The Snowden Effect

Epilogue The Snowden Effect Governments can reduce our dignity to something like that of tagged animals. —EDWARD SNOWDEN, Moscow, 2016 HE ENORMOUS EFFECT that Snowden has had on America can be divided into three categories: the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good proceeds from the national conversation on the issue of surveillance in 2013 that his disclosures ignited. There is no denying that Snowden’s dramatic disclosures, despite the damage they did to U.S. intelligence, accomplished a salutary service in alerting both the public and the government to the potential danger of a surveillance leviathan. The steady expansion of the NSA‘s collection of telephone billing records under the cloak of secrecy, for example, revealed a bureaucratic mission creep that badly needed to be brought under closer oversight by Congress. Snowden’s breach provided another benefit. It pointed to the security dangers proceeding from the NSA’s headlong rush to outsource its computer servicing to private con- tractors. Opening this back door, as Snowden amply demonstrated, greatly increased the risk that America’s secrets would fall into the hands of its enemies. An intelligence service has little if any value if it cannot keep secret its sources from its adversaries. | | Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_r1.indd 299 ® 9/30/16 8:13AM | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019787