# Do you still consider Edward Snowden a hero now that we know he's disclosed secret and LEGAL info? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 20, 2014, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-consider-edward-snowden-a-hero-now-that-we-know-hes-disclosed-secret-and-legal-info/679236 "2014-01-20T00:29:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-consider-edward-snowden-a-hero-now-that-we-know-hes-disclosed-secret-and-legal-info/679236/261 "2014-01-28T00:22:28Z")
> [@andros](#): > > I’m only vaguely familiar with that event. In what way were the products in question “uniquely valuable” to the USSR? IIRC, Toshiba had developed systems (both software and ‘hard’ products) that enabled the Soviets to mill their subs’ propeller blades such that they would be acoustically silent. Or, at least, so quiet when they turned that they could not be picked up/tracked. In other words, one of the US’s key abilities to track Soviet nuclear missile subs could have been severely compromised, i.e. the balance of nuclear power could have been shifted (admittedly slightly) toward the Soviet side. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-consider-edward-snowden-a-hero-now-that-we-know-hes-disclosed-secret-and-legal-info/679236/262 "2014-01-28T00:39:10Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > IIRC, Toshiba had developed systems (both software and ‘hard’ products) that enabled the Soviets to mill their subs’ propeller blades such that they would be acoustically silent. Or, at least, so quiet when they turned that they could not be picked up/tracked. In other words, one of the US’s key abilities to track Soviet nuclear missile subs could have been severely compromised, i.e. the balance of nuclear power could have been shifted (admittedly slightly) toward the Soviet side. So Toshiba secretly developed the systems specifically for the Soviets? ---
**Author:** ![Farin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e79b87/32.png) [@Farin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farin)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-consider-edward-snowden-a-hero-now-that-we-know-hes-disclosed-secret-and-legal-info/679236/263 "2014-01-28T00:51:06Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > I remember a story from a decade or so ago, about Saddam Hussein trying to get the (then new) Pentium 4 processors for use in some missile technology. Intel refused to sell them to him, citing national security concerns (or something, this was an urban legend when I heard it, and who knows how much is true). > > So apparently Saddam just went to the local version of Walmart and bought thousands of Sony Playstation 2s instead. 🙂 Anyway, I just checked, and PS2s didn’t have Pentium processors at all. Does anybody know if there was any truth in this story at all? > > I think the “moral” is that you can’t really control technology in that sense. If the technology exists, it will be used by your enemies whether you want them to have it or not. Certainly nukes didn’t seem hard for every country that wanted one to make, despite all our secrecy. So I doubt the NSA will have any effect on suppressing civilian technology of any sort. It is just an excuse for being corporate espionage puppets. I would suspect that that story is an urban legend, though I don’t know for sure. I do know that game systems are (or have been) on the restricted hardware list for export, since they are considered “dual use.” You could write a software package for a Playstation that guides a missile based on inputs from other hardware (IR detector, etc). But Hussein’s Iraq was definitely on the “don’t send stuff here” list. He could have gotten them from Russia or something, but if he’s going there, he could have probably gotten more useful (maybe even purpose-built) hardware from arms dealers. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-consider-edward-snowden-a-hero-now-that-we-know-hes-disclosed-secret-and-legal-info/679236/264 "2014-01-28T02:34:13Z")
> [@andros](#): > > So Toshiba secretly developed the systems specifically for the Soviets? No. But knowing full well why the Soviets wanted the system, and despite a _Japanese_ trade embargo that prohibited exporting such equipment to them, they went ahead and sold it to the USSR regardless. [Nice link](http://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/22/opinion/submarined-by-japan-and-norway.html). ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-still-consider-edward-snowden-a-hero-now-that-we-know-hes-disclosed-secret-and-legal-info/679236/265 "2014-01-28T03:59:42Z")
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