Thanks Joe for this. I have been in the security business since 1988 and work closely with many people like him. All of this information is not new, its general information known about for years in this industry of system analysts.
But that's what makes no sense to me. All he seems to be saying is:
1) The NSA slurps all the Metadata about phone calls and (possibly) emails.
2) They can spy on foreigners
3) They can spy on Americans with appropriate legal authority.
This does not seem that surprising.
Then they have the scarily named "Boundless Informant", but all it does it count the metadata. It's just a database tool. The document is basically a rah-rah tech/process overview.
And now he's abandoned his job, his family, his girlfriend, and he's gone to live in Hong Kong.
It seems weird to me. I watched his full interview. Again, it seemed like a disproportionate act for what really just amounts to recording metadata, which I don't think has been considered illegal before.
I think this is not the huge story people think it is. I think Snowdon and the Guardian has overplayed the significance, and the rest of the media has got caught up. It's not the Pentagon Papers. It's not going to trigger a revolution. I would hope though that it actually gets a productive dialog going as to what the limits of data farming should be.