NSA's Former General Council Talks Privacy, Security, and Snowden's 'Betrayal'

blottsie writes: In his first interview since retiring as general council to the NSA, Rajesh De offers detailed insights into the spy agency's efforts to find balance between security and privacy, why the NSA often has trouble defending itself in public, the culture of "No Such Agency," and what it was like on the inside when the Snowden bombshell went off. He describes the mood after the leaks: "My sense of it was that there were two overriding emotions among the workforce. The first was a deep, deep [feeling] of betrayal. Someone who was sitting next to them—being part of the team helping keep people safe, which is really what people at the agency think they are doing—could turn around and do something so self-aggrandizing and reckless. There was also a deep sense of hurt that a lot of what was in the media was not entirely accurate. Questioning the motives and legality of what NSA employees were being asked to do to keep Americans safe—all within the legal policy construct that we've been given—that was difficult for the NSA workforce."

Comments

Re:"Policy construct we've been given"

[Richard_at_work]

Snowden isn't exactly all white as snow either - look at the shit that just came out from Snowdens bag of goodies about the UK spying on Argentina between 2006 and 2011.

Argentina invaded UK sovereign territory in 1982, got the shit kicked out of them by the British armed forces and thrown out of that territory, but has been very vocal and belligerent about it ever since. There has been successive escalations from Argentina ever since, including blocking medical flights, forcing South American companies to stop trading with the Falklands and other acts. Oh, and the repeated claims of ownership over the islands themselves. Just last week they again tried to claim jurisdiction over the Falklands by threatening to prosecute any oil company that drills for oil in Falkland Island waters.

So, Snowden, in what world is spying on such a nation in such circumstances not justified? Why would you release details on justified intelligence gathering operations?

Re:"Policy construct we've been given"

[cold fjord]

News Flash from 1917 - The British are now a key American ally, as are Canada, Australia, New Zealand.

Screwing key allies is a bad idea, so of course Snowden screwed them all by stealing and leaking top secret information on their intelligence programs.