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The author is James Clapper, who Snowden's revelations proved lied in Congressional testimony about whether the NSA was collecting information on millions of Americans. So when he says that "multiple executive branch agencies, Congress, and federal courts [...] were all aware of and conducted oversight of the very programs that concerned [Snowden]," he's talking about the Congress that he lied to about these programs. How are we supposed to trust that Congress can conduct effective oversight when the intelligence community lies to them?
(We shouldn't.)
Snowden embarrassed the intelligence community and they won't forgive him for it. Americans (and others) should take that into account when they read or listen to the intelligence community's criticisms of Snowden.
A) He's a Russian plant, HE IS IN RUSSIA!one!11
Which is easily disproven because he could have done a lot more damage from the inside and it's the US that forced him to stay in Russia, Snowden was provably en route to Ecuador when his passport was revoked.
"But he doesn't criticise Russia"; well, he can't leave and it's not his fight, his fight was for the soul of the western world (primarily America, though as a Brit I am glad he revealed what he did); Russia is very well known to be corrupt, there's nothing more to be said on that.
B) He put lives at risk!!two!2
Also very easily disproven as he only gave uncensored data to two Journalists whom had a track record for ethical disclosure (even to their own detriment).
Or anyone who has reason to toe the same line, which is all of corporate news and most any politician.
One can also include Assange as a target of this biased criticism.
And yet, I don't see these international terrorist groups having been particularly successful since the Snowden leaks.
Of course Clapper is going to try to paint the leaks in a bad light; the leaks painted him in a bad light!
Dang, sounds like they should have cast a finer net or something eh?
> he had appointed himself as judge over what he had seen, and then, without conducting an investigation or calling out wrongdoers, was going to bring about justice in ways that multiple executive branch agencies, Congress, and federal courts - which were all aware of and conducted oversight of the very programs that concerned him - apparently were unable or unwilling to do.
And yet the American people, who ostensibly hold the reins here, weren't uniformly enthused about what they heard. This is an insider with immaculate insider mentality griping about a whistleblower whose complaints in the previous paragraph apparently went miles overhead. What an eye-roller.
Good, maybe this will incentivize intelligence agencies to not abuse their power knowing people will whistle-blow and reveal secrets. When you remove all other methods of accountability, this is what happens. Intelligence agencies did this to themselves.
I can't see how. Post was a wall of copypasta from James Clapper's book.
He lied to Congress and lied to the American people.
ref: https://reason.com/2018/01/17/time-is-running-out-for-prosec...