NSA spying scandal - the story so far. The real purpose is political blackmail NOT counter terror

[alfredo]

91. As a former member of an information gathering agency in the military, the ASA,

I can understand how a person can become disillusioned and angry at their own country. Your job in intel becomes your world, you see nothing but the worst in mankind. It twists you, it makes you a cynic. It drives you a little nuts (PTSD?). I went through that crisis myself, but didn't do what Snowden did. I realized nothing would change if I talked, except for me being housed in some federal prison. My own sense of honor prevented me from going against my own word. I said I would keep my mouth shut about my job and I did. Instead of betraying the oath I took, I just carried on and when my time was up, I put on my civies, threw away my shaving kit, walked out the gate and put that life behind me.

It did radicalize me. I dropped out of society for a couple decades. I started coming back in a bit once married. That street fighting anarchist is still inside me, but the old arthritic bones keeps me away from the barricades. It's a young man's game. Snowden may have done more good by channeling that rage into working for justice in his own home town. We need some angry young men and women to fight against mountaintop removal and fracking. Corporate greed and corporate control of our government is the real enemy. (see last paragraph)

As soon as Snowden went public, everything changed in that community. What info he had that hasn't been released, code words, frequencies, encryption, has changed. His value as an asset to our adversaries has diminished greatly. There is a very short shelf life for intel. That's why torture is of little use. An asset gets captured, and before he spends his first night in captivity, his cohorts have moved on and reworked every part of their system. You can't assume he will keep his yap shut.

The real damage done by Snowden is confirming what was suspected, and that is mitigated by the universal realization that no secure system is secure. Our allies and enemies are spying on us, and we them, and we know they can breach our firewalls. Snowden's revelations were probably met with a big shrug world wide. That doesn't mean the politicians will not use it to their advantage.

Military secrets are just one target, the big target is the international business community. The cold war is now an economic war. al Qaeda's end game was the destruction of our economic and in turn, our military capabilities. "They hate us for our freedom" was total bullshit. They hate us for our economic clout and the effect it has on their culture.

If you remember, at the end of the cold war GHW Bush shifted the focus away from military intel to spying on the international business community. Industrial espionage for the benefit of Corporate America is the real reason for our expanded spy agencies. I'd be willing to bet that much of the data collected is not individuals, but the business communities in our economic rivals. In business we have no allies, just enemies and potential enemies.