If you are a national security professional we most highly recommend pausing to watch the video at this link and embedded below. It is the video of a 60 minutes examination of NSA which includes interviews of General Alexander, Rick Ledgett and several NSA analysts. It also includes first ever public footage of key NSA watchfloors and analytical workspaces.
Our view: The only way to get at the truth is to listen directly to what professionals at NSA say. They are not perfect but are honest and focused on doing right. Few of us in the national security community think Snowden did anything good, his actions should be answered for in court, and the reason he did what he did was not out of any sense of informing the public or defending us from surveillance. He did what he did for his own glory and fame. It was his own narcissism that drove him to do what he did, and because of that real damage has occurred.
Additional damage was caused to the community by scare-mongers who spin every item they can. They do that for their own reasons which sometimes is a desire to get more readers or to further an agenda. Others accidently do harm by just piling on and believing things they have no reason to believe. It is hard to be mad at these people, they are human and there is something about people that makes them want to believe what they see in movies is true.
What is the truth? If you really want to know you will watch this 60 minutes report. You can also find the truth other places, but this is a great way to digest some really complex material.
Another very informative piece is a “behind the scenes” clip that captures the views of the producers of the video. It is pasted below:
