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I think system administrators would take exception to your claim they don't help build anything. Also, Congressional report prepared by whom? Can't take a repo

I think system administrators would take exception to your claim they don't help build anything. Also, Congressional report prepared by whom? Can't take a report by the fox guarding the hen house seriously.

snowden_report 7y ago
I was a system administrator with similar responsibilities for several years, and it was quite clear who the system architects were and who the maintainers were. It's a minor point, but speaks to Mr. Snowden's reportedly inflated self-importance. It's up to all of us to take this report, and news reports and autobiographies, as seriously as you think they deserve. This provides background information not commonly known and is a valuable counter balance to Mr. Snowden's account. How seriously should we take an autobiography written by the person who perpetrated such (in)famous actions? There is "selective reporting" on all sides, it's up to us to take it all in and form our own opinions. For example: read the report, note Mr. Snowden's length of service at each job, his age and experience, and consider how likely it was that he was a "senior advisor" or a more junior system administrator. I understand this may be a lost cause, but I'm simply advocating for balance on this issue.
- boomboomsubban 7y ago
  >I was a system administrator with similar responsibilities for several years, and it was quite clear who the system architects were and who the maintainers were Both groups would have been necessary to build the a long term system. Beyond that, I don't see how his status while working for the intelligence sector is very important, and I've never gotten the impression Snowden was trying to boast about how achievements there.
  - Bartweiss 7y ago
    Amazon page blurb aside, I don't understand why this question comes up so often. Even during the initial revelations, people who wanted to downplay the topic regularly pointed out that Snowden was "just a system administrator, not an intelligence agent" and attempted to debate whether he worked directly for the government or only for a contractor. It baffled me, because that doesn't even seem relevant to his claims. The "government employee" issue would only matter if the authenticity of the leaks was disputed; the various PRISM and XKEYSCORE slideshows were never even challenged, so who cares? And "only a system administrator" sounds backwards to anyone who actually knows what sysadmins do. Dismissing him as a maintainer instead of an architect is a weird sideshow, since his role was mostly important as an answer to the question "how did he get undetected access to so many different files?"
    - onli 7y ago
      It's a tactic to undermine an opponent. They want to classify him as a minor part of the machine, hoping to discredit his revelations in the process ("why would you listen to anyone with that little of experience and importance"). It's a reverse appeal to authority. It coming up again of again when Snowden is discussed is part of either controlled or natural occurring propaganda, a talking point of the regime. The one bringing it into this thread is a new throwaway account, go figure. One way or another, directly or indirectly, you are seeing the "controlling public discussions" part of what intelligence agencies do in action here :)
    - snowden_report 7y ago
      That's an excellent point. Using the "only a sys admin" example was pretty weak. I just chose it quickly as one example of his trustworthiness level from the report. A better example would be that Mr. Snowden claims he began collecting files after James Clapper's testimony, but in fact he began 8 months earlier (third point in the Executive Summary, page iii). My main takeaway form the report is that Mr. Snowden was misleading/dishonest about elements of his past and motivations. Read the report for other examples of his misrepresentations, mainly that he never reported his suspected abuse of government programs via established internal process and he took and shared material on much more than the programs he was concerned about. The discussion of the programs themselves is certainly much bigger. I view these programs as the nuclear weapons of our age. It was inevitable that they would be created (with similar capabilities in the hands of other governments and corporations), and there is always the risk of misuse. While the US Government is not the ideal owner of these tools, I generally trust the USG more than other countries and corporations. The problem with intelligence agencies is that you rarely hear of their successes, and almost always hear of their failures.
      - boomboomsubban 7y ago
        > A better example would be that Mr. Snowden claims he began collecting files after James Clapper's testimony, but in fact he began 8 months earlier (third point in the Executive Summary, page iii). His claim was that testimony was the "breaking point" on the decision to leak, not download files, and soon after he agreed to publicly be named the source. >mainly that he never reported his suspected abuse of government programs via established internal process and he took and shared material on much more than the programs he was concerned about. It's his word vs theirs on whether he raised the issue before deciding to leak. And he knew there was a ton of unrelated data in what he leaked, that was why he privately gave it to reporters and didn't publicly post it.
- craftinator 7y ago
  You have, at this point in time, only three comments on HN, all related to Snowden, and are obviously using a throwaway account. You are also advocating heavily that the report, prepared by intelligence agencies in the US government, should be given credence, while you have developed none yourself. Really hard not to imagine you as a disinformation account created by a three letter organization.
  - snowden_report 7y ago
    I've been reading Hacker News for several months and this is the first time I felt motivated to comment. I'm using a burner account because I knew this was a unpopular side to support and didn't want to start an account (that I would rarely use, I'm pretty quiet) off on that. I didn't expect to be trusted on my non-existing record on HN, but wanted to present a side of the story not often told. I am not a "disinformation account". I have always valued discussion from all sides, especially opposing sides, and wanted to offer this resource.

snowden_report 7y ago

I was a system administrator with similar responsibilities for several years, and it was quite clear who the system architects were and who the maintainers were. It's a minor point, but speaks to Mr. Snowden's reportedly inflated self-importance. It's up to all of us to take this report, and news reports and autobiographies, as seriously as you think they deserve. This provides background information not commonly known and is a valuable counter balance to Mr. Snowden's account. How seriously should we take an autobiography written by the person who perpetrated such (in)famous actions? There is "selective reporting" on all sides, it's up to us to take it all in and form our own opinions. For example: read the report, note Mr. Snowden's length of service at each job, his age and experience, and consider how likely it was that he was a "senior advisor" or a more junior system administrator. I understand this may be a lost cause, but I'm simply advocating for balance on this issue.

boomboomsubban 7y ago
>I was a system administrator with similar responsibilities for several years, and it was quite clear who the system architects were and who the maintainers were Both groups would have been necessary to build the a long term system. Beyond that, I don't see how his status while working for the intelligence sector is very important, and I've never gotten the impression Snowden was trying to boast about how achievements there.
- Bartweiss 7y ago
  Amazon page blurb aside, I don't understand why this question comes up so often. Even during the initial revelations, people who wanted to downplay the topic regularly pointed out that Snowden was "just a system administrator, not an intelligence agent" and attempted to debate whether he worked directly for the government or only for a contractor. It baffled me, because that doesn't even seem relevant to his claims. The "government employee" issue would only matter if the authenticity of the leaks was disputed; the various PRISM and XKEYSCORE slideshows were never even challenged, so who cares? And "only a system administrator" sounds backwards to anyone who actually knows what sysadmins do. Dismissing him as a maintainer instead of an architect is a weird sideshow, since his role was mostly important as an answer to the question "how did he get undetected access to so many different files?"
  - onli 7y ago
    It's a tactic to undermine an opponent. They want to classify him as a minor part of the machine, hoping to discredit his revelations in the process ("why would you listen to anyone with that little of experience and importance"). It's a reverse appeal to authority. It coming up again of again when Snowden is discussed is part of either controlled or natural occurring propaganda, a talking point of the regime. The one bringing it into this thread is a new throwaway account, go figure. One way or another, directly or indirectly, you are seeing the "controlling public discussions" part of what intelligence agencies do in action here :)
  - snowden_report 7y ago
    That's an excellent point. Using the "only a sys admin" example was pretty weak. I just chose it quickly as one example of his trustworthiness level from the report. A better example would be that Mr. Snowden claims he began collecting files after James Clapper's testimony, but in fact he began 8 months earlier (third point in the Executive Summary, page iii). My main takeaway form the report is that Mr. Snowden was misleading/dishonest about elements of his past and motivations. Read the report for other examples of his misrepresentations, mainly that he never reported his suspected abuse of government programs via established internal process and he took and shared material on much more than the programs he was concerned about. The discussion of the programs themselves is certainly much bigger. I view these programs as the nuclear weapons of our age. It was inevitable that they would be created (with similar capabilities in the hands of other governments and corporations), and there is always the risk of misuse. While the US Government is not the ideal owner of these tools, I generally trust the USG more than other countries and corporations. The problem with intelligence agencies is that you rarely hear of their successes, and almost always hear of their failures.
    - boomboomsubban 7y ago
      > A better example would be that Mr. Snowden claims he began collecting files after James Clapper's testimony, but in fact he began 8 months earlier (third point in the Executive Summary, page iii). His claim was that testimony was the "breaking point" on the decision to leak, not download files, and soon after he agreed to publicly be named the source. >mainly that he never reported his suspected abuse of government programs via established internal process and he took and shared material on much more than the programs he was concerned about. It's his word vs theirs on whether he raised the issue before deciding to leak. And he knew there was a ton of unrelated data in what he leaked, that was why he privately gave it to reporters and didn't publicly post it.
craftinator 7y ago
You have, at this point in time, only three comments on HN, all related to Snowden, and are obviously using a throwaway account. You are also advocating heavily that the report, prepared by intelligence agencies in the US government, should be given credence, while you have developed none yourself. Really hard not to imagine you as a disinformation account created by a three letter organization.
- snowden_report 7y ago
  I've been reading Hacker News for several months and this is the first time I felt motivated to comment. I'm using a burner account because I knew this was a unpopular side to support and didn't want to start an account (that I would rarely use, I'm pretty quiet) off on that. I didn't expect to be trusted on my non-existing record on HN, but wanted to present a side of the story not often told. I am not a "disinformation account". I have always valued discussion from all sides, especially opposing sides, and wanted to offer this resource.