Snowden Interview: NSA 'In Bed Together with the Germans

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26. About Snowden:

1.) You have to understand, he cleaned their clock, took it all, and he made sure to seal the deal before he went public. And he is going to screw all our "security" friends too, in Europe and elsewhere, who will not be grateful to us for that.

2.) They are used to being the guys who know, the guys who are wise, so they are in a state of panic. Us people out here in TV-land have never had such illusions of control, we never feel safe, so we can handle it better.

3.) This is what they do, the NSA, steal information and keep it secret so the government can USE IT, and they have been totally punked by one of their pet nerds. Of course they are pissed, and everything really is on the table, for them.

4.) Most of all, the spooks are being laughed at, the NSA is being laughed at, the national security state is being seen as the Keystone Kops. The Russians and the Chinese have already been here, now it's our turn, since we decided to go with the totalitarian methods too. And apparently it is just as corrosive to competence and good governance here as it was in those places.

5.) The Russian and Chinese reaction has been illuminating, you can see that they are bemused, and yet they don't want to piss off the angry guy any more than he already is, and they know they will be dealing with us when this "crisis" is long forgotten.