Posted on 06/12/2013 1:25:02 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The revelation that the National Security Agency is tracking every phone call each American makes, and broadly mining internet data puts President Obama at the center of yet another controversy. He and supporters in the Republican leadership, not Edward Snowden, are making themselves villains.
Two sets of issues are central. Do NSA practices strike a reasonable balance between the threats posed by global terrorism and right to privacy? Are these the least intrusive necessary? Are safeguards against abuse adequate?
Will Edward Snowden be thrown in jail for revealing classified information under the Espionage Act or other statutes?
The president argues the nation needs to strike a balance between security and liberty. As with free speech--you cant yell "fire" in a movie theater--the right to privacy is not absolute.
However, if Americans are going to have a reasoned discussion, they must know what the government is up to, especially when it collects broad information that could be used to paint a sophisticated picture of each Americans political leanings, sexual orientation and flavor of ice cream they prefer. The president cant have it both ways--engage in an informed dialogue but not reveal the practices that need to be discussed....
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Agree.
So glad to see interviews with Mom, Dad, relatives....Friends!!!
Enigma/Ultra
The FedGov imports and protects the problem, and places me under surveillance and part of the solution.
He'd get to the bottom of Fast and Furious, another "secret" government program, supplying terrorists with high-powered weaponry.
So far it's only "metadata" regarding gov't snooping on ALL citizens without cause.
This is going to make a great movie, and not just made-for-TV. I’m trying to imagine who could play Snowden. The “usuals are too old.
Then if the spooks (James Bond types) don't like him, they will work to get rid of him by getting rid of Zer0 - sooner rather than later.
The Harry Potter kid?
He will be captured, charged, thrown into jail, then one day pardoned.
Congress will march along merrily in contempt of the Constitution without a care in the World.
Nothing says "patriotic commitment to civil liberties" like threatening to defect to China.
Interesting battle lines forming up.
Local talk-radio Tea Party conservative Michael Berry, here in Houston, came down on Snowden's side. And guys like Gallagher and Michael Medved and other RiNO-symp mike jockeys are all lining up behind James Clapper and what a solid guy he is and what a weaselly little rat-bastard Snowden is, giving Al Q'aeda a free pass to the next Boston Marathon.
(Oh, wait -- the Tsarnaev brothers didn't have a free pass but walked onto the Marathon race course anyway and set their bombs without interference. That didn't work out too well for us, but hey, we get the idea!)
The Obama Syndicate was about to roll out the drones against the American people in out own cities. Thanks to Senator Rand Paul, we stopped that train from leaving the station. Now we have Edward Snowden. Who knows what Zer0 was planning. We do know it was not for good.
Well, except now he is telling the world that the US is hacking China’s networks.
I’m not sure how that fits in with the idea that he was blowing the whistle because our government was subverting our freedoms.
Totally agree.
If we surrender our freedoms in the fight against terrorism - THE TERRORISTS WIN.
Sorry, the guy is a sociopathic lying traitor.
As I’ve said on other boards, and taken tons of ridicule and flack for everyone’s newfound 99 percenter Paul Revere,
Hundreds of thousands of active duty and former military officers and enlisted from all branches of the service that fill the ranks of NSA are all law breaking cowards, and only this guy, a high school and military dropout, lands a contacting gig for less than three months, and saves the world from all those evil people at NSA?
Do you all really believe that? That they violate the law and not one of them had the balls as this bastard? Really????.
There is a lot of crap being sold here, and sadly, a lot of people bought into. Hook, line, and sinker.
The government is categorizing and cataloging data for permanent archiving. The only thing missing is the name that goes with the number, and they can match that at any time.
When they say it's not the content of the calls or emails, don't believe it. They're probably storing compressed data packets, which directly aren't readable but can be quickly expanded and converted when needed.
It used to be that the government had to give a reason why they were suspicious of you before they were allowed to capture data about you.
Now they're saying that they can capture all the data about you that they want, but they only need permission to look at it.
This means that the government now has the means to manufacture any evidence against you that they might ever need in the future.
-PJ
I know. And I believe that they have your MegaData too.
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