I think Snowden has always been a Russian asset, but he is sometimes correct.
@amerika upon what basis? taleb just asserts it as if fact, although I admit it's a reasonable suspicion to have
Based on his profile. Instead of escalating up the chain of command, he engineered as destructive a leak as he could. This is a public optics move.
@amerika isn't it precisely a public optics move that's required
@amerika @quasifly you get a partial hangout, a mea culpa and nothing changes
which is pretty much what happened
however the public, particularly technically minded members, took what was learned to heart and some mitigating factors were put in place
more generally, does trump run/win in 2016 without snowden and assange's actions?
@amerika @quasifly the five eyes just take it in turns to spy on each others citizens
you seem to have a pretty concrete model in your head on how to reform bureaucratic institutions, which I can respect, but it seems to be miles away from the reality on the ground in modern surveillance states
this stuff is perfectly *legal* so there's no need for bureaucrats to run for cover. only radical political reform or asymmetric cypherpunk tactics are likely to change the situation
The issue here is that if someone were to hack into this database and leak all of this private info, it's unlikely the CIA could be held accountable.
Also the CIA is a pretty opaque organization. If someone were to illegally file a warrant based on information from that database, it would be difficult to prove that that was actually the case in court.
Yet another reason to go embarrass the higherups.
Once you put something on paper, they no longer have plausible deniability, and most of government when abused operates behind that shield.
@skells @quasifly
The question is one of domestic versus international spying.
To spy on US citizens, they still need probable cause.
If that is being abuse, accountability comes into play.