Snowden Gets Some Respect

In a rare moment of candor, the director of the NSA James Clapper acknowledges Snowden as having a little positive impact and the judges of the FISA court overseeing the NSA have ordered the declassification of more of their rulings to advance the public debate.

The Fisa court ordered the Justice Department to identify the court's own rulings after May 2011 that concern a section of the Patriot Act used by the NSA to justify its mass database of American phone data. The ruling was a significant step towards their publication.
It is the second time in a week that a US court has ordered the disclosure of secret intelligence rulings. On Tuesday, a federal court in New York compelled the government to declassify numerous documents that revealed substantial tension between federal authorities and the surveillance court over the years.
On Thursday, James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, conceded that the NSA is likely to lose at least some of its broad powers to collect data on Americans.
He acknowledged that Snowden's disclosures had prompted a necessary debate: "As loath as I am to give any credit to what's happened here, I think it's clear that some of the conversations this has generated, some of the debate, actually needed to happen.
"If there's a good side to this, maybe that's it."

What Clapper didn't acknowledge is the fact that he and his agency have done everything they could to prevent that debate from ever happening, and still would love to bury Snowden in a small cell.

Thanks to the diligent efforts of the ACLU there will probably be more information revealed as a result of their FOIA requests filed in 2011.  The DOJ has tried to stonewall and obstruct the process every way they could, but cracks in the wall are finally appearing.

"We are pleased that the surveillance court has recognized the importance of transparency to the ongoing public debate about the NSA's spying," said Alex Abdo, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. "For too long, the NSA's sweeping surveillance of Americans has been shrouded in unjustified secrecy. Today's ruling is an overdue rebuke of that practice. Secret law has no place in our democracy."