Report puts Snowden-like leaks as the No. 2 threat to U.S. security

[bemildred]

WASHINGTON — Insiders like Edward Snowden who leak secrets about sensitive U.S. intelligence programs pose a potentially greater danger to national security than terrorists, America's spy chiefs warned Wednesday in their annual report to Congress on global security risks.

For the first time, the risk of unauthorized disclosures of classified material and state-sponsored theft of data was listed as the second-greatest potential threat to America in a review of global perils prepared by the U.S. intelligence community. The risk followed cyber attacks on crucial infrastructure but was listed ahead of international terrorism.

U.S. officials previously have said it will cost billions of dollars to repair or revamp communications surveillance systems in the wake of the disclosures by Snowden, a former contract employee at a National Security Agency listening post in Hawaii who began leaking classified documents to the media in June and who later fled to Russia.

Appearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said the leaks represent the "most damaging theft of intelligence information in our history." He urged Snowden to return the material, saying he made "the nation less safe and its people less secure."

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-worldwide-threats-20140130,0,2507629.story

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Why does Clapper still have his job?

He lied to Congress. Why should anyone ever believe anything out of his mouth, ever?

[bemildred]

2. Mr. Clapper is thrashing around a good deal now:

James Clapper Suggests Journalists Could Be Edward Snowden's 'Accomplices'

NEW YORK -– Director of National Intelligence James Clapper urged former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and his “accomplices” to return leaked documents during a hearing on Wednesday.

"Snowden claims that he’s won and that his mission is accomplished," Clapper said, according to a transcript from the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, posted by the Washington Post. "If that is so, I call on him and his accomplices to facilitate the return of the remaining stolen documents that have not yet been exposed, to prevent even more damage to U.S. security."

So who, exactly, are Snowden’s “accomplices?”

Guardian national security editor Spencer Ackerman, among others, questioned on Twitter whether Clapper was referring to journalists.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/29/snowden-accomplices_n_4689123.html

[frylock]

3. i wonder what great threat to our nation was posed by negotiators at the UN climate summit?

you know, when the NSA was monitoring them. fuck this guy.

[Downwinder]

4. The second greatest threat to a criminal is a snitch.

[msongs]

5. America's foreign policy and corporate looting of the planet are bigger security threats IMO nt

[bemildred]

6. As with the USSR, the real danger is the incompetence and narcissism of our leadership.

We are poorly lead, as the results show.