> <i>Binney: Part of his job as the system administrator, he was to maintain the system. Keep the databases running. Keep the communications working. Keep the programs that were interrogating them operating. So that meant he was like a super-user. He could go on the network or go into any file or any system and change it or add to it or whatever, just to make sure — because he would be responsible to get it back up and running if, in fact, it failed.</i>
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> <i>So that meant he had access to go in and put anything. That's why he said, I think, "I can even target the president or a judge." If he knew their phone numbers or attributes, he could insert them into the target list which would be distributed worldwide. And then it would be collected, yeah, that's right. As a super-user, he could do that.</i><p>I have a feeling that the NSA deals with access control just like the rest of us...very poorly. Even more egregious is that Snowden was a contractor...if we're going to leave open the possibility of the NSA targeting us at their whim, can't they at least do that in-house?