BIG QUESTIONS LOOM

Go to usatoday. com for video excerpts and more from our roundtable discussion with National Security Agency whistle- blowers about contractor Edward Snowden and the top- secret documents he disclosed:

What did these experts learn from the leaked court order? Thomas Drake: “It’s the first time we have publicly seen an actual, secret, surveillance- court order. ... By virtue of that order, every single phone record that Verizon has is turned over each and every day to NSA. There is no probable cause. There is no indication of any kind of counterterrorism investigation or operation. It’s simply: ‘ Give us the data.’ ”

Could Snowden really have tapped President Obama’s phone?

William Binney: “As the system administrator ... he was like a super- user. He could go on the network or go into any file or any system and change it or add to it or whatever. ... That’s why he said, I think, “I can even target the president or a judge.” If he knew their phone numbers or attributes, he could insert them into the target list, which would be distributed worldwide. And then it would be collected — yeah, that’s right.”

Did intelligence chief James Clapper lie to Congress? Drake: “This is incredible dissembling. We’re talking about the ( Senate) oversight committee, not able to get a straight answer because if the straight answer was given it would reveal the perfidy that is actually going on inside the secret side of the government.”

What would they say to Snowden now? J. Kirk Wiebe: “Well, I don’t want anyone to think he had an alternative. No one should ( think that). There is no path for intelligence- community whistle- blowers who know wrong is being done. There is none. It’s a toss of the coin, and the odds are you are going to be hammered.”