainly pity you. Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, indeed.

[warrior1]

12. like I said in my op

I didn't want to fight with anyone. You decided to call me dick fucking cheney, a criminal.

I feel sorry for someone that can't see the difference.

[AzDar]

14. I most certainly didn't call you 'Dick Fucking Cheney'. I said the crap you're spewing in the op is

Cheney-esque. I, too, feel sorry for someone who cannot see the difference.

[warrior1]

16. I rest my case

[AzDar]

17. All-righty, then.

[randome]

8. Supposedly they are collecting the data of non-Americans.

Absent evidence to the contrary, I see no reason to doubt Pres. Obama on this.

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[AzDar]

13. I admire that you have such confidence in the President. Ask yourself this:

If the same assurances/revelations were coming from a Bush, or a (Ted) Cruz, or a Palin Administration, would you still be cool with it?

[randome]

19. But what it would it take for someone to be satisfied it was the truth?

There are 3 levels of review currently. At some point, we do need to trust someone or we will spend our entire lives in a state of panic.

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[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
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[BenzoDia]

10. Well, I think we should honor his wishes and ignore him.

[usGovOwesUs3Trillion]

11. I don't care what cowards fear, the real question is

What have American's learned?

[Rex]

15. Another thought to chew on, how do we know this is not false flag

operations? Leak classified misinformation just to get that many more terrorists with a drone missile.

[WestStar]

18. What the terrorists and the public should learn

is that no matter how many billions are spent, no matter how big and intrusive government becomes, Black September will still attack the Munich Olympics, someone will still blow up the Marine barracks in Beirut, park a truck bomb in the basement of the World Trade Center, blow a hole in the side of the USS Cole, fly commercial passenger planes into WTC and the Pentagon, murder a bunch of fellow soldiers on the secure Ft. Bragg military base and kill and maim people just trying to watch a foot race.

Having said that I think your odds of being hit by lighting, getting run over by a bus or perishing in a car wreck, even with all the seat belts and airbags, are probably greater.

It's the least of my worries.

[whatchamacallit]

20. They will learn we can't be frightened into abandoning our freedoms and principles

That no matter what they do, there will always be brave Americans who believe truth and knowledge are stronger than fear, and refuse to be cowed by them or their own government.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

21. That America is a nation that is afraid of its own people and pursues whistleblowers?

[sabrina 1]

22. They won! They hated us for our freedoms, now they know our own government did their job for

them so they learned they can all just go home safe in the knowledge that our freedoms are gone!

[Egalitarian Thug]

23. That many Americans believe they are stupid beyond belief.

Edit: Oh, and that their strategy works even better than they hoped it would.

[totodeinhere]

24. The terrorists won't learn anything they don't know already. n/t

[LWolf]

25. "Terrorist" is a misnomer, since

wallowing in fear is a choice. Nobody can terrorize you if you don't agree to it. Some people like horror movies. They like the adrenaline rush they get from faux "fear." Some people like drama; any excuse to ratchet their emotions up to an extreme. Some people allow their buttons to be pushed and react like obedient little sheep. Some seem addicted to it.

I see "terrorists" for what they are: bullies willing to take it to an extreme, just as their targets are willing to take their fear to an extreme.

I'm not trying to find "terrorists." There are plenty in plain sight right here at home: political terrorists, economic terrorists, class terrorists, social terrorists, all willing to blow the quality of life, liberty, and happiness of the masses to smithereens.


“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
― Benjamin Franklin, Memoirs of the life & writings of Benjamin Franklin

[Downwinder]

26. That NSA can't track people leaving the island?

[markiv]

27. Idea for new security law:

any time a citizen questions a politician, and the politician doesnt like it, they need only say '911'

if the citizen says a single world after that, they are immediately classified as a terrorist

we must be safe

[markiv]

29. a model for such a law

[Warpy]

28. Only that our country is as nosy and intrusive as theirs are.

They'll probably learn to use burner cell phones from convenience stores rather than i phones with a subscription plan.

Oh, Uncle Sugar can still track those. They just won't be making it easy for him.

I doubt knowing they're being watched bothers any wannabe terrorist in the slightest. It didn't seem to bother Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

[octoberlib]

30. Probably absolutely nothing they don't already know

Brian Jenkins is no bleeding heart when it comes to tracking down terrorists. “I’m not squeamish,” he said in a phone interview Friday morning. “I don’t wring my hands over what has to be done.” Jenkins, in fact, is a pioneer in the field of counterterrorism. A former Special Forces soldier and longtime RAND Corporation analyst, he compiled the first database of international terrorists back in 1971, wrote one of the first monographs on the subject in 1974, and has since served as a frequent high-level consultant on the subject


After this week’s news stories, James Clapper, director of national intelligence, released a statement, describing what the program is and is not. Jenkins, after reading a few lines from this statement, said, “I cannot figure out why this was classified to begin with. It should have been in the public domain all along. The fact is, terrorists know we’re watching their communications. Well, some of them, it seems, are idiots, but if they were all idiots, we wouldn’t need a program like this. The sophisticated ones, the ones we’re worried about, they know this. There are debates we can have in public without really giving away sensitive collection secrets. It’s a risk, but these are issues that affect all of us and our way of life.”

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2013/06/brian_jenkins_fears_nsa_overreach_a_top_terrorism_expert_thinks_government.single.html