If the Chinese didn't think of Snowden they should have.

[gulliver]

What better way to do espionage and counter-espionage? Steal secrets from America and then get an unscrupulous journalist to help you discredit the very agency you spied on. Spies take note. This is an innovation for the age of over-informed nitwits.

[flamingdem]

1. I want to know Glenn Greenwald's role in this

I really do. If he has any inkling that there is/was contact between Snowden and authorities in Hong Kong / China he needs to report this - my guess is that he has handy blinders on.

[napoleon_in_rags]

2. Or you could sell the documents for millions and get away scott free.

Without the NSA knowing they've been compromised. Sounds better than having your life destroyed.

This guy probably did what he did for the reasons he said. Either that, or he's part of some bizarre cloak and dagger double back flip operation we don't understand. (as evidenced by his total access, when NSA security schemas, as evidenced by SELinux, are highly compartmentalized.)

Either way, the idea that highly publicized spying is the wave of the future rings false with me.

[gulliver]

3. I don't think we know he didn't make money.

And I'm not prepared to assume it.

[flamingdem]

4. What is SELinux

Sounds like a version of Linux of course. What do you mean by the compartmentalization.

[napoleon_in_rags]

5. SELinux are a set of modifications to linux released by the NSA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security-Enhanced_Linux

Its a little known fact that the NSA's job is to make recommendations about personal computer security for the public, just as the CIA provides its World Fact Book to the public:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

The NSA reviewed Linux, and decided to release an overhaul that would allow for incredibly fine grained access control and security, SELinux.

Linux, like all UNIX's is a multi-user operating system, which means its designed for systems with lots of people logged in at once. (though it can also run as a single user desktop). One user on this central computer, named 'root' sets the policies about which users can access what. With SE Linux, that user is given supreme control about every little thing a user accesses, what happens when they access it, etc. Root is the total architect of what each user can or cannot see, and what happens when they try to look. IMHO SELinux is the most secure system out there. This is the kind of architecture you'd expect to be running on national security computers: Higher ups would have total control over what each agent can see or work with, or at least reports if they started snooping outside their domain.

The reports of total access from Snowden run contrary to this common sense expectation. However, there might be a reason for them: A mjor push came post 9/11 to get sharing between different aspects of the intelligence community, so this kind of total access might be related to internal reforms we don't know about.

Peace.