Here's Why Snowden Plea Negotiations Are Going Nowhere

[JDPriestly]

6. I doubt that the Chinese or Russians were at all surprised by Snowden't revelations.

They know what we are doing and probably do what they can when it comes to surveillance themselves but without the technical ability we have.

The people who did not know are the American people.

The surveillance game is par for the course in international relations (although we have more capacity than any countries other than Russia or China I would guess). This program involved placing Americans who had contacts with foreign residents under surveillance. That has been going on for a long time. We don't know the extent to which other Americans were under surveillance.

Have you read the testimony given by the NSA representative before the Church Committee?

I recommend it. Inevitably this kind of surveillance takes a political turn. The targets (watch list) has to be picked. And deciding who should be on the watch list is a political decision. That is incompatible with a free society.

Remember how Martin Luther King was placed under surveillance? The NSA program is designed to make such surveillance possible at the click of a mouse.