Ooooh are they pissed off at the NSA!
In the wake of a pair of eye-opening reports on the government's domestic phone and internet monitoring programs, officials are turning their attention to who the source of the leaks was and how top secret information from one of America's most shadowy government agencies slipped into the open.
"It's completely reckless and illegal... It's more than just unauthorized. He's no hero," one senior law enforcement source told ABC News of the unidentified leaker. The source speculated that a single person could be behind both recent leaks to the British newspaper The Guardian and to The Washington Post
This was never meant to be disclosed.
We were never supposed to know.
Just step back for a second and imagine that.
All of our private conversations. All our intimate communications. Every last detail about our lives.
We. Were. Never. Supposed. To. Know.
The Washington Post published what it said were presentation slides explaining the government's PRISM program, a 6-year-old program designed to pull in vast amounts of data -- from emails to chat records -- from the world's biggest web services. In its report, the Post said the source of some of their information was an intelligence officer.
"This guy's trying to be some kind of martyr," the law enforcement source said.
I guess when you reveal that our government has decided it's worthwhile "for our own good" to spy on all our private communications without telling us, that makes you "some kind of martyr."
Maybe they want him to be a martyr. I'd call him a patriot.
One source, who has appeared inside the FISA court several times, told ABC News it was extraordinary for the top secret Verizon order to be leaked and he's unaware of something like that ever happening before in the 35 years the court has existed. Beyond the physical security measures, the FISA court staff and Justice officials who work there hold the highest clearances and only a few of people at Verizon would have seen the order, the source said.
Don't you just love how "Highest Clearances" and "Verizon" just roll off the tongue? Like they were meant to be together?
The Direct of National Intelligence, James Clapper, said late Thursday, "The unauthorized disclosure of a top secret U.S. court document threatens potentially long-lasting and irreversible harm to our ability to identify and respond to the many threats facing our nation."
Cry me a river.
UPDATE: Interview with Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman:
Barton Gellman talks about the source who revealed this top-secret information and how he believes his whistleblowing was worth whatever consequences are ahead.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...