Posted on 06/10/2013 2:08:08 AM PDT by servo1969
It seems that nothing is ever as it seems.
It may be that Edward Snowden is what he seems to be — an Obama-supporter who, despite barely gaining a GED, managed to work his way into sensitive technical positions at the CIA, NSA and private contractors, and then became disillusioned that abuse of individual privacy he witnessed under the Bush administration was not cured and if anything worsened under Obama, and who, despite four years of Obama-rule in which to leak embarrassing documents, waited until late May 2013 in which to take and then dump on Glenn Greenwald a treasure trove of seemingly embarrassing documents which allegedly show a massive data-mining operation and desire to control all the world’s information.
Or, it may be that this is all too perfect, that the criminally leaked documents have been misconstrued by journalists with agendas and that the programs at issue previously were disclosed at least in generalities and have safeguards built in, but none of that matters because the leaks come precisely at a time when the Chinese government has come under increasingly distressed complaints by U.S. industry and government over cyber-espionage and on the eve of a trip to the U.S. by Chinese President Xi Jinping at which Obama was expected to make cyber-espionage a central issue, thereby emasculating complaints about Chinese activities.
It may be that Snowden fled to Hong Kong because, as he asserts, it protects free speech, or it may be that he fled there because he easily could slip into mainland China, which itself does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S. and which, in any event, has veto power over Hong Kong’s exercise of its extradition treaty with the U.S., or at a minimum, makes a “rendering” conducted on sovereign Chinese soil unlikely.
All I’m saying is that this whole thing may be exactly as it seems. I just don’t know what it seems to be.
I will reserve judgment until more facts are known about Snowden, and what he actually revealed.
Update 11:15 p.m.: Well, you don’t say. Former CIA Officer: Officials Considering NSA Whistleblower’s Case ‘Potential Chinese Espionage’:
Former CIA case officer Bob Baer revealed on CNN Sunday evening that intelligence officials were possibly considering Edward Snowden’s case as Chinese espionage, after Snowden came forward this afternoon from an undisclosed Hong Kong location.
“Hong Kong is controlled by Chinese intelligence,” Baer said. “It’s not an independent part of China at all. I’ve talked to a bunch of people in Washington today, in official positions, and they are looking at this as a potential Chinese espionage case.”
“On the face of it, it looks like it is under some sort of Chinese control, especially with the president meeting the premier today,” Baer said. “You have to ask what’s going on. China is not a friendly country and every aspect of that country is controlled. So why Hong Kong? Why didn’t he go to Sweden? Or, if he really wanted to make a statement, he should have done it on Capitol Hill.” ….
“We’ll never get him in China,” Baer said. “They’re not about to send him to the United States and the CIA is not going to render him, as he said in the tape, is not going to try to grab him there.”
“It almost seems to me that this was a pointed affront to the United States on the day the president is meeting the Chinese leader,” Baer said, “telling us, listen, quit complaining about espionage and getting on the internet and our hacking. You are doing the same thing.”
[video]
According to Booze Allen, he worked for them for 3 months, he states he likes Obama’s ideas and defected to China.
That tells me how F’d up this guy is so the left will love him.
How DID Snowden get such CLASSIFIED INFORMATION when he Barely got a GED??? And he’s so YOUNG.....something is VERY FISHY....VERY FISHY.
That tells me how F’d up this guy is so the left will love him.
He claims to have voted "third party" and did contribute to Paul's campaign, so that'll go against him with the lefties. OTOH, he's worried about his 'partner' so that'll give him hero status automatically.
He contributed $500 to Ron Paul in the last cycle.
He claims to have voted third party, but to have held off blowing the whistle pending promised Obama reforms. When those were not forthcoming, he then chose to pile one more on to the growing pile of Obama scandals.
This guy is not good for the Left. He undermines what the Left believes in, namely, Government!
Our nation is dirty and too full of bad secrets. This guy exposed the rot. They will say bad things about him, but I ain't buying their lies.
Yes...there will probably be a witch hunt on Snowden before we know all the facts
However...once again...Communist China rears its head again. Not sure if Snowden is the treasonous one...or the folks who still support Free Trade with Communist China.
It’s in the first sentence: “an Obama-supporter”
If Snowden had completed a typical four year baccalaureate he would have been well conditioned to accept “the government is always good” premise from his professors.
As it was, his lack of formal schooling opened his eyes.
A coalition of nazists, leftists, biglibertarians and muslims pushed Obama into American politics.
One of the members was Randall Royer.
Confused+socialists+muslims.
Not difficult. Smart, passed background check, works for contractor.
And this is for everyone else: I don’t get this. Here we have a guy who is telling everyone what most people on FR thought for years but were told we’re all a bunch of nuts. Now, here we have a whistleblower confirming all this, and we people start thinking that he’s NOT beleiveable??
Here’s the real deal, America:
I live and work among the most left-wing in the New England Area. And since this story has come out, I have overheard in EVERY conversation. People ARE pissed - even the left-wingers, upper-echelon snobs, and your low-information voters. You see, all you need to understand is that common idiot out there has a smart phone in their hand.
Rather than ringing our hands and thinking the whole thing is the next conspiracy to justify our own fears, perhaps we should be taking the lead in tearing down this machine for our future. This is a GOLDEN opportunity for us to take this country back. from the conversations I’ve heard, The U.S. Government has lost the trust of the people.
Perhaps its time for us to deal with it, and not make any more excuses for not doing anything.
Sorry for my ranting. Now, I have to go to work and continue to pay taxes to this beast until we figure out an alternative.
Obama doesn’t have a first-class espionage team in Asia. A few years ago, the Pentagon was recruiting military spies on the journalismjobs.com Website. It claimed it was trying to hire reporters to write Features stories about Asia. As a fluke I emailed them and said I’m in Beijing right now. The next day they asked me to fill out some application. While I filled out the Application, I Google Searched the company and tracked it to the Asia-Pacific Command Website. When I sent email to recruiter that they had a foolish idea. Basically, the reporters would be hired to conduct on-the-record interviews with high-ranking PLA officers. I told them that these folks don’t even talk to Chinese reporters, and they certainly wouldn’t talk to an American reporter hired by the US Defense Department. I got an email from them 2 minutes later saying, “you’re not hired.” In another instance, some guy claiming to be a military intel guy said they wanted me to help them in Asia and gave some BS story that they already have guys working for them in the MSM in Asia. When I asked another military official about this recruitment. He laughed and said Obama’s so clueless nowadays. He reminded me I had no military background and that I don’t even know how to shoot a gun. He explained this guy was likely a fraud, and if not Obama’s a dumbass. He said that if the story might be true Military Intelligence really is an oxymoron.
He said he voted third party....not Obama.
Snowdon claims he did not vote for Obama in 2008,he said he voted third party,he said he believed Obama’s promises but when he saw that he was not following through he did what he did.
As far as I am concerned you can’t look at this outside of the context of all the Government abuses we have witnessed recently,Fast and Furious,Bengahzi,IRS,Egypt,Quadaffi,in short this government Is out of control.
As for this spying on Americans,I find myself a Tea party member siding with two Lefty Democrats,Wyden of Oregon and Udall of Utah both of whom server on the Senate intelligence committee,they have been on this spying thing for quite some time,it seems the NSA while going through some of the phone numbers they had vacuumed up, someone entered one number wrong and accessed a Load of innocent Individuals information,this is illegal,they had to report this to Holder who notifies the FISA court who orders them to destroy all the data,Holder says he did and assures the court that he is taking comprehensive action to prevent this from happening. This action was taken because the judges on the FISA court were outraged at the breach,now I don’t trust Holder at all. The FISA court found during all this that a Top secret survelliance program that the government is running is unconstitutional,Udall and Wyden cannot reveal what program that was because they are on the intelligence committee committee and it is top secret,they notify the electronic freedom foundation,an organization This guy Snowden is on,they file a freedom of information request to the Justice dept. And Holder will not release the court judgement,they tell them to go to the FISA COURT,the court tells them to go to the Justice dept.They are getting the run around,they can’t get what survelliance program the FISA court has ruled is unconstitutional. Suppose Snowden knows with his access what program that was and it is what we have been hearing about,that makes him a whistle blower.
This issue has to be looked at in the context of trust of the government as well as all the rest and I join with the founding fathers on this one,I don’t trust the Government.
I look at it this way,Thousands of men landed at Normandy and knowing that they more than likely were going to die,thousands more climbed aboard bombers in the eighth air force for mission after mission,courage we only read about and most never have to summon,well fellow Americans regardless of Snowdens political bent,as he says,he was living in paradise,making a ton of money and he in effect has ended his life,that takes tremendous courage,in light of all that written here I am willing to at least listen to this man before all the howling sleazy politicians
The only thing that comes to mind is that Obama is running the country like his mother raised him, absentee. Now we have a situation where the inmates are running the asylum.
Oh...I wonder..............
http://www.geek.com/news/anonymous-hacks-booz-allen-hamilton-90000-military-emails-stolen-1401753/
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