The 10/31/2013 opinion piece in the JHU News-Letter by Brian Yuen is deeply flawed and contains several factual errors which are indisputable and easily verified. First, Yuen claims that, “...Edward Snowden leaked classified NSA proceedings via Wikileaks...”. Perhaps he is confusing Snowden with Pvt. Chelsea Manning who was involved with document leaks from the DoD and DoS to Wikileaks? Snowden leaked to Glen Greenwald formerly with The Guardian and filmmaker Laura Poitras, but never to Wikileaks. Secondly, Yuen claims that the NSA “cracked down” on the Silk Road website. Actually, it was primarily the FBI with no evidence of involvement by the NSA. Thirdly, Yuen claims that the NSA invented Onion routing and the Tor anonymity network. This was actually work done by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, not the NSA. Mr. Yuen’s opinion piece and its conclusions eviscerating the need for citizens’ privacy are simply not credible. As the saying goes, “three strikes, and you’re out”.
-Roger Harrison
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