Snowden was not the first to warn us about the NSA

From Daily Kos
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Edward Snowden's leaks, showing the massive scope of the National Security Agency's surveillance of phone and internet information, covers ground that previous whistleblowers have already trodden. What Snowden has provided is much of the documentation that proves the allegations of the whistleblowers before him. What he's also provided is refutation from intelligence officials and supporters of the program, like Sen. Dianne Feinstein, that even though the system might be vacuuming up vast amounts of data, you shouldn't worry because of the built-in safeguards.

With some five million people have security clearances, and everybody from NSA contractors to Microsoft employees having access to classified information, that assertion from program supporters rings hollow.

    NSA officials say that kind of information is irrelevant to the agency. It is tasked with collecting foreign intelligence and stopping terrorist plots, they say, and analysts would not be authorized to examine records on Americans unless they showed a link to a terrorism suspect or a foreign agent. All of the surveillance programs Snowden revealed, they add, were approved by Congress and are supervised by federal judges.

    Critics say assurances about limits, rules and oversight would be more convincing if not for Snowden himself: He was able to remove highly classified documents from an NSA facility in Hawaii that officials say he was not authorized to access.