I was thinking about this earlier today. My fear is that something will happen to Greenwald and the rest of the data/documents/whatever else he has would never become public.

Don't you think that maybe they leaked the most interesting stuff first? This stuff has started to fall out of the news. It's past time to keep the story going.

Perhaps there was a limit to the documents he was able to scavenge.

If I could gamble on this topic, my bet would be that there isn't any more interesting information. That said, I am interested in learning what the rest of the information is, so I can make up my own mind about the issue.

Did you miss the new documents published yesterday? They've been all over HN today, and they contradict most everything Obama and the NSA have been saying for the past week.

I didn't find them very revelatory. It just seems like typical CYA spook paperwork. Regarding the government lying, I don't see how that is news, either.

The government spent the last week trying to convince the public that they never spy on U.S. citizens and do not store their data.

The documents are a direct authorization from the Attorney General for all the ways in which they are allowed to do exactly that.

Right, but why is that a surprise?

Because it's documented proof of their blatant lies to the public and to Congress. If that's not something big to you, I doubt there are any documents that can be released which will impress you.

I'd like to see more documents detailing how the system works, and specific instances of it being used to target american citizens. Something along the lines of the information eventually turned up about the Fast and Furious operation, or the Iran Contra affair. Right now it's just a powerpoint and a signed letter.

Who cares? Why is it a surprise to you that some people care about things that are fucking wrong even though they are hardly surprises?

Why? I doubt Snowden expected anything different.

Greenwald/The Guardian won't release it out of fear of being brought up on similar charges. I don't know why they haven't released it already, unless it's just more of the same sort of vaguely incriminating powerpoint presentations.

News cycle. If they release too early, it just fatigues everyone and makes them get bored of the issue. I'm guessing that Greenwald is sitting on many of the documents and waiting for people to forget about Snowden, and then he'll release another one to keep the issue (and The Guardian) in the news. He maximizes both the political impact and the eyeballs going to his employer in this way.

That won't stop Greenwald. And if you haven't noticed, they already have released even more incriminating documents, including a signed order from the Attorney General authorizing multiple exemptions to the ban on collecting and viewing data from U.S. citizens.

It lets the government keep lying itself into corners.

That's valid.

It's not illegal for journalists to possess classified info, because espionage laws only apply to those who are authorized to possess such info and disclose it without authorization to a third party; the third parties themselves are guilty of nothing (except perhaps "conspiracy" as the DoJ is trying to do against Wikileaks, allegedly.)