Posted on 06/10/2013 9:31:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Edward Snowden is not a hero. He's a 29-year-old former security guard at the National Security Agency who ended up knowing way too much about what goes on at the NSA, CIA and the rest of the intelligence community. In case you missed it over the weekend, he is the kid who spilled the beans about the NSA's PRISM program.
Snowden is now in Hong Kong, probably awaiting a fairly severe knock on his hotel room door by some Chinese cop who will ask him nicely to put his hands behind his back and provide the story line for next season's "Locked Up Abroad."
There is a serious flaw in Edward Snowden's and Bradley Manning's (the U.S. soldier who copied and sent miles of secret messages to Wikileaks) claims that they were looking out for you and me.
As a taxpayer, I'm not paying you to look out after my Fourth Amendment rights. I'm paying you to do whatever job you were hired to do, and if you find that job too ethically distasteful, then you should quit.
But keep your mouth shut.
If everyone is allowed to decide for themselves what is legal and ethical and what is not, then society - not just American society - will collapse. I happen to hate bicycle riders who run stop signs. I think that America would be far better off if bicycle riders who run stop signs are rendered incapable of riding a bicycle at all.
You disagree? Too bad. Under the Snowden/Bradley Rule, I get to pick and choose which laws I obey and which I violate. You can decide to rat out the barrista at your local Starbucks who gives the cute girl from down the block a Grande every day when she only pays for a Tall.
Or you can decide to use your get-out-of-jail-free card to inform on that guy on the fifth floor who is always bragging about his landscapers being from Mars and thus are Little Green Men without Little Green Cards.
If you read or watch the Guardian's interview with Snowden, the first thing that comes to mind is this: Who is in charge of H.R. at the CIA, the NSA and Booz Allen Hamilton - all of whom Snowden has worked over the past four years?
The NSA is tracking phone calls and Google searches because that's what it's in business to do. The only reason the NSA exists is to track phone calls and Google searches - or some facsimile of those things. The CIA is spying on people because that's what we pay them to do.
It is a little hard to swallow the notion that this kid can be smart enough to go from security guard to CIA covert operative and Booz Allen consultant and yet look like the main character in an Edvard Munch painting when he finds out that the NSA and CIA are snooping on people.
I have an advantage over most of you in that I've finally grown into being a curmudgeon. I'm 66-years-old, cranky most of the time, and if the government wants to track who I call and what I download, then have at it.
However, if you are 28 and think you have a future in the government that might include a job requiring Senate confirmation, you probably should be worried.
Edward Snowden should be extradited from Hong Kong and tried in the United States. If he is found guilty - and given his public interviews it won't take Rudy Giuliani or Chris Christy to get a conviction - he should go to federal prison for a long time.
While he's there, I hope that the U.S. Government's security services will continue to do what they are paid to do.
I hope.
He is correct.
If they weren’t doing something like Prism, I would demand that they do so.
I have still not seen anything that says that they are snooping on anything for political purposes.
If the data gathering is looking for “Mohammad & Jihad”, I got no problem with it.
If we find out that they are also doing “Bubba & Tea Party”, THEN I’ve got a problem.
I trust that the NSA is too busy looking for really bad guys to bother with the wishes of an idiot President.
When you work for the government, or as a member of the US military, you take an oath to “protect and defend the Constitution, from all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
Yes, you are paid to uphold people’s constitutional rights.
Galen, having served in the National Guard, should have remembered that. I guess the oath meant nothing to him, because he doesn’t seem to connect the dots here.
Galen is another example of the parasite class that has attached itself to our body politic.
And you can point to how many successes brought about by this snooping...?
Yea, that’s what I thought. None.
So, for the lack of any evidence that this program provides any efficacy in fighting “terrorism,” it’s a treasure trove of information and capability just sitting there, waiting to be mis-used.
Either that or normalcy bias. You choose.
SeekAndFind: “What about simply PROFILING certain suspected people living in the USA and secretly tracking their phone calls here and to and from overseas, , albeit WITH A WARRANT, ? Is that a violation of the fourth amendment?”
No. It’s not a violation of the 4th Amendment to track someone so long as there’s probable cause to believe the individual has committed a crime and a warrant has been issued detailing the specific information that will be gathered (and only information that relates to the crime committed).
Because the GOP itself is largely complicit in this!!!
Much of what is being revealed has been open record knowledge for some times. What this Utah data center is, how it ties in and what its purpose was is clearly outlined in this article in Wired back in 2012 and even then it wasn’t new.
See:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/
I’m sure Rich Galen really thinks he’s a conservative.
D2M: “This entire snooping program has DONE NOTHING to make us safer.”
We don’t really know that, but even if they prove it’s stopped some terrorists, it still doesn’t make it right.
#1 They’d have to prove the terrorists wouldn’t have been stopped by any other constitutional means.
#2 Our leaders in DC don’t have the right to choose to violate the 4th Amendment even if it means we achieve 100% security. Only We the People can amend the US Constitution. The GOPe and Democrats who supported this program have went too far. They have forgotten their place.
“I have still not seen anything that says that they are snooping on anything for political purposes.”
After the IRS revelations, it would be naive to think they weren’t.
To be fair, probably the vast majority who quit give at least passing thought to royally SCROOOOOOOING their boss on the way out the door.
You shouldn't have to pay extra -- we should be getting that for free!
Amen to that, cripplecreek.
The Statists of all varieties have bought the idea that government knows best, and that government somehow sits above us all...and that the constitution somehow, and oaths to maintain it, are a hinderance to all of that.
Like the King of England, the day may come when they have to learn a very hard lesson.
GBA, you are smart. We have reached the point, if we criticize Hussein and his policies, we are traitors and deserve harsh punishment - or in the near future - deserve death. Many people right now will back away from the internet so their writing won't be sucked up and kept in “The Ministry of Information” in Utah.
In the book, “1984”, there were four government Ministries: Ministry of Truth, The Ministry of Peace, The Ministry of Plenty, and The Ministry of Love. The goal of each government Ministry was the opposite of the name. The Truth Ministry was rewriting every history book so it was all lies, the Peace Ministry was lies about winning a war, the Plenty Ministry was lying about having food and all goods, the Love Ministry was lies because that is where they tortured and/or executed you.
In light of those Ministries in “1984”, I felt I should name the place in Utah, “The Ministry of Information”. That evil place has our entire life in there. I believe it is Satan's version of The Book of Life Jesus Christ has of all Christians. I prefer my name in the Book of Life rather than The Information Ministry.
He was making $200k/year. I doubt he did it for the money.
It looks like they recovered rather too well.
>> If the data gathering is looking for “Mohammad & Jihad”, I got no problem with it.
>> If we find out that they are also doing “Bubba & Tea Party”, THEN I’ve got a problem.
Which group is a greater threat to the status quo order?
This is the group that is considered to be the “real” terrorists.
Yeah, J.Christian Adams Quit the Justice dept. Run by the Lying Crook Holder,to expose the Racism,How did that work out
It's not like they use the IRS (and everything else they control) for political purposes, right?
Holy carp, this Snowden thing is ferreting out the ones who are closet worshipers of the State, damn the Constitution. Really incredible responses from all sides.
BTW, seems right and left, the talking points include the word “treason”. That was King George’s talking point, too.
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