> What part of the “mess with Snowden” do you count as incompetence? The exfiltration approach he describes in his book does sound like run-of-the-mill incompet

> What part of the “mess with Snowden” do you count as incompetence? The exfiltration approach he describes in his book does sound like run-of-the-mill incompetence if taken at face value, but that’s hardly the part that people were (and, I hope, still are) miffed about. That's what I am talking about. And to be honest I find it a bigger problem than the content of the leaks (the part most people are angry about). In fact, the worst is when you combine the two. That the NSA spies is to be expected, that's part of their job, they overstepped their borders and it is a problem, but at least, that alone doesn't fail their mission. But that they let Snowden leave with a stash of secret documents, to Russia no less means that an agency for which half of the mission is to keep secrets couldn't keep secrets. And Snowden is just a whistleblower who exposed everything, how many actual spies covertly leaked data before him? So now there is an agency that stores tremendous amount of data about everything including its own people, and can't keep it secure, great! And I completely agree with your second point about the enemies of the US. In fact, I suspect that the main reason for that ridiculously wide surveillance is to justify big budgets and to make sure everyone keep their job, and maybe even hire a few friends and relatives.