Edward Snowden has spilled his guts. Sick of the odious deal we've made to preserve freedom by letting ourselves be watched all the time, the former CIA guy and Booz Allen Hamilton contractor has decided not to fly any more data collection missions for the NSA. He turned his back on the whole damned mess and started running, and now he's hiding in a luxury hotel in Hong Kong, hoping that he won't be disappeared by the shadowy men who keep reminding us all, "We
There is a certain class of narrowly brilliant people for whom school holds little interest and who therefore tend to lack academic credentials. They're far from unheard of in the IT sector - the founders of Tumblr and blip.tv, for example, are both high-school dropouts.
It wouldn't surprise me at all if the intelligence community actively sought such people - their lack of interest in following the expected paths and rules most people in society follow could be a valuable trait.
According to CNN, BAH hired him out of a computer security job at the CIA. That doesn't exactly sound like a controversial decision on their part.
ETA: OK the Guardian profile suggests BAH hired him out of another NSA contractor who'd hired him out of a different NSA contractor who'd hired him out of a computer security job at the CIA. Still not seeing any major "whoever hired him should be fired" flags.
According to the Guardian, Snowden's time in the Army was training for special forces... and enlisting at 19 was the reason he didn't complete community college.
Assuming the Guardian's profile is accurate, between working for the CIA and contractors for the NSA, he's spent about 7 years working on cybersecurity for the intelligence services. That's not a background to poo-hoo.
The creation of the Dept. of Homeland Security led to a huge, massive recruitment effort. The number of random people hired to read Top Sekrit stuff increased by a factor of about a gazillion. This led to the whole everyone-spying-on-everyone-else thing, which is not a chapter in Catch-22, but its sequel, 1984. The standards for security clearance seem to have plummeted below their original <strike>rigorous, nonpartisan</strike> piss-poor levels almost immediately.
And of course there&#039;s that whole thing about hiring private contractors to do the government security thing. What could possibly go wrong with that?
That said, I heard Snowden interviewed on BBC this morning, and he struck me as smart and articulate and also well-informed. I&#039;m not gonna tag him as a foolish famewhore yet.
Didn&#039;t say he had nothing to do with it. The Bureaucracy really runs the government, and it remains largely the same from administration to administration.
The idea that Obama&#039;s mere election would cause vast changes to this Byzantine system is just silly.
You can say that I am making excuses for him, but I&#039;m not. Merely positing my opinion that he has done no more than those that came before him. The problem being that he has done no less, either.
Maybe Barry can get Gordon Liddy and Howard Hunt to break into Snowden&#039;s neurologist&#039;s office to find some damning evidence about his epilepsy.
<i>Also, it looks like maybe Snowden may not have really thought through that &ldquo;Hong Kong hearts free speech so they will protect me&rdquo; idea so well. </i>
That&#039;s kind of like being glad you have cancer because you want to lose a few pounds.
It&#039;s not what you do, it&#039;s who you do. Isn&#039;t that how it goes?
Seriously. This is your new aristocracy. People in positions of wealth and power through their circumstances of birth, regardless of their ability.
There is a certain class of narrowly brilliant people for whom school holds little interest and who therefore tend to lack academic credentials. They&#039;re far from unheard of in the IT sector - the founders of Tumblr and blip.tv, for example, are both high-school dropouts.
It wouldn&#039;t surprise me at all if the intelligence community actively sought such people - their lack of interest in following the expected paths and rules most people in society follow could be a valuable trait.
In whatever place Verizon uses, Mumble is the national language, so you just might be right.
According to CNN, BAH hired him out of a computer security job at the CIA. That doesn&#039;t exactly sound like a controversial decision on their part.
ETA: OK the Guardian profile suggests BAH hired him out of another NSA contractor who&#039;d hired him out of a different NSA contractor who&#039;d hired him out of a computer security job at the CIA. Still not seeing any major &quot;whoever hired him should be fired&quot; flags.
&quot;cold...I&#039;m cold&quot;
You may be thinking of snow woman....they have snow balls.
According to the Guardian, Snowden&#039;s time in the Army was training for special forces... and enlisting at 19 was the reason he didn&#039;t complete community college.
Assuming the Guardian&#039;s profile is accurate, between working for the CIA and contractors for the NSA, he&#039;s spent about 7 years working on cybersecurity for the intelligence services. That&#039;s not a background to poo-hoo.
A survey of Fortune 500 C-suites says it extends <em>way</em> beyond the banking industry.
Yep.
The creation of the Dept. of Homeland Security led to a huge, massive recruitment effort. The number of random people hired to read Top Sekrit stuff increased by a factor of about a gazillion. This led to the whole everyone-spying-on-everyone-else thing, which is not a chapter in Catch-22, but its sequel, 1984. The standards for security clearance seem to have plummeted below their original <strike>rigorous, nonpartisan</strike> piss-poor levels almost immediately.
And of course there&#039;s that whole thing about hiring private contractors to do the government security thing. What could possibly go wrong with that?
That said, I heard Snowden interviewed on BBC this morning, and he struck me as smart and articulate and also well-informed. I&#039;m not gonna tag him as a foolish famewhore yet.
Let&#039;s just stop at:
They trust classified intelligence to a firm?
America: privatizing core democratic principles since 1980.
Faux News blowhards yammering about the death penalty for treason: be careful what you wish for, you treasonous assholes.
That&#039;s quite a catch...
Didn&#039;t say he had nothing to do with it. The Bureaucracy really runs the government, and it remains largely the same from administration to administration.
The idea that Obama&#039;s mere election would cause vast changes to this Byzantine system is just silly.
You can say that I am making excuses for him, but I&#039;m not. Merely positing my opinion that he has done no more than those that came before him. The problem being that he has done no less, either.
Maybe Barry can get Gordon Liddy and Howard Hunt to break into Snowden&#039;s neurologist&#039;s office to find some damning evidence about his epilepsy.
<i>Also, it looks like maybe Snowden may not have really thought through that &ldquo;Hong Kong hearts free speech so they will protect me&rdquo; idea so well. </i>
That&#039;s kind of like being glad you have cancer because you want to lose a few pounds.