The Register has found itself subject to a certain amount of criticism for this author's skepticism ( Richard Chirgwin http://www.theregister.co.uk/Author/2242 ) regarding whether the NSA has been snooping on optical fibre cables by cutting them.
Glenn Greenwald's recent “NSA cut New Zealand's cables” story is illustrative of credibility problems that surround the ongoing Edward Snowden leak stories: everybody is too willing to accept that “if it's classified, it must be because it's true”, and along the way, attribute super-powers to spy agencies.
In running the line that undersea cables were cut, Greenwald is straying far enough from what's feasible and credible that his judgement on other claims needs to be questioned. It seems to The Register almost certain that neither Glenn Greenwald nor Edward Snowden have actually held a submarine fibre cable in their hands.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/09/18/spies_arent_superheroes/
Do you think that it is credible that these undersea fibre cables were tapped when it is easier to tap onshore installations?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by sjames on Friday September 19 2014, @08:31PM
Mod parent up!
Snowden made no claims whatsoever about some super amazing undersea caper.
TFA is just hacking at a strawman.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @08:50PM
Greenwald is a strawman? I guess that explains a lot. Maybe he should go see the Wizard and get himself a brain.
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Friday September 19 2014, @09:11PM
If the strawmen are not regularly beat and hacked, they would band together into an unstoppable army hell bent to shove humanity down a slippery slope of tyranny and depravity. They know no limits and fear only a lit match, the strawmen must not be allowed to unite. A Grand Strawman Army would naturally ally with the Trolls and B'tards, overrun the lurkers to attack what we hold dear. This must be allowed. This is for the sake of our children, the environment, and economy!
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @09:32PM
That's Greenwald's job. He needs to milk this shit for all he can to try to keep himself relevant. It is like Assange. You don't simply release the info you have; that would quickly lead to people digesting it all and forgetting all about you. You need to drip, drip, drip it out slowly, spread over time, accompanied with unwarranted speculation, then you can constantly keep yourself in the news. Greenwald is a modern-day carny barker with about just as much credibility ("Come see the amazing lizard man! Come see the bearded woman! Come see the NSA undersea taps that probably exist!").
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday September 19 2014, @10:12PM
Except I find no evidence of Greenwald making such a claim either.