Pentagon Report You Can’t Read Claims Snowden’s Leaks Have Helped Terrorists

According to a classified report from
the Pentagon, NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden’s leaks have put
American military personnel at risk and helped terrorists.

From
The Hill:

Edward Snowden’s leaks about National Security Agency programs
have put U.S. troops at risk and prompted terrorists to change
their tactics, according to a classified Pentagon report.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and
ranking member Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Mich.) said that the
Pentagon report found a significant portion of the 1.7 million
documents Snowden took were related to current U.S. military
operations.

Given that the report is classified it is impossible for anyone
to independently examine its claims.

Rep. Rogers stressed the severity of the report’s finds, saying,
“Snowden handed over great insight to our adversaries, endangering
each and every American. Make no mistake, Snowden is no patriot and
there is no way to excuse the irreparable harm he caused to America
and her allies, and continues to cause.”

Glenn Greenwald, who has been reporting on Snowden’s
revelations, tweeted a reminder that this sort of rhetoric is
nothing new:

Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian, has
defended the newspapers’ reporting on the documents leaked by
Snowden. Last month, Rusbridger told the British Parliament’s Home
Affairs Select Committee claims that reporting on Snowden’s leaks
have endangered national security “tend to be very vague and not
rooted in specific stories.” According to
The Guardian, 

Rusbridger then quoted senior officials from the UK and the US
who “have told me personally that there has been no damage. A
member of the Senate intelligence committee said to us: ‘I have
been incredibly impressed by what you have done … I have seen
nothing that you have done that has caused damage.”

It wouldn’t be surprising if some current critics of the NSA
were to change their minds if it was definitively shown that
Snowden’s revelations had helped terrorists or put the lives of
American troops at risk. It would be in the interest of those
lawmakers who support the NSA’s behavior exposed by Snowden to make
some, if not all, of the Pentagon report public, assuming its
findings are what they claim they are. Until then, we are going to
be left with members of Congress making extraordinary statements
based on a report only they and a limited number of other people
are allowed to read.