Quite a lot of smoke has been blown about Snowden's operation,
including the latest court decision and report about stopping
terrorist attacks.
First, NSA never accurately discloses tthe effect of attacks, leaks,
disclosures, public service announcements, job applications, FOIA
responses, answers to inquiries, historical accounts, participations
in conferences, educational programs, secrecy agreements, lectures,
memoires of ex-officials, the gamut.
Second, the Snowden operation's history, reporting, lawsuits,, books,
articles, lectures, speeches, movies, interviews have multiple gaps,
perforations, speculations, wishful thinkings, disinformation,
lbald-faced lies, fictions, diversions,, pardon advocacies and
possibilities, the gamut.
Third, these kind of operations are ancient, repetitive, legendary,
taught at spy academies, honed and advanced in the agencies,
universities, copied from and fed to allies and opponents,, provided
to publicity and media and educational iintitutions, exchanged with
contractors and ohter spy agencies, leaked, dropped, hurled, left in
bars and backseats and trains and bedrooms and forums and on dead
bodies/ implanted on servers and clouds and classified trransmissions
(iie, Manning's op and those regularly featured as from unhappy
insiders, freedom fighters, natsec specialists, vengeful ex-mates and BFFs).
Relevance here is the heavy use of inevitably-failure cryptography
for classifying, advancing, promoting and disclosing these
deceptions, along with the welter of tools for obscuring, enticing
and decorating. Privacy a favorite of the 1990s-2000s.
Notably, Jon Callas has recently joined EFF,