More fun

According to the Guardian, Snowden is a 29-year-old high-school dropout who trained for the Army Special Forces before an injury forced him to leave the military. His IT credentials are apparently limited to a few “computer” classes he took at a community college in order to get his high-school equivalency degree—courses that he did not complete. His first job at the NSA was as a security guard. Then, amazingly, he moved up the ranks of the United States’ national security infrastructure: The CIA gave him a job in IT security. He was given diplomatic cover in Geneva. He was hired by Booz Allen Hamilton, the government contractor, which paid him $200,000 a year to work on the NSA’s computer systems

He tells the Guardian, the NSA let him see “everything.” He was accorded the NSA’s top security clearance, which allowed him to see and to download the agency’s most sensitive documents. But he didn’t just know about the NSA’s surveillance systems—he says he had the ability to use them.

Via: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/09/edward_snowden_why_did_the_nsa_whistleblower_have_access_to_prism_and_other.html

@robertGL

I really do not see your point. Thing is this story is promoted by papers owned by same guys who play and talk and meet with NSA top guys each day :-) Guy who leaked all this no way could have access to information. This guy even did not have skill for the last job title he had.

All we have here is controlled leak with some clear target.

@robertGL

It is very interesting how many people in US believe in fairy tales :-)

Data mining is like searching for a needle in a haystack. There are 900 million credit cards in circulation in the United States. According to the FTC September 2003 Identity Theft Survey Report, about 1% (10 million) cards are stolen and fraudulently used each year. Terrorism is different. There are trillions of connections between people and events -- things that the data mining system will have to "look at" -- and very few plots. This rarity makes even accurate identification systems useless.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/03/data_mining_for.html

Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security technologist and author.

Why would the nsa spin that kind of story, if they did control that leak? I mean, that must be some great master plan if they can gain something from the fact that they are secretly spying their entire country and the rest of the world. Still, I find it totally unlikely that some guy can just decide to give away all the big secrets to the public.

@inqb8tr

Why would the nsa spin that kind of story

Well, personally, I'm not saying they did. But I can think of plenty of strategic reasons. If it were more convenient, looked better, say, than the info being released first by an ex-contractor rather than by somebody else who was about to cause a worse scandal or diplomatic furore - whatever it is, the NSA would rather decide. It's sort of like resigning from a job when you find out you're about to get fired anyway.

We ordinary folk only get to find out 30 years later.