>To hunt for needles, the N.S.A. needs a global haystack that can be used for data mining. That is what the data collection is all about; no one has any interest in listening in on innocuous calls or reading pointless e-mails. This is all about using computers—massive, massive computers—and using complex models and algorithms to find the needles, rather than hoping to guess how to keep Americans safe, just in case the Ed Snowdens of the world might get upset with more intelligent approaches.<p>>Which brings us back to Snowden’s global hypocrisy tour. I think nothing has more thoroughly damaged Snowden’s “whistle-blower” persona than his bizarre—and, I would say, cowardly—decision to rely on some of the countries with the greatest history of oppression to help keep him out of the Americans’ hands.<p>It's staggering how inept this article is.
"Ecuador blah blah blah". Somehow, I feel that wherever Snowden ends up, said country will quickly become the second coming of the Third Reich in US state media. Note to the Vanity Fair hack: Snowden never cleared customs in Russia.
It doesn't cease to amaze me how many people are willing to defend the police state and surveillance for a marginal? increase in security...<p>Throughout history regimes have proven far more dangerous to their own citizens than to other countries (Hitler rounding up Jews, Stalin and Mao starving their own, Pol Pot, various genocides in Africa, etc...). The average American needs to wake up.