Comey's opening statement is out.

[Bengalzona]

(06-09-2017, 01:44 AM)JustWinBaby Wrote: I have mixed feelings.  I think Snowden did an important job as whistle blower, while at the same time being reckless with the extent of what he disclosed.  Now the more recent leak (not Snowden) certainly gave ideas and blueprints to average hackers, but I doubt Russia or China state-sponsored cyber picked up many new tricks.

I'd add simply that, unlike most Libertarians, I don't believe privacy and these types of tools can't co-exist.  Just about every tech has the potential for good and bad, and you can't shun advancement out of fear of abuse.

But I think it's more than a bit of a leap to lay this on Snowden.  As far as I know, he didn't deliver any "tools" to Russia, and I fully believe Russia (and other countries) were already developing their cyber warfare without Snowden's disclosures.  And the spying and meddling thing has absolutely nothing to do with Snowden but has been SOP on the world stage for decades.

My problem with Snowden is his actions in leaking the information and the way it was traipsed around to foreign governments, rather than his whistle-blowing (i.e. If he had stayed in the States and leaked it to U.S. media, I would have had little issue with it). There is no way I can be convinced that his deal to stay in Russia was not contingent upon release of information... all of it. And he had a lot of information, most of top secret, which the government cannot even disclose to the public. We are told that much of it was concerning our cyber-spying.

Aldrich Ames.