Snowden has answers, but NSA still holds the questions

I just finished doing something kind of extraordinary: a live Q&A with possibly the most wanted man in the world at this moment, Edward James Snowden.

This morning, U.S. time, the U.K. Guardian hosted Snowden in a Reddit-style Ask Me Anything session. Though anyone tuning in could ask a question via comments or Twitter, Guardian editors were clearly moderating out most of the wackier questions and playing up those from other journos, like Circa’s Anthony De Rosa and Wired’s Spencer Ackerman.

[ NSA, PRISM, and CISPA: The conspiracy behind the conspiracy. ]

But those who tried to pin Snowden down on specifics were likely disappointed. For example, De Rosa tried to get Snowden to talk more specifically about one of the most controversial claims: the NSA’s alleged ability to directly access servers at Google, Facebook, Apple, and so on, and collect data on anyone it chooses. Unfortunately, Snowden’s answer danced around the question entirely. You can find the whole Q&A at the Guardian website.

Question everything

Some of the choicer snippets include this one, where he basically reiterates what he said in his initial video interview — that any agent can spy on anyone they choose, with little to no oversight:

If an NSA, FBI, CIA, DIA, etc analyst has access to query raw SIGINT databases, they can enter and get results for anything they want. Phone number, email, user ID, cell phone handset id (IMEI), and so on — it’s all the same. The restrictions against this are policy based, not technically based, and can change at any time. Additionally, audits are cursory, incomplete, and easily fooled by fake justifications.

Snowden offered a question which has been raised by others, including Bruce Schneier: Why are Americans so obsessed with terrorist attacks that some of us are willing to give up our right to privacy, when their likelihood is nearly nil?

Journalists should ask a specific question: since these programs began operation shortly after September 11th, how many terrorist attacks were prevented SOLELY by information derived from this suspicionless surveillance that could not be gained via any other source? … Bathtub falls and police officers kill more Americans than terrorism, yet we’ve been asked to sacrifice our most sacred rights for fear of falling victim to it.

Then there was my favorite bit, which is sure to further tick off certain members of the Cringe constituency:

Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American, and the more panicked talk we hear from people like him, Feinstein, and King, the better off we all are. If they had taught a class on how to be the kind of citizen Dick Cheney worries about, I would have finished high school.

Of course, the twits were out in full force, using the #asksnowden hashtag to promote their tinfoil-hat theories and/or snarky questions. Sadly Snowden was not asked to answer this one:

#AskSnowden Which character in Fellowship of the Ring do you most identify with re: your status as a leaker?

It’s gotta be Frodo. Why even ask?

Privacy Camp’s Shaun Dakin asks another obvious question, also via Twitter: How good is the NSA surveillance if they can’t find Snowden in Hong Kong during a global Internet chat? #fail

The Q&A was also notable for the incredibly relaxed pace of the questions and answers. Sometimes 10 or 12 minutes would elapse between them. My hunch is that Snowden was changing locations and using a using a variety of encrypted communications channels to talk to Guardian editors, who were then typing in his answers (possibly while wearing Guy Fawkes masks).

The slow trickle of answers

Overall, though, I didn’t learn much more about the Snowden affair than I knew before the Q&A commenced. We still have more questions than answers. But at least we are starting to get some answers.

We know a teensy bit more about the number of law enforcement requests Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook receive, for example, though not the number or type of those coming from the NSA. We’re learning that the number of Americans spied upon is “less than 300” — all allegedly tied to terrorist organizations — and more about plots allegedly foiled by this surveillance, though in the sketchiest possible way. We know the NSA could legally collect location data but chooses not to because it doesn’t provide “sufficient intelligence value.” (Honk if you believe them). Hopefully this is just the beginning.

I’ll end with Snowden’s answer to why he did this in the first place:

It was seeing a continuing litany of lies from senior officials to Congress — and therefore the American people — and the realization that that Congress, specifically the Gang of Eight, wholly supported the lies that compelled me to act. Seeing someone in the position of James Clapper — the Director of National Intelligence — baldly lying to the public without repercussion is the evidence of a subverted democracy. The consent of the governed is not consent if it is not informed.

This country is worth dying for.

I, for one, hope it doesn’t come to that.