If the gov didn’t want its secrets out in the open, they shouldn’t of been spying on their citizens. Maybe there would be less sympathy if the leaks didn’t bring to light the bombing of Bagdad full of civilians in the middle of the night and how the military hid it.
Maybe it was all for the money and Snowden is just a dick, but I’m glad he did it.
snooggums@kbin.social 9 months ago
What people did he get killed?
Chozo@kbin.social 9 months ago
It's been a minute since I've refreshed myself on the Snowden story, and I don't have time to go deep into that rabbit hole again, but if memory serves I believe he released non-redacted documents that exposed the positions/identities of deployed US assets, and some who were operating undercover had their identities blown.
JoeKrogan@lemmy.world 9 months ago
He gave it to specific journalists with proven track records who concluded that the published info was in the public interest while running by the government and redacting confidential identifying data.
You can’t get more responsible than that.
snooggums@kbin.social 9 months ago
You remember the government claiming it, but as far as I know they never released any actual statements that his leaks killed anyone.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/438jmw/official-reports-on-the-damage-caused-by-edward-snowdens-leaks-are-totally-redacted
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL2N1BR287/
Both of these are pretty typical of all the articles I have seen, which is the government claiming he did great harm, but no actual examples of getting anyone killed.
Chozo@kbin.social 9 months ago
Yeah, that sound about right. I don't remember it ever being confirmed what, if anything, was actually compromised by the leaks. But I doubt that we'd ever get specific details on something like that from the government, anyway.
Though I imagine that a lot of ongoing operations at the time probably had to be cancelled prematurely, the consequences of which might never really be known.
GuidoMancipioni@lemmy.world 9 months ago
That’s because they were spies. Spies aren’t typically talked about. SOME of the programs he detailed in those releases were within the scope of what he was trying to expose, but many were not. He dumped THOUSANDS of documents related to humint sources that absolutely got people killed, burned other active contacts / projects and cost years worth of work. There was a huge shuffle of personnel after those leaks as intelligence agencies TRIED to get their people out, but there were a great number who couldn’t get out. Andrew Bustamante speaks about this, at some length, to just name the most well known talking head.
The majority of what he exposed had nothing to do with domestic surveillance programs, and the way he exposed that information was WILDLY irresponsible.
Yes, the illegal surveillance he exposed was a big deal, but again, was done in a really shitty way that compromised active investigations. He neglected to do anything through proper channels, and instead betrayed his country rather than try to fix the problems through whistle blower channels where he would have actually had legal and tangible protections. Dude was an actual shit bag and a Russian asset.