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NSA Wants To Reveal Its Secrets To Prevent Snowden From Revealing Them First

Posted by samzenpus on from the coming-clean dept.

binarstu writes "According to a recent report by Tom Gjelten of NPR, 'NSA officials are bracing for more surveillance disclosures from the documents taken by former contractor Edward Snowden — and they want to get out in front of the story. ... With respect to other information held by Snowden and his allies but not yet publicized, the NSA is now considering a proactive release of some of the less sensitive material, to better manage the debate over its surveillance program.'"

23 of 216 comments (clear)

  1. Psyops at its finest. by starworks5 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When you get to frame the issue the way you want, you can try to convince the people that it was for their own good. Snowden may likely say show that it was used abused in practice, and the NSA likely wants to say that they prevented a suspected domestic terrorist.

    1. Re:Psyops at its finest. by s.petry · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yup, this is exactly it. Unfortunately a whole lot of people don't think much about what we already know. The few that know and care won't be easily pacified by what the NSA starts releasing. We already know they lie, and anyone that trusts a liar is a fool.

      Personally, I think the damage control is not really needed. I guess it may be trying to push some people back down into slumber. The Obamacare fiasco shows just how far out of reality countless Americans really are. Don't get me wrong, people are waking up. I'm just not confident enough will be awake in time to prevent some very very bad things from happening in a very short time.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    2. Re:Psyops at its finest. by icebike · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Exactly.

      I've been posting this prediction all along.

      They will own it in public statements, (or at least they will own part of it), and they will tell you to get over it. They will then go on to even bigger excesses and violations. They will attempt to have laws passed making encryption a crime (again).

      You haven't seen anything yet.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    3. Re:Psyops at its finest. by Mitreya · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Snowden may likely say show that it was used abused in practice, and the NSA likely wants to say that they prevented a suspected domestic terrorist.

      NSA will also probably claim that they were going to release/review this material anyway, and Snowden just forced them to do it too early (thus jeopardizing security, etc, etc.)

      I found it fascinating when Obama made these claims -- that he was going to review and fix the entire NSA program any day now and that Snowden just forced him to do it in a rush instead of carefully.

    4. Re:Psyops at its finest. by boorack · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Given their record of factuality in their official statements this whole bruhaha about "openess" it is more likely to be lie. Given number of transgressions and laws broken by NSA we've seen in Snowden documents, they just can't release such things, so it is lie for sure. They only thing they propably want to achieve by this manipulation is to make whistleblowers' life harder. After all, despite of all bullshit and propaganda in corporate media citizenry is now behind Snowden. What they want is propably to have some leverage to explain to public that future whistleblowers' revelations are 'redundant', so they'll have public consent to prosecute or exterminate future whistleblowers and also journalists. This corresponds pretty well with latest law pushed by Feinstein that legalizes all NSA transgressions we've seen in latest months and mandates harsh penalties for both whistleblowers leaking inconvenient materials and journalists publishing such revelations. In short, Obama regime is now busy reinforcing its grip on what public should and shouldn't know.

    5. Re:Psyops at its finest. by Seumas · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We want to reveal the lie before Snowden reveals the truth.

    6. Re:Psyops at its finest. by ApplePy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Given their record of factuality in their official statements this whole bruhaha about "openess" it is more likely to be lie.

      Congratulations! If there were a /. Achievement for Understatement of the Week, you'd have won it! :)

      --
      That I'm right, and you don't like it, doesn't mean I'm a troll.
    7. Re:Psyops at its finest. by stenvar · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I found it fascinating when Obama made these claims -- that he was going to review and fix the entire NSA program any day now and that Snowden just forced him to do it in a rush instead of carefully.

      I think it's become clear that you can't believe anything Obama says. That's not "fascinating", it's deeply disturbing in the top executive of our government. The president is supposed to be boring, honest, and careful; instead, we got an activist and a liar.

    8. Re:Psyops at its finest. by ultranova · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I found it fascinating when Obama made these claims -- that he was going to review and fix the entire NSA program any day now and that Snowden just forced him to do it in a rush instead of carefully.

      On the good side, he can now skip right to closing Guantanamo Bay.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    9. Re:Psyops at its finest. by mean+pun · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think it's become clear that you can't believe anything Obama says. That's not "fascinating", it's deeply disturbing in the top executive of our government. The president is supposed to be boring, honest, and careful; instead, we got an activist and a liar.

      The last boring, honest, and careful president that the USA elected was Jimmy Carter, and look how popular he is. His successor was the opposite, and look how popular he is. It seems to me that the USA does not want boring, honest, and careful, it wants and gets flimflam artists.

      Yes, US policy is thoroughly corrupt because money talks in US elections. But why does this work? Because the US electorate wants their flimflam. They don't want honest and careful candidates, and certainly not boring ones. They want show and glitz and scandal and outrage. And the more money you have as a politician, the more flimflam you can serve up.

    10. Re:Psyops at its finest. by s.petry · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Seems like sarcasm, but just in case. The made up statement of "millions of terrorists" needs to be proven before we could prove the NSA stops them. When we found out that the FBI is recruiting most "terrorists", assisting them with plans, and providing them fake materials, it became obvious that there are very few terrorists.

      I'm pretty sure that many at the NSA believe that they really are doing the right thing, just like most at the FBI would believe they are doing the right thing. Their "belief" is no different than the person who believes that these agencies are required to keep them safe from non-existent threats. It does not make the threat exist.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  2. popularity contest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Snowden is a loser because he doesn't have anything new to tell you! Don't listen to losers! NSA are the popular dudes now! Hot NSA gossip over here! Snowden loses celebrity status!"

  3. Credibility? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Would anyone actually believe anything the NSA has to say at this point?

  4. Openness by Tony+Isaac · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Whether government openness happens because of a leaker, or it happens because of fear of leakers, or because it believes it's the right thing to do...the more open the government is about its activities, the better.

    1. Re:Openness by whoever57 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      .the more open the government is about its activities, the better.

      Openness is good, yes. But what the NSA will release will be misdirection, dissembling, disingenuousness and lies.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  5. "manage the debate" by epyT-R · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Basically means "Framing the narrative" which is the foundation for successful newspeak. This is an attempt to control the base from which relative judgments are made by the public. No thanks.

  6. So, they are acknowleging improper classification? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Either the information is too sensitive for the public to know, or it isn't. If it isn't, then it should have been public to begin with.

  7. First trivial information request for NSA by dbIII · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Since they are releasing trivial information about themselves, how about this:
    What role did the NSA have in the piece of shit hatchet job movie on wikileaks that came out recently?

    If reality was anything like it people would have just told Assange to fuck off and wikileaks would never have happened. All the movie character has is dance moves and insomnia.

  8. Americans: NSA needs more oversight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's not true you know, only 17% of Americans think the NSA oversight is OK, with the majority wanting reform.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/02/surveillance-poll_n_4195379.html

    They may be misinformed about the depth of the problems, but even the problems they can see are enough to demand better oversight.

    In the UK, the press is very pro-surveillance nanny state, but even there that's swinging now against the spooks mass surveillance programs. They're trying to rein it back in with "speculation helps terrorists", and threats to the press, trying to shut down the debate they know they would lose.

    Really we're past that now, enough people are concerned enough to effect change and the spooks are accusing them of being terrorists that need to be watched.

    Cameron is deleting former speeches, so he's compromised. He's was against the police state and now he's trying to re-write history by deleting his speeches on it. The spooks are trying to drive the agenda with scare-mongering and arrests under anti-terror laws of journalists.

    It's tipping point stuff.

    1. Re:Americans: NSA needs more oversight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's not true you know, only 17% of Americans think the NSA oversight is OK, with the majority wanting reform.

      Polls are nonsense a grand majority of the time. Fact is, most people asked for this after 9/11; they traded freedom for 'security,' and they got exactly what they deserved: an even more tyrannical government. Sadly, the rest of us who didn't want that to happen are also stuck with this garbage.

  9. Re:Round 1: Fight by Zemran · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nah, they will do a Assange on him but with 10 year girls making the accusations this time and no one will ever be able to discuss what he said again. People will just talk about the accusation instead of the issue. If you look at the accusations they are so stupid but it whitewashed the whole Wikileaks issue. Same with Strauss Khan...

    --
    I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
  10. Is Snowden any less than a patriot? by grasshoppa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    After all the material that's been leaked by Snowden, is there any question that the man is a patriot?

    So what does that make our government?

    --
    Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
  11. AKA a Limited Hangout properganda teqchnique by FriendlyLurker · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Oh it can be pretty successful if done right. The NSA will little doubt start doing Limited Hangouts of information.

    A limited hangout, or partial hangout, is a public relations or propaganda technique that involves the release of previously hidden information in order to prevent a greater exposure of more important details.

    [sarcasm] By lucky coincidence [/sarcasm] the NSA are now allowed to go direct to the public with their message (see "'Anti-Propaganda' Ban Repealed... Direct Broadcasting at American Citizens"), not that private mass media was not on their side to begin with anyway.

    When journalists get around later to releasing Snowdens whistleblower material as a "full hangout" truth, most mass media will then shout LALALA OLD NEWS nothing to see here as loud as they can to drown it out. You might even see it being marked as a dupe here on /.