Greenwald: 'Huge' NSA Hits Still to Come

And other highlights from his Reddit AMA
By Ruth Brown,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 2, 2013 7:02 AM CDT
Updated Oct 2, 2013 7:41 AM CDT
Greenwald: 'Huge' NSA Hits Still to Come
Journalist Glenn Greenwald talks during a panel following the screening of the "Dirty Wars" documentary at the Rio Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.   (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald—who has been diligently working the NSA and Edward Snowden beat—held a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" Q&A session yesterday. Among his answers, Greenwald claimed that there are still "huge new stories to come" from the leaks, reports Salon. "There are thousands of documents, and the majority of ones that should (and will) be published still remain," he wrote. Other highlights from the chat:

  • The single most shocking revelation from the leaks: "The general revelation that the objective of the NSA is literally the elimination of global privacy: ensuring that every form of human electronic communication—not just those of The Terrorists™—is collected, stored, analyzed, and monitored."
  • How he keeps his work secure from the NSA: "We use highly advanced means of encryption. Remember, the only ones whose op sec has proven horrible and who has lost control of huge numbers of documents is the NSA and GCHQ."
  • Whether there's enough proof the US government has broken the law: "I think there already are things clearly showing the government broke the law, including (but not only) the Constitution, but there is much more to come on that score."

  • The two most overlooked NSA stories: "the one ... about the secret presidential directive signed by Obama to prepare for offensive cyber operations: essentially the militarization of the internet ... and the document we recently published showing NSA gives unminimized communications of US persons to Israel with very few binding safeguards."
  • On British authorities seizing his partner's laptop: "They outright lied when they said he was carrying a password that allowed access to the documents. Indeed, on the same day they told that lie ... (that) what he was carrying was 'heavily encrypted' and they were able to only 'reconstruct' 75 documents. Obviously, if he had a password that enabled access to the documents, then they would have been able to access them. He did not, and thus they could not."
  • What Americans can do to limit the power and abuses of the NSA: "The tide is clearly turning. ... What will ultimately determine the outcome here is how much pressure citizens continue to apply in defense of their privacy rights and against massive, ubiquitous, secret spying systems aimed at them."
Read the full AMA at Reddit, or selected highlights as chosen by Salon, TechCrunch, the Guardian, and PolicyMic. (More Glenn Greenwald stories.)

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