General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Ok, I'm stepping into the Snowden discussion for the first time... [View all]karynnj
(60,922 posts)There were major debates in the Senate and Dodd wanted to filibuster a bill to make FISA legal retroactively. There were major campaigns to try to stop the bill here and on Daily Kos. Far more than has happened since Snowden.
Mentioning that history is to point out that the NSA phone data that was the thing that most disturbed people with Snowden's leaks was explained in complete data - what it was, how it could be processed and how it could be used. It was also a big media story -- starting in 2005 with the Risen article on FISA that the NYT held back in 2004 for fear of raising it right before the election.
Snowden leaked other things -- including US spying on other countries and results of other countries' spying that the US was given. These are NOT the things that most people were concerned with, but they are what hurt the US.