Greenwald interview: NSA cannot break the code on Miranda's thumb drives.

[Aerows]

44. If I were the NSA

I'd be worried about a backup job that failed ostensibly, then was restarted. Job failures do happen, it's the nature of the beast. That's where I would find a goldmine that didn't get traced to me, personally, only the backup operator.

That's why I would have them hanging wondering what in the hell I had ( and more importantly, how I got it), because sometimes it isn't easy to determine what failed, why, and how much you can recover, if any. You can't get out in front of a story if you don't know the ammo that another entity has. You can go on TV and declare "I didn't sleep with that woman" and out pops a dress with your semen on it. You can declare that you aren't spying on Americans, out pops documents that prove it covers at the least 75% of all domestic communications. Out pops a warrant signed by a court that ostensibly states that you can legally dump everyone on Verizon's business communication networks traffic.

It proves that the government is full of bullshit, and that they can't be trusted. Once their credibility is eroded, you release the big ol' bomb.

That is the danger the NSA feels is facing them, and I wouldn't doubt it. It could also be detrimental to the US, but only because policy put in place has been detrimental. Unfortunately, shit rolls down hill, and the 99% are the ones that usually face the shit.