Why the Snowden Situation Shows 'Protected Disclosure' Is Critical (zdnet.com)

An anonymous reader writes: In the wake of NSA leaks debacle, New Zealand's Inspector General of Security and Intelligence has developed a process to enable whistleblowers to act safely. "The Edward Snowden disclosures demonstrate how critical it is to have a clear path, with appropriate protections, for disclosing information about suspected wrongdoing (PDF) within an intelligence and security agency," Cheryl Gwyn says. The Inspector General's powers were boosted after it was discovered New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau had been spying illegally on Kim Dotcom and others. "Edward Snowden has consistently said it was impossible for him to make internal disclosures about what he believed was wrongdoing due to the lack of whistleblower protections he faced in the U.S."

Comments

Re:Lack of protection

[Archangel Michael]

You can't have individuals deciding what is and what is not a national security secret with no consequence.

You're not talking about Hillary Clinton are you? You probably should. Those Damn eMails.

Re:Lack of protection

[Coren22]

then they should stop violating laws and subverting the constitution

It has not been ruled that they did. The justification that was published had to do with pen registers. Also, getting a warrant satisfies the constitution, it doesn't matter which court is used for that warrant.

stop with the secret courts

Who else would you use that can see the secret information to determine if the warrant should be given?

the universal spying

the undermining of the US high tech industry

So, stop doing the job that they are asked to do by the government? The NSA is a spying agency, sorry to burst your bubble.

and the harsh punishment of whistleblowers.

No whistleblower has ever been harmed by the NSA. Disclosing secret and top secret information to foreign governments is not whistleblowing, it is treason. Snowden chose not to blow the whistle and instead commit treason, he is being charged with the crimes he committed.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

If Snowden wanted to be a whistleblower, he should have taken his concerns to congress, not foreign governments.