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

[NanceGreggs]

266. No.

The request was for ALL Snowden emails. The NSA's refusal was to produce ALL Snowden emails. They didn't frame the request; the entity who made the request did - and did so very poorly.

"It doesn't matter at what Snowden claims to have done, whether he retained copies or why he didn't."

No, actually it DOES matter. This seems to be a pat response from Snowden fans of late: "It doesn't matter if ..."

No one in their right mind who is making a serious request for documents would make a broad request like "all emails" - especially to an agency that handles classified information, and must be extremely cautious as to what they release.

The entity framing the request - unless they are incredibly stupid - would KNOW that a blanket request like "all Snowden emails" would be refused. And as I have said, I think the "refusal" was what they were looking for - so as to use that refusal to claim that the NSA is hiding something that Snowden now claims to be there.

So be honest: If the NSA produced Snowden emails that were heavily redacted - as, of course, they would have to be - would you not be jumping up and down claiming that the redacted portions contained the proof of Snowden's claims, and had been expunged for that very reason?

We both know you would. There is no way on earth the Snowden fans would look at heavily redacted emails and say, "Well, there's no evidence here that Eddie raised his concerns with his superiors, as he claims. I guess he was lying about that all along."