Intelligence Officials Can't Keep Story Straight: Snowden Both Did And Did Not Get Key NSA Secrets

Failures

from the which-is-it? dept

We’ve already talked about how NSA surveillance supporters are trying to claim both that Ed Snowden’s links were either “nothing new” or “false” and that they “harm America.” We had trouble understanding how both could be true — but supporters were making both statements. Now intelligence officials are doing their own sort of contradictory statements, as pointed out by Glenn Greenwald. First up, we’ve got intelligence officials claiming that Snowden didn’t get the really deep dark secrets of the NSA:

U.S. intelligence now believes Edward Snowden did not gain access to the “crown jewels” of National Security Agency programs that secretly intercept and monitor conversations around the world, CNN has learned.

Note that comes from CNN reporter Barbara Starr who is well known for basically spreading the NSA official line so much that she’s been called “the Pentagon spokesperson who works for CNN.” However, just a day later, another site published a quote from General Bob Kehler, who “oversees cyber warfare” and is “sort of” NSA chief Keith Alexander’s boss, claiming something quite different:

He referred to the type of information Snowden released as ”the deepest of the deep secrets.”

So… he didn’t get access to the “crown jewels” but has already released “the deepest of the deep secrets”? How does that work?

The reality is that these guys are basically just posturing for different audiences. They want to downplay the seriousness of the leaks, while still attacking Snowden and making it out like this action is so dangerous. The problem is that both things can’t be true. But, of course, when has the NSA and the intelligence community ever cared about truth? You’d just think they’d be a bit more careful about so obviously contradicting themselves.

Filed Under: ed snowden, nsa, secrets, surveillance