Binney had the guts to step back and speak out. He could've kept playing ball. THINTHREAD or not, his subsequent actions are worth praise. Credit is given where credit is due. Very little else is out there to encourage people in high positions to follow suit. That's true. THINTHREAD's reassurance of privacy is as laughable now as it was then. Marketing to a naive public like that is so annoyingly ironic when the leading threat (time and time again) is the lack of privacy from a surveillance state.
From what I've read, THINTHREAD is also a system that involves widespread and intrusive monitoring of US communications. THINTHREAD purports to use "encryption" to solve the privacy problems that arise from retaining information about US citizens. I am not reassured.