Headline June 29, 2015/ "' IN VICTORIES LAP : EDWARD J. SNOWDEN "'

"' IN VICTORIES LAP : 

EDWARD J. SNOWDEN "'

AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS tell a different story about what began on May 20, 2013, the day Mr.Snowden flew to Hong Kong.

Mr. Snowden's decision to leak hundreds of thousands of highly classified N.S.A documents to selected reporters still prompts fury from many in the Obama administration who say his revelations-

Taught terrorists and other adversaries how to dodge the agency's eavesdropping.

They note that his disclosures, some of which were printed in The New York Times- went  far beyond phone records  collection  touching on  many  things programs that target foreign countries and do not involve American privacy.

JUST OVER A FEW WEEKS AGO, a federal appeals court in America, ruled that the first N.S.A. program that Edward J. Snowden disclosed-

Which collects the phone call records of millions of Americans, is illegal. Then a week later, the  House of Representatives-

Voted overwhelmingly to transform the program by keeping the bulk phone records out of government hands. A change President Obama has endorsed and the Senate is now debating. 

AND APPLE AND GOOGLE have angered the  F.B.I by stepping up encryption, including on smartphones, to scramble communications and protect customers from the kind of government surveillance Mr. Snowden exposed.

For an international fugitive hiding out in Russia from American espionage charges, Edward J. Snowden gets around.

Just this May, it has been another month of virtual globe-hopping for Mr.Snowden, the former National  Security Agency contractor, with video appearances so far at Princeton, in a   ''distinguished speakers''  series-

At Stanford and at conferences in Norway and Australia. A few days later, he spoke by video to audiences in Italy and Ecuador, where there was a screening of   ''Citizenfour,''  the Oscar winning documentary about him.

But there have been far more consequential victories for Mr.Snowden's cause two years after he flew from Hawaii to Hong Kong carrying laptops loaded with N.S.A. secrets.

The fallout has been deeply satisfying to Mr.Snowden, who at first feared that his revelations might be ignored, said Ben Wizner, an American Civil Liberties Union Lawyer who represents him. But the debate about Mr.Snowden is far from over.

''His life is very rich and full,'' Mr. Wizner said, eager to refute predictions by Mr.Snowden's critics in 2013 that he would end in bitter obscurity in Russia.

''What a remarkable public citizen he has become. How fitting that he had been able to use technology to defeat exile and participate in the debate he started.

''The only debate we're really having in the  U.S. is about the very first document   that Snowden produced,'' said Stewart A. Baker, a former N.S.A. general counsel and outspoken critic of the leaks, referring to the secret court authorizing the phone records program.

''The rest of the documents have been used as a kind of  intelligence porn  for the rest of the world  -

'Oh, just look at what N.S.A. is doing.' ''

In a new memoir, Michael J. Morell,  former deputy director and acting director of the  Central Intelligence Agency, expressed the dark view of many intelligence veterans, even asserting-

That Mr. Snowden's leaks had empowered the Islamic State extremists group, also known as ISIS or ISL.

"ISIS was one of the terrorist groups that learned from Snowden, and it is clear his actions played a role in the rise of  ISIS,'' Mr Morell wrote in the memoir,  "The Great War of Our Time," offering no elaboration.

"In short, Snowden has made the United States and our allies considerably less safe. I do not say this lightly: Americans may well die at the hands of terrorists because of Edward Snowden's actions."

"But the very size of the audience of his listeners the world over, indicates that Edward Snowden has done something very, very important."

"And maybe accomplished something even greater: For the whole world."

The Honour and Serving of the ''Human Rights & Freedom Operational Research'' continues. Thank you for reading, and sharing and all the while, maybe learning something.

With respectful dedication to Edward J Snowden: "True, what a remarkable public citizen you have become!.'' See Ya on !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

'''A Reason To Bend Over Backward '''

'''Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless