Edward SnowdenVerified account

@Snowden Can't speak to shelf-life of disposible phone in Pakistan. In Baltimore, discipline and cost are such that it can be days.

@AoDespair Fair point. My background is in intelligence, not law enforcement. Transnational terrorists aren't hurting for burners.

@Snowden Neither should top-end drug traffickers in the more affluent US. And yet by the time the process trickles to the corner boys....

@AoDespair Tbf, mass surveillance wasn't pitched to catch "corner boys" or even "The Greek," but on thwarting OBLs. And there, never worked.

@AoDespair Commercial activities (drug sales) will always generate records that sporadic offensive operations (terrorism) will not.

@Snowden Differences sure. But it's remains that coms are the singular place where any conspiracy is vulnerable prior to crime. Gotta try.

@Snowden I acknowledge fears of a panopticon. I wish others would also acknowledge that coms are an elemental investigative avenue.

@AoDespair Nobody argues against comms surveillance. They argue about scope. Handsets v. networks. "Collect it all" v. individual warrants.