Leakers should be “shot in the balls”

Snowden may have leaned libertarian on some issues, but he also exhibited strong support for America's security state apparatus. He didn't just work for it as a quiet dissident. Four years before he would leak the country's secrets, Snowden was cheering its actions and insisting that it needed healthy funding. To anyone who questioned US actions in his favored online hangout, he could be derisive.

Livid about the across-the-board defense cuts that were planned under Obama, Snowden acidly joked that "[m]aybe we could just outsource our defense needs to india."

Worse yet, during a remarkable January 2009 chat, Snowden wrote that Obama had "appointed a fucking politician to run the CIA." In that same conversation, he vented his rage over reading a New York Times article about US actions in Iran, which was based on confidential leaks.

< TheTrueHOOHA> HOLY SHIT

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/washington/11iran.html?_r=1&hp < TheTrueHOOHA> WTF NYTIMES < TheTrueHOOHA> Are they TRYING to start a war?

Jesus christ

they're like wikileaks < User19> they're just reporting, dude. < TheTrueHOOHA> They're reporting classified shit < User19> shrugs < TheTrueHOOHA> about an unpopular country surrounded by enemies already engaged in a war

and about our interactions with said country regarding planning sovereignity violations of another country

you don't put that shit in the NEWSPAPER < User19> meh < TheTrueHOOHA> moreover, who the fuck are the anonymous sources telling them this? < TheTrueHOOHA> those people should be shot in the balls. < TheTrueHOOHA> But the tense exchanges also prompted the White House to step up intelligence-sharing with Israel and brief Israeli officials on new American efforts to subtly sabotage Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, a major covert program that Mr. Bush is about to hand off to President-elect Barack Obama. < TheTrueHOOHA> HELLO? HOW COVERT IS IT NOW? THANK YOU < User19> meh < TheTrueHOOHA> I wonder how many hundreds of millions of dollars they just completely blew. < User19> you're over reacting. its fine. < TheTrueHOOHA> It's not an overreaction. They have a HISTORY of this shit < User19> with flowersand cake. < User20> [User21]'s mushrooms are :o < TheTrueHOOHA> these are the same people who blew the whole "we could listen to osama's cell phone" thingthe same people who screwed us on wiretappingover and over and over againThank god they're going out of business. < User19> the NYT? < TheTrueHOOHA> Hopefully they'll finally go bankrupt this year.

yeah.

The chat resumed a few minutes later:

< User19> meh. < User19> I enjoy the news. < User19> Its nice they report on stuff. < TheTrueHOOHA> I enjoy it when it's ethical reporting. < TheTrueHOOHA> political corruption, sure < TheTrueHOOHA> scandal, yes < User19> is it unethical to report on the government's intrigue? < TheTrueHOOHA> VIOLATING NATIONAL SECURITY? no < User19> meh. < User19> national security. < TheTrueHOOHA> Um, YEEEEEEEEEEEES. < TheTrueHOOHA> that shit is classified for a reason < TheTrueHOOHA> it's not because "oh we hope our citizens don't find out" < TheTrueHOOHA> it's because "this shit won't work if iran knows what we're doing." Jan 10 20:59:56 * User19 shrugs < TheTrueHOOHA> None would speak on the record because of the great secrecy surrounding the intelligence developed on Iran. < TheTrueHOOHA> direct. quote. < TheTrueHOOHA> THEN WHY ARE YOU TALKING TO REPORTERS?! Jan 10 21:01:25 * [User11] gives voice to TheTrueHOOHA < TheTrueHOOHA> "Those covert operations, and the question of whether Israel will settle for something less than a conventional attack on Iran, pose immediate and wrenching decisions for Mr. Obama." < TheTrueHOOHA> THEY'RE NOT COVERT ANYMORE < TheTrueHOOHA> Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me. Now the NYTimes is going to determine our foreign policy? < TheTrueHOOHA> And Obama? < TheTrueHOOHA> Obama just appointed a fucking POLITICIAN to run the CIA! < User11> yes unlike every other director of CIA ever < User11> oh wait, no < TheTrueHOOHA> I am so angry right now. This is completely unbelievable. < User21> I'm appointing ur mom to run my penis < User21> plus she can be secretary of my balls < User11> i get the feeling that you're angry because you don't actually understand what's going on... < TheTrueHOOHA> Actually, the whole "politician runs the CIA" thing is a new development < User11> uhhh < TheTrueHOOHA> Normally they were military or lawyers. < User11> have you ever heard of a man named george herbert walker bush? < User11> he ran the cia. < TheTrueHOOHA> OH, YOU MEAN ONLY 25 YEARS AGO? < TheTrueHOOHA> Dumbass.

The IRC logs don't explain the chasm between the Snowden who disdained leakers and the Snowden who became a leaker himself in 2013. And it's hardly a perfect parallel; Snowden was upset about leaks over US covert operations in Iran, which is different from the domestic spying and offensive cyberwar programs he felt compelled to make public.



TheTrueHOOHA's last known logon to #arsificial was in May 2009, just over four years ago. The Snowden seen in these chats is not the man we see today. Snowden clearly had to cross some kind of personal Rubicon in order to leave his life behind. His chats reveal his strident beliefs in individualism and a generally libertarian aesthetic, but they also showed real support for the security state.

During the years in which Snowden talked politics on IRC, his doubts grew. "Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world," he told The Guardian when he revealed himself. It's during this time that he first considered revealing US secrets, but he held off.

The chats make clear that what Snowden discovered while working for the government felt so deeply wrong to him that he had a major change of heart. While there was no "one moment," seeing officials lie about these omniscient spying programs over a period of years pushed him over the edge. "It was seeing a continuing litany of lies from senior officials to Congress—and therefore the American people," Snowden said in an online chat last week. "Seeing someone in the position of James Clapper baldly lying to the public without repercussion is the evidence of a subverted democracy. The consent of the governed is not consent if it is not informed."

Hints of this might be seen in Snowden's later postings to the Ars forums, which began to slow around the time he left #arsificial. One of his last posts, from 2010, was about society's increasing acquiescence to "spooky types."

Snowden suggested during his Q&A last week that he was waiting for Obama to bring change to the surveillance state. Clearly, even more than halfway through the first term of the Obama presidency, Snowden was a wholly different person than he is today. Whatever happened during those four years, it resulted in profound disillusionment. Snowden ultimately reached the decision to throw away the life he knew and to reveal the truth about NSA spying programs.

“I remember that guy”

Snowden knew what awaited him if he went through with his leaks; he had seen what happened to other NSA whistleblowers who were often prosecuted for their leaks. A trio of them gathered in the newsroom of USA Today last week, considering Snowden's acts in light of their own attempts to try to challenge the NSA's massive data collection by going through the "proper" whistleblower channels. Snowden's leaked FISA order is "documentary evidence of what we have been saying all along, so they couldn't deny it," said William Binney.



"We are seeing the initial outlines and contours of a very systemic, very broad, a Leviathan surveillance state," said fellow NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake. "Much of it is in violation of the fundamental basis for our own country."

The Ars users who knew Snowden had a more personal take on the revelations. On June 12, shortly after the Reuters profile revealed Snowden's old username, a longtime Ars user created a forum thread called Edward Snowden—NSA Leaker and Arsian. "I remember that guy," wrote the user, who goes by the moniker andyfatbastard. "He was kind of a dick. But fair play to him for what he's done."

Meanwhile, a longtime user in the #arsificial channel—one who had been on the receiving end of Snowden's vitriol in some of the exchanges listed above—changed the topic to "Edward Snowden == TheTrueHOOHA."

"He was a total cockmonger," the user wrote.

Another #arsificial denizen who had sparred with Snowden quickly typed: "!seen TheTrueHOOHA," an IRC command that shows when someone last logged in. The chat server's bot responded immediately: "thetruehooha was last seen on #arsificial 4 years, 117 days, 4 hours, 1 minute ago."

Someone else in the channel reflected: "That is some time."

Snowden turned 30 on Friday—a fugitive in a Hong Kong safehouse, with four lawyers as his only company. He celebrated his birthday with pizza, fried chicken, and Pepsi. On Sunday, he flew to Moscow where he apparently remains.

"He spent all his time inside, in a tiny place," said one of the Hong Kong lawyers, Albert Ho. "But he said it’s OK—with his computer." If Snowden lost that, it would be "the saddest day," said Ho.