NSA says Snowden e-mails exempt from public disclosure and secret

[NanceGreggs]

240. No, they are not required to do so.

The request was for ALL emails; they said no to ALL emails.

Now it is up to the entity requesting the emails to narrow their request, and try again.

Quite frankly, I don't know why this is even being discussed. Let's be honest here. If the NSA provided all of Snowden's emails with the appropriate redactions, Snowden (and his supporters) would insist that the blacked-out portions are the portions that contain Snowden's "raising his concerns" with his superiors.

It's a smart move on Eddie's part to challenge the NSA to produce emails he knows they will either (a) refuse to produce, or (b) will be heavily redacted if produced. Either way, he can claim that the NSA is "hiding" the very communications that support his claim of having "gone through proper channels".

Did Snowden not repeatedly respond to queries as to why he didn't "go through proper channels" by saying he thought it would be futile to do so? It was only a few months ago that he started claiming that he DID raise his concerns with the appropriate people.

That brings us full circle to the burning question: If Snowden sent such emails, why did he not retain copies of them? He certainly KNEW that if any such CYA emails were sent, his being able to produce them himself after-the-fact would serve as incontrovertible proof that he had done so.

Smart enough to steal thousands of classified documents, but not smart enough to have retained the very documents that he now claims would prove he had raised his concerns and was ignored or rebuffed? Who's zoomin' who?