April 24, 2014 | Quote
Rubio’s Claim that Snowden Scandal ‘Most Damaging’ U.S. Espionage Not Definitive
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio makes it clear where he stands on Edward Snowden's exposure of the National Security Agency's spying programs: The situation couldn't be more dire.
“The single most damaging revelation of American secrets in our history,” Rubio said when asked about the matter after a foreign policy speech at the University of Texas on April 15.
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The most serious instances come down to someone being killed, whether they be soldiers, covert agents or informants, said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Long-term revelations that compromise U.S. operations also can cause major damage, he said.
He compared the Snowden case with the Pentagon Papers, in which former government military analyst Daniel Ellsberg released a classified history of U.S. involvement in Indochina from World War II to 1968. The report, which the New York Times published details of in 1971, revealed the United States had secretly escalated the Vietnam War without the public's knowledge.