Drifter, anyone who thinks a clean transparent Government can last more than a week on this planet is kidding themself. Even the Vatican can't do that.
Not surprised it wasn't mentioned in your media Anne, I doubt anyone there would want to hear about it for varying reasons.
I don't give a toss about the embarrassment, I do give one about Asia's use of it impacting on our economic future.
What did we do to Snowden except trust that information received via an intelligence sharing deal with America would be kept securely out of the hands of fwits like him and the newspapers??
Unlike many I fail to see the benefit of the general public knowing what the hell the spooks are up to. It's a filthy game and that's the only way it can be played.
We really don't need to know. It will just shatter our illusions and depress us, and how would knowing benefit us?
We never can be aware of all the ramifications of a situation and will make noises pushing naive decisions that choose ethically instead of logically. We've had an example of Twitter trending animal rights activists manouevering a soft silly government into making a decision that not only cost billions but actually made the plight of the animals far worse than the original protest was about. Gawd help us if we start running foreign policy according to Twitter trends.
We should let hard decisions be made by those who know what's really going on and not just spend 10 minutes a day reading a headline or a protest banner and pronouncing ourselves as the rightful arbiters of clandestine operations.
Those who want to hobble their own forces to pander to some whim of ethical appearances are seriously disadvantaging themselves and their Nation. The person adhering to the M. of Queensbury Rules in a street brawl won't walk away unscathed, if at all. That glitter and goodness is just the mask that Nations wear, they can't, and don't operate on goody 2shoes rules. Never did, never can. Why on Earth do we still get surprised by that? Do we think Walt Disney is directing things or something?
How can people in the US who are okay with blowing away intruders get all gaspy when it comes to their spooks doing it? I don't quite get that I must admit.