[Shank]

> The reason you "know" the NSA is a threat is because of the increased "transparency" of western democracies.

The reason why we know so much about what the NSA does is because a few NSA contractors have broken the law (for good or for ill) and leaked classified information about operations. Without leaks, there would be no information about what NSA does or doesn't do.

The only difference between NSA and FSB is that FSB hasn't used as many contractors and hasn't had as many leakers in Snowden-like positions.

[sigmar]

>FSB hasn't used as many contractors and hasn't had as many leakers in Snowden-like positions.

FSB has lots of contractors leak though. They just disappear and are never heard from again. Such as Ruslan Stoyanov.

[bayesian_horse]

Leakers, and the ensuing discussion and spread of the leaked information, is part of the western culture of transparency.

Of course government agencies don't want to expose their secrets voluntarily. They have to be dragged into the open kicking and screaming. Doesn't mean that they aren't, though.

[0xbear]

It's so much part of a "culture" that one of the leakers is only safe in Russia, another spent five years in solitary confinement, and yet another is holed up in an embassy to avoid extraordinary rendition. Some "culture" there.

[bayesian_horse]

Julian Assange is no leaker. He doesn't even have a good reason to pretend he is being persecuted.

[Voyage_wanderer]

Surge of leakers unable to resolve issues internally points to serious structural problems. I remember times when soviets were prone to leak. I don't believe that there is any global it firm independent of its handlers..

[int_19h]

Ironically, we actually know more about FSB warrantless wiretapping from official sources, because things like SORM-2 and SORM-3 are actual written law.