re: #113 piratedan

is it okay if I do this, because I want to make sure I have the plot turns down correctly…

a few days back GG and WaPo get into a “me first!” match to post some supposedly incriminating crap regarding a data collection program that NSA has been running since the Bush Administration.

said program has a modest budget and makes requests and handles the metadata needs of the agency by using said queries against the data collected to profile and track persons of interest when their activity touches upon the web portals that the US has “control” over.

We find out that instead of all the tech companies rolling over and pumping Uncle Sam with everything that Uncle requests, that instead, they require that there be specific requests so that they can filter the data forwarded pertains to specific items so that the remainder of “our” data isn’t being sent.

When that begins to permeate through the media, the WaPo folks change their story to take a more cautious tone than the one with which they led with. GG and his “side” double down.

The the guy who “leaked” the info to GG that exposes the potential for abuse by the NSA but doesn’t actually show any abuse examples, leaves the country for China while there is a cybercrimes meeting ongoing with the Chinese as the President continues to press the Chinese about their theft of intellectual and business property.

This somehow stands as vindication of the fact that OUR Government is the one stomping on personal freedoms.

is that a valid synopsis so far?

There’s still some uncertainty about the section I bolded. The claim is out there that the NSA has some sort of thingie installed at the tech companies that gives them plausible deniability when the NSA wants to go fishing. Make of it what you will… I don’t think that issue’s decided one way or the other.

Also, Snowden’s bio seems to be, shall we say, somewhat embellished, and the lack of evidence for his more outlandish claims (like the fact that he could wiretap anybody, including Obama) is doing some serious damage to his overall credibility.