Long live Edward Snowden, we need several million of him.
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But it was also not clearly a good thing. The head of the NSA told the House Intelligence Committee that Snowden’s revelations did “irreversible and significant damage to this nation.” Enemies who not only wish us harm but actively plot it won’t be deterred by libertarian pieties.
“It is a mistake to ask, at least arguably a mistake to ask if any particular program . . . thwarted terrorist attacks, because we are not dealing with little things,” he told Sweet. “It is possible that we are talking about a nuclear, a chemical, biological attack where tens of thousands of people’s lives could be at risk. If you thwart one every 20 years, you are doing pretty good. So the fact that hasn’t happened does not prove the program was worthless.”
U. of C. prof on snoop panel: ‘Snowden is a criminal’
If anything, Stone’s service on the review group tempered his opinion of Snowden.
