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You mean the IG that is facing termination for retaliating against other whistleblowers? http://www.pogo.org/blog/2016/12/intelligence-community-landmark.html

You mean the IG that is facing termination for retaliating against other whistleblowers? http://www.pogo.org/blog/2016/12/intelligence-community-landmark.html http://www.pogo.org/blog/2016/12/intelligence-community-land...

jessedhillon 10y ago
Are you supposing that Edward Snowden knew that these allegations would come out three years after his initial leaks and decided to completely bypass even trying official channels for whistleblowing before jumping immediately to exfiltration of classified information?
- Avenger42 10y ago
  The statement says Ellard had "previously retaliated" against a whistleblower - but no timeframe is given. Unless other information is given out[1], who's to say that that activity didn't happen before Snowden's actions, and that Snowden could look at that retaliation and decide not to report anything to Ellard? Even if not, Thomas Drake is a prime example of what happened to whistleblowers at the NSA - and Drake was an employee, who (theoretically) had access to greater whistleblower protections than Snowden would have had as a contractor[2]. So yes, I'm saying that it's very easy to believe that Snowden took a look at what happened to NSA whistleblowers and took a different path. [1]: from the POGO story: "POGO has been told that mention of the finding will appear in a semiannual report (SAR) of the Intelligence Community IG (ICIG) that should be released in the near future. It makes brief mention of the case without citing Ellard by name." So we may get some more information about timeframes at some point. [2]: From TechDirt (https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161215/16354636293/snowdens-proper-channel-whistleblowing-being-booted-nsa-retaliating-against-whistleblower.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161215/16354636293/snowd...) today: "The new directive created better protections but would have done nothing to aid Snowden in taking his complaints to the proper channels because he was only a government contractor, not an actual government employee."
  - rqebmm 10y ago
    Also Snowden was certainly aware of the fates of previous intelligence leakers like Thomas Drake[0] and William Binney[1] and others who tried to blow the whistle through the proper channels, only for nothing to happen. [0]http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/leaks-and-the-law-the-story-of-thomas-drake-14796786/ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/leaks-and-the-law-the-... [1]http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Interview-the-original-NSA-whistleblower http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Interview-the-original...

jessedhillon 10y ago

Are you supposing that Edward Snowden knew that these allegations would come out three years after his initial leaks and decided to completely bypass even trying official channels for whistleblowing before jumping immediately to exfiltration of classified information?

Avenger42 10y ago
The statement says Ellard had "previously retaliated" against a whistleblower - but no timeframe is given. Unless other information is given out[1], who's to say that that activity didn't happen before Snowden's actions, and that Snowden could look at that retaliation and decide not to report anything to Ellard? Even if not, Thomas Drake is a prime example of what happened to whistleblowers at the NSA - and Drake was an employee, who (theoretically) had access to greater whistleblower protections than Snowden would have had as a contractor[2]. So yes, I'm saying that it's very easy to believe that Snowden took a look at what happened to NSA whistleblowers and took a different path. [1]: from the POGO story: "POGO has been told that mention of the finding will appear in a semiannual report (SAR) of the Intelligence Community IG (ICIG) that should be released in the near future. It makes brief mention of the case without citing Ellard by name." So we may get some more information about timeframes at some point. [2]: From TechDirt (https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161215/16354636293/snowdens-proper-channel-whistleblowing-being-booted-nsa-retaliating-against-whistleblower.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161215/16354636293/snowd...) today: "The new directive created better protections but would have done nothing to aid Snowden in taking his complaints to the proper channels because he was only a government contractor, not an actual government employee."
- rqebmm 10y ago
  Also Snowden was certainly aware of the fates of previous intelligence leakers like Thomas Drake[0] and William Binney[1] and others who tried to blow the whistle through the proper channels, only for nothing to happen. [0]http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/leaks-and-the-law-the-story-of-thomas-drake-14796786/ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/leaks-and-the-law-the-... [1]http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Interview-the-original-NSA-whistleblower http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Interview-the-original...