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Comment by venomsnake | Hacker News Reader

Manning was not whistleblower.

And neither is Snowden.

After you grab a million files constituting nearly half a terabyte of top secret data and abscond with it to China (and then Russia), despite what your very best intentions may be, I don't think the title "whisteblower" is still applicable.

First - no one has quantified what exactly Snowden has. Second so far only the western media have had access to the files. Third there was not any proof that he had copy of the information while he was in Hong Kong.

If you think the Chinese/Russian intelligence services haven't managed to get their hands on the entirety of what Snowden took I think you underestimate their prowess.

A few Western journalists in their flats and offices does not a secure facility for storing highly classified information make.

If Snowden took out data with such ease, I am strongly convinced that other services already had a copy of the relevant info (and much more) before he even thought about leaking it.

Whether they had the information or not, giving them a plausible excuse to know that information is still a significant security breach. There are countless examples in the past where one party had secret information they were forced not to act on for fear of revealing to enemies that they did in fact know it.

Given the apparent security practices where Snowden worked, I expect the Chinese/Russian intelligence services already had the entirety of what Snowden took.

"A few Western journalists in their flats and offices does not a secure facility for storing highly classified information make."

They might have done better if the NSA had not been deliberately undermining our ability to secure ourselves.

Whether they had the information or not, giving them a plausible excuse to know that information is still a security breach. There are countless examples in the past where one party had secret information they were forced not to act on for fear of revealing to enemies that they did in fact know it.

It is a breach, but only a severe one if there were things (of import) for which another plausible excuse could not have been trivially constructed. And again, this is an issue because individuals cannot credibly be secure, which is quite specifically something the NSA has worked to ensure.

By what definition of 'whistleblower'?

As someone that exposes irregularities in government activity. Bradley Manning just dumped standard diplomatic cables. Very few of which contained information that was not "diplomacy usual"

There is a huge difference between Manning and Snowden. While I'm sure Manning meant well, and some of the documents absolutely justified whistleblowing, she was sloppy and careless and simply handed over the entire thing to someone else.

Snowden keeps control, works with reliable people, and only releases things that need to be released. Snowden, much more than Manning and Assange, is the kind of hero we need.

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