Ed Snowden continues to betray America.

I went off on this on Twitter last night, and I am no less disgusted today: Ed Snowden does not, in fact, care for the United States of America.

The German magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday that the NSA had bugged European Union offices and gained access to EU internal computer networks where it was able to read documents and emails. United Nations offices were similarly targeted, reports Der Spiegel based on information provided by Mr. Snowden.

Of course the National Security Agency bugged them!  That is what the National Security Agency does!

The National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) leads the U.S. Government in cryptology that encompasses both Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and Information Assurance (IA) products and services, and enables Computer Network Operations (CNO) in order to gain a decision advantage for the Nation and our allies under all circumstances.

The Information Assurance mission confronts the formidable challenge of preventing foreign adversaries from gaining access to sensitive or classified national security information. The Signals Intelligence mission collects, processes, and disseminates intelligence information from foreign signals for intelligence and counterintelligence purposes and to support military operations. This Agency also enables Network Warfare operations to defeat terrorists and their organizations at home and abroad, consistent with U.S. laws and the protection of privacy and civil liberties.

Bolding mine, and that’s from the NSA’s own website.  And before anybody says Well, I didn’t tell them to go spy on friendly countries let me just preempt you: I am telling the NSA to go spy on friendly countries, and neutral countries, and foreign NGOs.  Because they’re doing it to us, and that is how the game is played, and I didn’t ask for a twenty-something arrested-development anti-American man–child to arrogantly decide that American national security was less important than his frankly puerile transnational fantasy ideology.  In fact, I would like the American government to go collect said man-child, and try him for espionage, please.

Feel.

Freaking.

Free.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Notice how the only revelations of the NSA’s actual activities all involve stuff that the NSA is expected and permitted to do?  No, think about it: on domestic issues we’ve heard a lot of things of what the NSA might do or could do, and almost nothing about what the NSA has done. But Snowden and Greenwald keep revealing past activities that will hamper the USA’s ability to gather and process foreign intelligence.  This is because Ed Snowden and Glenn Greenwald hate you, and want you to die in a grease fire.  And they hate you because you actually love this country as it is, and not as it could be after a thoroughgoing revolution, and probably a purge or two.

20 thoughts on “Ed Snowden continues to betray America.”

  1. When I heard we were bugging EU offices, I thought: Good. I mean, what good is the CIA or the NSA (I still don’t know why we need two spy groups) if they don’t do their jobs? We don’t pay them to sit around and play Skyrim or watch porn all day.

        1. There’s the CIA, NSA, DIA, NGA, NRO, AFISRA, INSCOM, MCIA, ONI, OICI, I&A, CGI, FBI, DEA/ONSI, INR, & TFI. And, those are just the ones we know about.
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          I think they have so many because different departments have different needs and there are turf wars. They don’t want to share resources and information with each other.
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          This write-up from wikipedia: “The Washington Post reported in 2010 that there were 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies in 10,000 locations in the United States that are working on counterterrorism, homeland security, and intelligence, and that the intelligence community as a whole includes 854,000 people holding top-secret clearances. According to a 2008 study by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, private contractors make up 29% of the workforce in the U.S. intelligence community and cost the equivalent of 49% of their personnel budgets”

          2. The FBI can get wiretaps, Gator.
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            That’s “spying”.
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            (and they do have a role in thwarting foreign plots….)
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            Mew

          3. FBI is doing more and more foreign “law enforcement” work every year and they do counter-intelligence as well as spying on foreigners who are possible threats that are already in-country.

          5. Every agency wanted in on the big money after 9/11, jbird. The trough was full, the hogs showed up. Circle of (bureaucrat) life…
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            Mew

          6. I’ve read that some feel white-collar crime and bank robbery, etc. has gotten short shrift since, as a result.

          9. jbird, please call me Gator. I hate it when people butcher my name.
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            And that honestly doesn’t make the world less insane. Or maybe I’m the one who is insane.

  2. I think the domestic spying was a legit whistle-blow. The foreign stuff? yeah, that’s what the NSA is supposed to do.

    1. Concur. The NSA, and the CIA – again, Moe, from their *mandate* – are supposed to be outward-facing, protecting Joe Sixpack from *foreign* threats.
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      They do not need my metadata to do so.
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      Mew

      1. Also, I definitely see a distinction between the NYT reporting the “warrentless wiretaps” leak under Bush and the NSA PRISM deal. I would like to think this isn’t just partisanship, but if Osama bin Laden had mis-dialed my cell number in 2006, I would totally expect the NSA to record the conversation. I do not expect the NSA to tally how often and when I call my wife.

        1. More importantly, it would be a waste of time and resources for the NSA to tally how often and when you call your wife, and those are two things that are always limited, no matter how big your budget is.

          1. Then, Finrod, WHY ARE THEY DOING SO?
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            That simple question – why the NSA want *and are storing* private citizens’ metadata – is at the core of the controversy.
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            Mew

  3. M.I.C.E.
    Money
    Ideology
    Conscience
    Ego
    The four reasons spies spy. This one may have started as conscience, but it is definitely into ego territory now……

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