General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Lawrence O'Donnell: Edward Snowden's Christmas Message Was 'Wildly Overblown,' 'Provably Untrue' [View all]ljm2002
(10,751 posts)...about the nature of the files Snowden took from the NSA.
He does NOT have the phone metadata records, he has information ABOUT the phone metadata records and how the NSA gathers and uses them. He does not have email headers, he has information ABOUT the email headers and how the NSA gathers and uses them.
He has empowered us to act on these invasions of our privacy by our government, in that we now have STANDING to sue because it is now PROVEN that the government gathers up data (okay, okay, metadata) on ALL its citizens. Which a few short years ago would have been cause for widespread outrage, but nowadays we are supposed to shrug and say "Oh well, terrorism dontcha know".
As for proper warrants, the NSA was engaged in improper spying under GWB and when that was discovered and people were outraged, our government turned around and made it all legal. The so-called "warrants" under which phone and email metadata are gathered are just broad rubber stamps.