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A former CIA chief of staff says U.S. officials are concerned that NSA leaker Edward Snowden could be “aiding our enemies” by handing over sensitive U.S. intelligence to the Chinese government.

Jeremy Bash told Politics Confidential that Snowden had access to “very sensitive information” in his job as a government contractor and could do “tremendous damage.” He said the government’s concern goes beyond the documents that were leaked - extending to the knowledge that Snowden still stores in his head.

“If a foreign government learned everything that was in Edward Snowden's brain, they would have a good window into the way we collect signals intelligence,” Bash said.

“He has information in his head, he's making threats, he's on the loose," Bash added. "We don't know what other documents he copied, and we don't know who else he's talking to."

While Bash said that Snowden is “very dangerous,” he also describes him as “delusional.”

Bash said some of Snowden’s allegations are almost certainly wrong, taking particular aim at his claim that he has the names of everyone in the U.S. intelligence community.

“I didn’t have access to that when I was working for a head of an agency,” Bash said of his time as the chief of staff to then-CIA Director Leon Panetta. “And the head of the agency didn’t have it. It's highly compartmented for exactly this reason, so that that information cannot fall into the hands of any one single individual.”

As for Snowden’s claim that he could intercept any ordinary American citizen’s emails, passwords, phone records and credit cards, Bash said it was “totally wrong.”

“It's almost impossible for me to contemplate that he could,” Bash said. “The requests have to be documented. You can't just turn on a switch and start surveilling any American that you want to. You've got to go through a lot of legal process.”

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taking particular aim at his claim that he has the names of everyone in the U.S. intelligence community. “I didn’t have access to that when I was working for a head of an agency,” Bash said of his time as the chief of staff to then-CIA Director Leon Panetta. “And the head of the agency didn’t have it. It's highly compartmented for exactly this reason, so that that information cannot fall into the hands of any one single individual.”

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As for Snowden’s claim that he could intercept any ordinary American citizen’s emails, passwords, phone records and credit cards, Bash said it was “totally wrong.”
“It's almost impossible for me to contemplate that he could,” Bash said. “The requests have to be documented. You can't just turn on a switch and start surveilling any American that you want to. You've got to go through a lot of legal process.”

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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A former CIA chief of staff says U.S. officials are concerned that NSA leaker Edward Snowden could be “aiding our enemies” by handing over sensitive U.S. intelligence to the Chinese government.

Jeremy Bash told Politics Confidential that Snowden had access to “very sensitive information” in his job as a government contractor and could do “tremendous damage.” He said the government’s concern goes beyond the documents that were leaked - extending to the knowledge that Snowden still stores in his head.

“If a foreign government learned everything that was in Edward Snowden's brain, they would have a good window into the way we collect signals intelligence,” Bash said.

“He has information in his head, he's making threats, he's on the loose," Bash added. "We don't know what other documents he copied, and we don't know who else he's talking to."

While Bash said that Snowden is “very dangerous,” he also describes him as “delusional.”

Bash said some of Snowden’s allegations are almost certainly wrong, taking particular aim at his claim that he has the names of everyone in the U.S. intelligence community.

“I didn’t have access to that when I was working for a head of an agency,” Bash said of his time as the chief of staff to then-CIA Director Leon Panetta. “And the head of the agency didn’t have it. It's highly compartmented for exactly this reason, so that that information cannot fall into the hands of any one single individual.”

As for Snowden’s claim that he could intercept any ordinary American citizen’s emails, passwords, phone records and credit cards, Bash said it was “totally wrong.”

“It's almost impossible for me to contemplate that he could,” Bash said. “The requests have to be documented. You can't just turn on a switch and start surveilling any American that you want to. You've got to go through a lot of legal process.”

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Hmmm... so Snowden is "delusional" because he didn't have the access to sensitive information as he portrayed, but he's "dangerous" because he DID have access to sensitive information??

In detail:

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taking particular aim at his claim that he has the names of everyone in the U.S. intelligence community. “I didn’t have access to that when I was working for a head of an agency,” Bash said of his time as the chief of staff to then-CIA Director Leon Panetta. “And the head of the agency didn’t have it. It's highly compartmented for exactly this reason, so that that information cannot fall into the hands of any one single individual.”

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This wouldn't be the first time that upper managment didn't know how their underlings were accomplishing a job. Specifically, as a "sys admin" (systems administrator), Snowden may have been given access to ALL of the lists by Booz Allen as a matter of convenience.

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As for Snowden’s claim that he could intercept any ordinary American citizen’s emails, passwords, phone records and credit cards, Bash said it was “totally wrong.”
“It's almost impossible for me to contemplate that he could,” Bash said. “The requests have to be documented. You can't just turn on a switch and start surveilling any American that you want to. You've got to go through a lot of legal process.”

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No, you don't "have" to go through a lot of legal process, you "should" go through a lot of legal process. It's the difference between "can I" and "may I". Again, as sys admin, Snowden may have been given far more access than upper managment realized, in order to make his job more convenient.

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Ugh, this is so stupid. Of course he's telling the truth because he basically told everyone something that was already public information! How dumb do they think we are?!

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Originally posted by Geezer:

I figure pretty much everyone in Congress and the news media DID know pretty much what was going on, in kind of a "Wink, wink, nudge, nudge" way. What Snowden did was force them to acknowledge it publicly.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
They must think we’re really stupid.

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