Terrorists harder to track after Snowden's leaks, officials say (LA Times)

[flamingdem]

WASHINGTON — Suspected terrorists have changed how they communicate and have become more difficult to track as a result of former contractor Edward Snowden’s disclosures about U.S. surveillance operations, according to current and former officials who say that the changes have led to a significant loss of intelligence.

How much that loss amounts to remains unknown as the government’s classified assessment is continuing, they said.

In addition, Snowden’s disclosures about eavesdropping in Russia and China gave each of those countries insights that are already thought to have impaired the National Security Agency’s ability to intercept their communications, the officials said.

Among the disclosures from Snowden that were published in the Washington Post and the Guardian was that Skype, the Internet calling service, was among the systems that provided data to the NSA’s secret PRISM database. That disclosure contradicted a widespread belief that calls made via Skype were difficult or impossible to intercept.

http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-snowden-terrorists-communications-20130628,0,2357982.story

[Tarheel_Dem]

1. Is it possible that Snowden was trying to create an international incident? Who does this help?

[flamingdem]

3. His timing is suspect. The release of info on the Chinese damaged relations

and one has to question the motivations there. I wonder if he had help within the NSA to get data. Maybe Wikileaks arranged that for him, they have the skills.

[Tarheel_Dem]

11. His Dad seems to think Wiki is pulling the strings. nt

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. I guess now that the terrorists and evil communists know

we are spying on them and have changed their tactics, it will just be good ol' non-criminal Americans getting their entire electronic communications stored for future use.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Because we all know OBL used his internet account

and cell phone until the day he died... oh wait, he did not. He used Couriers and he was found the OLD FASHIONED way... how pre-911 thinking I know.

This is a classic... FEAR... be webby webby afraid...

[ahimsa]

5. Or maybe "Terrorist communications disrupted"..

.. as the billions-dollar budget the NSA has should allow them to adapt quicker than the terrorists to the "disclosures".

[flamingdem]

6. true, but they said in the article it took many years to learn some codes nt

[justiceischeap]

7. For anyone who thinks Snowden's actions won't have negative consequences, I'd just like to say

you're naive. This isn't some red herring story... there's truth to the fact that he has compromised our spy missions abroad. I'm not saying that he shouldn't have told Greenwald about the NSA spying on Americans but he certainly didn't have to spill the beans about our spy programs abroad. That act was treasonous all by itself.

[flamingdem]

8. yes and he's willing to give more, and seems indiscriminate about who it hurts

or who has it to a point. several others have copies so he's really let the cat out of the bag, and US intelligence is saying the Chinese got the intelligence when he was in Hong Kong.

That's not hard to believe since he was a sitting duck there and not a trained spy.

[Tarheel_Dem]

9. His father says it wasn't treason. He seems to have rationalized that all Lil' Eddie did was....

betray his government, but not the American people. I might even agree with his Dad, but that was before he went on his little roadtrip. And to hear the father making preconditions for his son's return to face justice is troubling, to say the least. I say let him live in that damned airport terminal for the rest of his life.

[warrprayer]

10. what a crock n/t

[flamingdem]

12. well you have to assume

a certain amount of "information" will come out about this that serves to sway the public.

It's probably partially true, like lots of the accusations

[warrprayer]

13. recced

for an op authored by someone capable of respectful discussion/disagreement!