
NSA Coworker Remembers Edward Snowden: "A Genius Among Geniuses" - mzarate06
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/12/16/an-nsa-coworker-remembers-the-real-edward-snowden-a-genius-among-geniuses/?partner=yahootix
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Theodores
Snowden differs from many of the whistleblower ilk in that there is nothing to
dislike about his character (yet). The media have not dished any dirt, none of
his friends/family/ex-lovers have came forward with anything untoward about
him and he hasn't shown any signs of being deluded.

Even if you try your hardest to 'believe', a lot of whistleblowers have been
deluded one way or another. They can be overly indoctrinated in their
'mission', so, whilst bringing to light useful information they have also been
a bit keen to believe the propaganda that goes with The War Against Terror,
e.g. Coleen Rowley. They can also be deluded in their importance, to be less
than convincing, e.g. Sibel Edmonds. They can also fully jump the shark, e.g.
David Shayler. Then there is Assange, 'deluded' in my opinion for thinking
leaks could be monetized.

Unless I am missing something, Edward Snowden has taken a stand for truth and
not allowed his character to be compromised in any way whatsoever. He has not
made any mistakes, there is nothing where you could think he could have done
better. Am I being deluded in thinking this?!?

~~~
lukev
I think the fact that he leaked a lot of details about NSA surveillance of
foreign governments diminishes his moral high ground. That is the _stated
mission_ of the NSA and while the details are highly classified, everyone
knows that they're doing it and agrees it should be done as a matter of
policy. Embedding himself in the NSA specifically to find the details
regarding these activities and release them looks more like espionage than it
does whistleblowing.

I'm all for whistleblowing on how the NSA is abusing its powers to spy on US
citizens, and I think it's extremely important that he did so. I really wish
he'd constrained himself to that. Releasing everything he did hurts his
credibility in everyone's eyes and prevents any part of the government from
acknowledging him as a legitimate whistleblower, which would have been the
best outcome to this whole scenario.

~~~
jeswin
_I 'm all for whistleblowing on how the NSA is abusing its powers to spy on US
citizens, and I think it's extremely important that he did so. I really wish
he'd constrained himself to that._

I can't believe you're saying this. Is your judgement so clouded by patriotism
that you somehow think other people have no right to their privacy? Let me
explain the consequences of what you are suggesting here, apart from the
obvious loss of goodwill across the world. Countries will feel free to
barricade "their internet" and control communications. There will be lesser
transparency, more firewalls and more detentions. Oppressive regimes will love
this, and your allies will be left confused.

In times of peace, your allegiance should be towards ideals. Like democracy,
privacy and free speech.

(edit: take an upvote anyway, you are entitled to your view.)

~~~
lukev
Those _are_ my ideals - I am a pacifist, I'd much prefer that we wound down
this (and most other) military activity. I was simply pointing out how
Snowden's actions reflect on his character.

Whistleblowing: Revealing that an entity is doing things it should not be
doing so the correct oversight can be put in place.

Sabatoge: Deliberately destroying the capabilities of an organization by means
of deception and rule-breaking.

I am 100% for the former. I am against the latter, _even when I agree with the
philosophy behind the actions_.

~~~
rpenm
The latter often describes civil disobedience.

~~~
sliverstorm
Sabotage and civil disobedience don't really overlap.

Sabotage: I will secretly undermine your operations and try not to get caught.
My sabotage is operational- it is most effective when undiscovered.

Civil disobedience: I will publicly defy your rules with every intention of
being apprehended. My defiance is political- it achieves nothing by itself,
and must be public.

Yes, both involve breaking rules, but that is where the similarities end.

~~~
no_wave
Why should someone consent to being apprehended if they are protesting the
same laws that they are breaking?

~~~
sliverstorm
Because it's _civil_ disobedience. If you fight back, resist arrest, evade the
police, etc it is just disobedience. :)

The point behind _civil_ disobedience is to publicly demonstrate the
unjustness of the law, not fight it head-on. Remember when those nonviolent
University students a little while ago got pepper-sprayed? Much, much better
press for them and their cause than "students start brawl with police".

Some people believe civil disobedience doesn't have to be nonviolent, but most
people agree on nonviolence and all the famous examples of civil disobedience
were nonviolent (Rosa Parks, Thoreau, Gandhi, etc)

~~~
no_wave
Both Snowden and Assange are avoiding apprehension while being non-violent.

I said nothing about violence - in fact, your comment is the first on this
page to mention violence - so I don't really understand where you're coming
from.

~~~
sliverstorm
Ok, what's a better word? I mention violence because it is most common
dividing line, but I think what I mean could be called "resistance". Whether
we call it violence or resistance doesn't change my previous comment; as I
clearly described, civil disobedience is typically considered to be passively
accepting the consequences as part of a public display.

------
fit2rule
If there is one thing that we should all be taking away from the Snowden
episode, it is the fact that all human activities are utterly arbitrary. We
decide to live in a free society, and then we do the things necessary to live
in that society as we have defined it should be.

The definition keeps changing. One minute, its just not a free society unless
you can keep slaves, the next minute its not a free society unless women vote,
the next .. well, you get the point. Society is only as good as it declares
its intentions and then carries them out; nowhere, alas, in the entire miasma
of American law, is there the requirement that one has to always try their
best to do well, and to operate on the principle of the greater good - in face
of all opposition.

This too, is arbitrary, and the point where it becomes reality instead, is
when an individual voice in the crowd stands up and says "this is how things
should be!", gaining a little more volume than everyone else, and getting a
bit more agreement, in the face of all the worlds cannibalism, that it might
be good to cook things slightly differently.

Snowden, and others out there working in their own, utterly non-arbitrary
ways, are always going to be necessary to remind us that just when you think
you are safe, because status quo, the new safe realm is the as-yet completely
unexplored ..

~~~
soulrain
This is true but you have to admit over time the means of oppression have
become more nuanced and complicated.

Few people realize that most companies are little more than intellectual
property, a network to collaborate on expand said IP and the corp's ability to
secure information.

Large corps and govt's not only understand this, they are defined by it, thus
the need for whistle blowers more now than ever as the foot on your throat is
not as apparent.

~~~
fit2rule
Education always will be, and currently is, the tip of the spear. If you can
deem to educate someone, you can deem to educate another. Once you gain a
mass, education becomes lesser than the whole. This is why: we humans
constantly need _new_ means by which we can enlighten ourselves. Within a
generation, todays enlightenment becomes de rigeur, de jour, de jure. This is
the nature of the trap we find ourselves; escaping it requires one abandon the
dialectic of our masters, and embrace the constant new.

For as long as we have hackers, we are safe.

~~~
jessaustin
Education has that potential, but it also has the potential to indoctrinate
and pacify. I agree that innovations in education are exciting and valuable.

------
herbig
I like how they say he "cheated" on the entrance exam to the NSA by stealing
the questions and answers from their servers, as if that doesn't just make him
more qualified for the job..

~~~
sliverstorm
_as if that doesn 't just make him more qualified for the job_

Maybe. Maybe not. Do we want the NSA to be rule-breaking cowboys that get the
job done, or do we want them to have a rigid code of ethics?

I honestly don't know. Rigid ethics impair their effectiveness; cowboyism
gives us what we have now.

~~~
dragonwriter
> Rigid ethics impair their effectiveness

Does it? How, specifically?

> cowboyism gives us what we have now.

Which also impairs effectiveness at doing anything that is legitimate role of
any component of the US government, which necessary includes adhering to
rather than subverting the Constitution of the United States.

~~~
michaelt
All rigid systems of checks and balances impair effectiveness if your
definition of "effectiveness" ignores the problems the checks and balances are
designed to prevent, as checks and balances almost always involve checking and
balancing.

For example, think how much the president could get done if we got rid of
congress, the senate, the supreme court and the constitution and we just had
an all-powerful dictator. None of this mucking about with government shutdowns
and filibusters and pork and vetos and negotiating. No excuses for "I just
couldn't get it done due to washington politics". It would be so agile.
Probably save a lot of money as well.

~~~
sliverstorm
You do make a good example. Benevolent dictators do appear to be _extremely_
effective.

Of course they are hard to come by, but that isn't the question here.

------
soulrain
If you can't put the veracity of the revelations of Snowden on trial I guess
you attack his character and/or means.

The NSA is in a lose, lose situation. They are painting Snowden to be an
idiot...an idiot they were dumb enough to hire and allow to revamp major
system. Oh but he cheated on their test to get hired! If the NSA cannot secure
a test what can they secure? Oh but a comp sci guy was quirky and eccentric!
Ya well maybe tell ole' Keith not to recruit at DefCon what kind of people are
you trying to hire?

The idea that there is mass data store somewhere and it will not be utilized
for say insider trading or blackmail is naive to say the least. If Snowden had
access so do many, many others and I am sure they tell themselves they are
good people but human nature is what it is... What weapon, and mass info is
indeed a weapon, has ever been created and never used especially a stealthy
tool which can always be denied being used hidden behind secrecy and
patriotism?

------
tootie
The fact that the NSA needed help to setup Sharepoint fills me with confidence
that they have no idea what they're doing. I'm guessing the password to the
call log metadata is on a post-it note somewhere.

~~~
pmorici
The government's workforce is made of of a very large percentage of
contractors 50%+. The article makes it seem like he was a unicorn but that
probably wasn't the case. Contractor employees often get paid more than a
government counter part doing the same job[0]. If I had to venture a guess as
to why this is I'd say it is because those contractors turn around and make
political donations where as many government employees are limited in their
political activity, especially in the defense sector.

[0] [http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/3311:guess-what-it-is-
che...](http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/3311:guess-what-it-is-cheaper-to-
use-federal-government-employees-than-contractor-employees)

~~~
jsumrall
I think its more because their contract has an expiration date. They get paid
more because there is a "risk" that they could be unemployed for some time
before they find a new contract (not likely for programming jobs, but speaking
about contractors in general...) whereas a gov't employee has a huge amount of
job security. Its a choice of Money vs. Job security.

------
Edmond
Nothing in that piece to suggest Snowden was a "A Genius Among Geniuses"...on
what basis does his genius rest? AFAIK there is no record of Snowden doing any
kind of work out there that'll suggest he knew anything about computing
security.

It seems people have forgotten that there are a ton of freely available
computer security tools out there that any body can take and do a lot of
damage with.

~~~
astine
That quote is apparently the opinion of one of the NSA staffers that worked
with him. Apparently he was more talented than most of the other employees and
contractors.

~~~
Cthulhu_
Indeed; a statement like that is either reflective of Snowden's skill level,
or the average skill level of his co-workers. I haven't personally seen
anything out of the ordinary yet for a generic
sysadmin/developer/hacker/internet freedom fighter character.

------
kushti
The difference between Snowden and other NSA employees is that Snowden is the
real U.S. patriot, not just government worker.

~~~
skrebbel
I don't understand that. Why is doing the right thing somehow "patriotic"?

You don't need to "love your country" to want to make it a better place.

~~~
kordless
A patriot does for his country what its government will not, or cannot.

~~~
maigret
No. (Ideally) a patriot does what is good for his country, whatever the
government does, good or bad. That can include helping the government do what
is right for the country and its citizen.

------
ww520
It's sad that keeping a copy of the constitution is seen as a sign of
eccentricity.

~~~
talmand
I find it particularly sad since I have a copy sitting on my desk at this
moment. It's an interesting read, I would suggest it to anyone that hasn't
yet.

It also has the Declaration of Independence at the end as well. Doubly
eccentric?

------
salient
With great power comes great responsibility. I'm glad Snowden saw it that way,
too. Same goes for William Binney who was a higher-up in NSA, and also in
charge of creating some of its most important/dangerous surveillance software,
before he decided to become a whistleblower.

------
nexttimer
> “I won’t call him a hero, but he’s sure as hell no traitor.”

No hero? What does it take for you then?

Actually, he's not a hero, he's more like Jesus of our times, giving away his
(perfect) life for us (who - of course - don't even appreciate his sacrifice,
let alone act).

~~~
eplanit
You should paint a new rendition of the Last Supper with Snowden as your
Jesus, and you can have Assange, Manning, ..., (choose 10 more of those types)
as his disciples. Have fun.

------
lafar6502
I suppose they're trying to persuade us that Snowden is a superhuman, and only
his superpowers allowed him to get access to all the information. It has
nothing to do with incompetence of his coworkers and bosses, nobody could have
prevented that and it's nobody's fault.

------
tamersalama
Something tells me that due to Snowden's leaks - nothing will ever get
accomplished at the NSA. Not anymore. Imagine of all the additional security
and authorization measures that they will add. Imagine how this would be a
hurdle in both day-to-day and new projects.

~~~
simoncion
You have an overactive imagination. ;)

~~~
eruditely
Maybe not overactive enough to warrant such tasteless tongue in cheek though.

------
batgaijin
I bet he knew more acronyms than anyone

------
siliconc0w
The problem with this article is the author has no idea what is actually a
genius security/cryto/computery act. Lazy reporting.

------
kriro
Seems like the source for this article was male.

