So, Snowden Was Just An “Honorable Guy”, Eh?
Believe that, and I’ve got a great deal for you on a bridge.
An “honorable guy” doesn’t do a lot of things. One of them is to trick his colleagues into helping him steal massive amounts of classified information. Another is lie through his teeth.
Per this story, apparently NSA has determined that Snowden tricked, cajoled, or conned at least three of his colleagues into providing him their login credentials on NSA systems. (Some of the links in that article are marked FOUO, so if you’re accessing the article from a government computer system use due caution.) Snowden then captured those credentials and used them at later times to gain access to material he would not have otherwise been able to access – and steal.
Previously, Snowden has denied stealing others’ login credentials. So this documents that Snowden is a damned liar, too (as if we didn’t already know that).
One of the individuals Snowden duped has since “resigned” from NSA. (I’m guessing it was either that or be fired, as the article states his security clearance had been revoked.) Reportedly, the other two have had their access to NSA systems revoked. Other information in the article indicates the two may possibly face additional disciplinary action.
Yeah, I’m guessing these folks thought they were simply “helping out” a co-worker by doing what they did. But the guys and/or gals involved were still being fools when they were duped. Security policies exist for a reason, and bypassing them can really cause problems. Bypassing them did exactly here.
IMO, this does rather conclusively prove that Snowden was anything but honorable. Honorable people don’t hang their colleagues out to dry like this, or lie through their teeth publicly. This also shows that Snowden meticulously planned his crimes in advance, and actively sought out information he knew he wasn’t authorized to see in order to steal it.
I hope we one day get our hands on this damned turncoat. Hopefully, that will be when we have an administration running things that knows how to deal with turncoats.
Category: Military issues, Shitbags
There are those on the Left and Right who are insisting that he still is some sort of hero, and that anything negative coming out about that Traitor is just the NSA trying to cover its tracks of course… Kind of like when Sandy Hook occurred and folks were claiming there were “actors” from DHS there playing the role of grieving parents. Or the 911 Truthers…
Everything nowadays is a freaking conspiracy.
Did NSA overstep and spy on Americans, I guess it is depends on your definition of spying. Did Snowden intentionally take that job with the NSA to obtain information for a predisposed opinion that they were, and in the process expose means and methods of the US Government, as well as a couple of our Allies of monitoring those who would do us harm? Yes, he sure as hell did. He is a fucking traitor. worse than any other because of the level of information he has let out there and potentially given over to his “host”. Funny the countries to which he ran isn’t it?
He is a scumbag traitor.
No, the ends don’t justify the means. Even though what was shared confirmed my own suspicions, it doesn’t make it right that he took it upon himself to leak classified info. Same with Breanna Manning.
Neither is a hero.
Snowden gave away our government secrets. He has probably cost the lives of Americans and our friends, what few we have , in other parts of the world. Why so may think this narcissistic punk is a hero is sad.
If we had a C.I.A. that had not been emasculated by the liberal Left in Congress we would not need to get him back to the U.S. to deal with him. But for now he is safe. If he ever steps on American soil again he should be arrested.
I’m torn. Half of me says that he’s a piece of scum. The other half says that he is, but at least he made sure the world knows of the abuse of power that the Obama administration is doing.
He stated somewhere that his only intention with getting an NSA job was to steal classified information, and the company that cleared him did a sloppy job on its background check.
Geez, when I got a secret squirrel clearacne, people told me the FBI was back in my neighborhood asking embarrassing questions about me. That’s how you do a clearance for anything over ‘confidential’.
Ex-PH2: for Secret and below, it’s my understanding that the process isn’t so rigorous any more. But for what this guy was cleared for as a NSA sysadmin, the investigations are still pretty thorough. I’m surprised they didn’t ask him – and his references – to submit to a proctoscope. (smile)
Or at least they’re supposed to be damned thorough. Obviously they sometimes aren’t.
TS and above (depending on the field) require a Single Scope Poly. Definitely for SA work though. Also his the credentials he gathered were most likely PKI certs, most likely using a Man in the Middle atack to obtain the certificate and then acting as that person to obtain the information he wanted. Needless to say, he is a traitorous fuckstain and deserves a swift justice. However, I dont see that happening anytime soon. Some would say that he is a hero because he is a whistleblower; although he would not even be classified under the law that protects “whistleblowers.” [/the reason he fled the country]
Snowden is a scum traitor, but there is a silver lining in that the Government corruption of the spying program was exposed, as well as the incompetence in security screening procedures that allow Snowden and people like him to get a job there with a high level security clearance.
If he had sent the info to an American press outfit, like the guys that broke into the Philadelphia FBI office in the 1970s and sent the files to the press exposing J.E. Hoovers unconstitutional law breaking, he’d have a bit of justifiable cover for his claim of wanting government accountability.
But he didn’t. He gave that info to hostile foreign governments, which makes him an ordinary, garden variety traitor.
To be fair, SGT Ted: Snowden first gave the files to foreign journalists (British, as I recall). He then fled to Hong Kong, then Russia.
Doesn’t negate the fact that IMO he’s a turncoat bastard using a false whistleblower claim to justify what was a blatant attempt to get his “15 min of fame”. If he’d been interested in whistleblowing, he’d have gone to the NSA IG.
@Hondo Exactly.
He should have started withe NSA IG…certainly…had he done so and gotten no where I would have been okay with him turning it over to American Press outlets….
Since he did none of that I have to see him as a traitor and a spy for foreign governments…dishonorable sh1tbag…
I am not surprised the NSA is spying on everyone, after all the previous administration and the current one seem to have zero respect for most of the amendments listed under the bill of rights….they who serve in DC don’t much care for the first or second amendments it should come as no surprise to discover they don’t care for the rest either…if we don’t start getting republican and democrats out of office who vote for these offenses against the constitution then we will get what we deserve which is a joke of a constitution and zero protection for our naturally occurring birth rights.
I suppose technically he didn;’t steal the assowrds, he conned their owners to give them to him. Sophistry on the order of ‘he voluntarily gave me his wallet when I showed him I had a gun’.
Typically if your clearance is reveoked, you resign because otherwise you get fired.
OK, we already know Snowden is scum, but the douchetard who gave him his PKI certs? Are you fucking kidding me? PKI certificates allow you access to some of the most sensitive information out there. If someone doesn’t have PKIs, then you don’t just allow them to use yours, and you certainly don’t provide the password to said certificates! Good lord! What kind of retard was this NSA civilian? I mean, I understand Snowden was a weasel, but this co-worker of his needs to be strung up for being terminally stupid.
The coworkers were also relieved of their positions, for failure to protect national assets.
When and why did we stop shooting traitors?
Snowden will get Americans killed at the hands of our enemies, if he hasn’t already. That fits my understanding of the definition of “aiding and abetting.” If they’re gonna send a drone after anybody, why not waste his ass?
Manning cost good people their lives in Iraq, yet he’s getting 3 hots & a cot on Uncle Sam’s dime and might even get parole someday.
Hell, I read that that sonofabitch Walker who got arrested back in the 80s had a hand in the sinking of the USS Scorpion! And he still got life!
Why are we feeding these cocksuckers? Why don’t we feed them a dose of lead and be done with it, like we’re supposed to?
I’ve said from the beginning that letting the American people know that they are being illegally spied on by their own government is one thing, stealing classified documents and making them public (and/or giving them to foreign governments) is quite another.
Neither supporting nor castigating Snowden but it WAS the N.S.A. which told us “Snowden tricked, cajoled, or conned at least three of his colleagues”.
Given the known history of the N.S.A.’s use of deception, and given recently revealed facts as to just how many times and how much the N.S.A. has lied to us all, perhaps we should take everything the N.S.A. says wioth a tablespoon of salt.