Why was Snowden's information such a revelation to everyone, well, almost everyone?
Didn't anyone else notice how Al Qaeda is smart enough to read the Manning/Wikileaks docs off the web so Manning was alleged to have aided the enemy. BUT, apparently they're too stupid to do a Google search and find the myriad of ways that the US can snoop on them. So Snowden is a terrible traitor because he divulged something any idiot with a computer and internet capability could find broad information about and then make the not-too-large leaps about how to avoid US surveillance. Especially the people who have reason to be paranoid.
It's pretty common knowledge that you shouldn't take a cell phone anywhere you don't want to be tracked. The practice of screening cars, rooms, buildings for bugs and erecting a Faraday cage to prevent transmissions of signals has been around for a while. The fact the NSA has been routing all the traffic they can get through their servers has been known since the Bush/Cheney post-911 dystopia began and the FISA amendments were passed.
Frankly, I don't understand why the Snowden thing has been such a revelation to everyone. Certainly not to any foreign government. Certainly not to any parties that had reason to be suspicious about whether or not the US was spying on them. If all foreign governments weren't already operating under the assumption the US is monitoring them any way possible then they are downright stupid. That would be willful ignorance.
The US government routinely lies to us and our congressional representatives. We know that. It is a fact.
On edit: Silly me. I forgot. Of course the British, the Germans and others knew. They were participating. The real crime in the eyes of the government is now the "sheeple" know and it's not going away after one news cycle.
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