Posted on 07/29/2013 7:22:22 PM PDT by Texas Fossil
The traitor to our country and NSA, Edward Snowden, is now making the rounds of the major Communist countries; China and Russia, with either Ecuador or Venezuela or possible Cuba being a final destination. Who knows, it may be someplace no one ever thought about.
For all of you who labeled him a hero, I must excuse your ignorance on national security issues. If you haven’t worked in the intelligence community, you have no idea the damage that this sniveling coward has done to the intelligence community’s efforts and endangered your life and those of your loved ones.. When both the Russian and Chinese governments are sheltering him, he must have a mother lode of information.
When he initially left the United States, his exodus to Hong Kong was labeled by those sympathetic to him as a hero fleeing possible torment by this government. But, why to Hong Kong, controlled by the Chinese? If he had indeed been a true NSA whistleblower, such as Bill Binnie, Russ Tice or Tom Drake..(they’re racking up, aren’t they?)….he would still be in the US. While I don’t condone the actions of the three named, I have to give them their due for not running away.
While in Hong Kong, no doubt visited and interrogated by Chinese intelligence, he is now as of this writing, in Moscow, where he will be similarly interrogated. These are not the actions of a whistleblower, but of one who is not only sympathetic to Communist countries but may well be working for an organization who is friendly to one or both of these countries. Whatever the real reason is for his defection, the United States doesn’t fare well under any circumstance.
The damage to our intelligence community and national security is immeasurable. The only thing we have gleaned from this is our security policy is lacking: miserably. Unfortunately, we’ll be paying a heavy price.
Our defense department and intelligence community, thanks to the efforts of the Obama administration are already weakened. Thanks to the politically correct programs enacted: women in combat, revocation of ’don’t ask, don’t tell’ , attacks on religious freedom, restrictions on engaging the enemy in combat, and so on..we’re on very shaky ground.
Snowden was obviously working with someone else; he had to have help, considering the path he took to our enemies. He probably would have given the information to the Taliban if he wasn’t scared they might kill him just for the heck of it using religious grounds as a reason.
His visit to Moscow is especially troubling. Vladimir Putin at this point is the only leader in the world that actually acts like one. Obama certainly doesn’t; he’s too busy bowing and scraping to every other leader in the world. Putin is taking full advantage of our latest intelligence fiasco; whether or not his government had a hand in the operation still remains to be seen.
However, in his quest to bring back a better, more powerful Soviet Union, he will take all he can get from any Y Generationer who is more interested in himself and not the larger picture. By taking in Snowden, Putin is telling us that he is smarter than we are, more powerful and our days as a superpower are limited.
Vladimir Putin was affected deeply by the break-up of the Soviet Union. It was the United States who brought his country to its knees and it has eaten at him. He’s the type of man that holds a grudge. His work in the KGB and then as head of the same under the new name: Federal Security Service (FSB) demonstrates that this man is devoted to the Marxist/Russian Communist theology.
His mission to widen the influence of Russia throughout the world is in full force. There are new oil and gas supply agreements with countries throughout Europe, and supplying Japan with gas from Sakhalin Island. New military cooperation agreements with not only old Soviet republics and the Mid-East but widening into South America and Central America put us into a secondary player role. These military cooperation agreements include not just weapons, aircraft and naval vessels, but in some cases, Russian military personnel.
This man is no fool. He is cold and calculating. By allowing Snowden into Russia, he is not only getting his hands on some very important intelligence information, he will use whatever he can to bring us to our knees, not only in our national security, but anyway he can. He is thumbing his nose at us and enjoying every minute of it. Snowden may be welcomed right now, but when he can no longer give continued valuable information, he’ll be discarded.
But by that time, the damage is done to our country.
This country must get serious about its national security. We must stop using our defense department and military as a venue for implementing social policy. Security clearances must be tightened, investigations of candidates for clearances must be more thorough. There must be concerted effort throughout DOD as a whole; not just NSA.
Of course, you also must have an administration that is serious about our national security.
And the Snowden affair is what you get when you don’t have one.
“It is Obama Make it Stick!”
LOL,,, General Alexander, appointed by Rumsfeld under Bush, defended by Bush and Cheney last week, lying to congress.
Yeahhhhhh,, that’s 100% Obama there. Obama is basically Bush with a jive accent and an odd fixation on sodomy. Other than the window dressing cultural markers, it’s hard to think of what Obama and Bush would do differently.
Umm... Here is a clue.
Its tough to get things done.
It is tougher when you are out of power.
Johnston....Snowden hasn’t revealed crap....if you have a security number everything about you is known to whoever wants to trace you.
As for data banks....they too have been around forever.
Snowden is just a little guy trying to make a mark in the world and instead has ended up with messed pants.
I understand your convictions about the Constitution...but it means squat if the administration and congress don’t acknowledge it with more than lip service to feel important...and none of them are unless it serves their own purpose to do so.
Further it means nothing if “WE THE PEOPLE” continue to stand by and do nothing except flap our jaws on how it’s being violated.....as if that’s news to most.
Bullcrap. I never surrendered my 4th amendment by any actions. I use the telephone or send an email, so I surrender my 4th amendment?
And the general public using a communications technology en masse does not in the slightest give the government the right to record it. Does using the highway mean they can strip search you because you are out there? Verizon and google to better route ads to you? Fine, that’s in your agreements. But the government muscling communication companies is nothing but an abuse.
The mere existence of a technology does not justify it’s use by government. “Papers and effects” discussed in the 4th amendment; Do you think the founders had a paper and ink fetish?”
I worked for Rumsfeld
You can snark at him all day long.
He don’t care, and he is an honorable man.
If you street corner talkin anyone may over hear you and suss you up.
What don’t you get?
See, the Trayvon Martin crowd think Zimmerman was stalking.
He WAS NOT
He was doing what the community wanted him to do.
The same community that is now lynching him.
I will say it again, “It’s Complicated”
He set up the security state we are currently on a rocket sled headed into. And we fought WWII in a little over 3.5 years, starting with almost nothing. He did Iraq on the cheap manpowerwise and managed to put us into a decade long meatgrinder war. Helped open up homos into the military too. He’s just another Bush Cheney clone for my money.
Give us a few less honorable guys like him please.
And note to other honorable guys out there. Please do not construct security state apparatuses for future leaders who will get to use them turnkey.
PS,, thank him for DHS.
“what don’t I get?”
Hows about why does simply -following the constitution- as clearly written seem so difficult for you?
It has been perfectly adequate for around 200 years. It got us through the cold war with 20,000 Soviet nukes aimed at us. But now, we must abandon it because of some rag tag islamists?
What don’t I get? Hows about do you really have so -little- faith in it, that you cannot imagine how a constitution following republic cannot defend itself from this farce of a threat?
Does the 4th amendment truly make it impossible to defend America from external attack?
And if the threat is so dire, why are the borders open and why have we increased Moslem immigration 5 fold?
It’s clear you adore the guy. I think he was at best a misguided but technically competent GOPe loyalist.
I’m sure he likes fly fishing, puppies, and apple pie. I just think he lost sight of something very important.
As did his bosses Bush, Cheney, and the Obama administration that followed. It’s very telling that in the main, war, military, economics, NSA, CIA, etc,, Obama is not that different than GOPe.
2. Communism isn't a goal in Russian policy anymore, national interest is. Like for any other country.
well why don’t you give us a quick and dirty on data systems txhurl?
fossil
Girlene is right, this Ann Marie is trying to be dramatic
and so what, the US wasn’t using the system on the Taliban, the palistinians, mainland China or on our real enemies but on us and on Israel, France, Germany
it was fully expected that we would spy on our enemies, but on ourselves unConstitutionally?
I am glad Snowden did what he did
He alerted real Americans to the depravity of their government
Ann Marie and you ought to acknowledge this
you are right and Texas Fossil is deluded
We don't. There was a time when the head of the military and those Congressmen who know "the truth" about our CIA activities and NSA intelligence were honorable men who loved the nation. Today there are few of those. Obozo Hates the Nation, and has intended from the beginning to destroy it.
In my opinion, once Obozo is gone, it will be time to expose huge portions of the Fed Gov to daylight. And this will require eliminating entire Departments, because there is no other was to remove the embedded subversives. In the case of many Departments they have gone Rogue to the point that there is no way to justify their further existence.
Now that does not mean that there are no legitimate functions of Fed Gov Departments. But many have no constitutional authority to exist and are so Rogue it is time for the dance to end.
There will be squeals and wails, but it is time to DownSize DC!
it’s all stored so it can be retrieved
It is surprising that for the past few years you hear comments on FR that are almost complementary of Putin.
He projects a good image of the strong tough Russian. He was KGB. George H W Bush was head of the CIA. In the beginning George W Bush appeared to have a good relationship with Putin.
Putin later stated he felt like he was played like a drum by W.
I love all those who cherish freedom. I am not sure that is even approached in Russia.
Is Putin simply a Nationalist? I don’t have the knowledge of his nature to judge that. Ann Marie might. She speaks the language, knows the history, worked in the trade.
Let me remind you that Totalitarianism in all it’s forms is evil. Progressivism, Socialism, Marxism, Communism, Fascism, Dictatorship, Islam. All are totally about control and subjection to the State. All are propagated and maintained by Lies. There is no other way to keep them in place.
It is not so with nations who value the truth. The knowledge of Truth, is based on moral values. That is base on faith.
Of late we hear Putin praise the Russian Orthodox Church. I see no evidence of Putin being Christian, but possibly he is.
Thought in the beginning that George W Bush’s faith and what I saw hints of in Putin were that common ground. Evidently it did not work that way.
We are witnessing the convergence of the Left, the Global Fascists and Islam against the Christians and Jews.
That is where the battle lines have always been drawn. Between Daylight vs Dark, Truth vs Lies, Good vs Evil.
In the end God will prevail, but between now and then there is a great battle with will be fought. Are we near to that? We won’t know exactly until it happens.
Several years ago I found Google Translate. With that and no knowledge of foreign languages (limited Spanish excepted) I have enjoyed making friends among freedom lovers in several countries. One of those friends is in Moscow. Sergie is his name. We have had some interesting discussions, he is fluent in English but the conversation is often translated by machine too.
Trust but verify.
Tell me what you want to know? And you can be as specific as you want.
This is from here, to start you off:
Glenn Greenwald: Low-Level NSA Analysts Have ‘Powerful and Invasive’ Search Tool
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3048355/posts?page=101
Greenwald told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos. “And what these programs are, are very simple screens, like the ones that supermarket clerks or shipping and receiving clerks use, where all an analyst has to do is enter an email address or an IP address, and it does two things. It searches that database and lets them listen to the calls or read the emails of everything that the NSA has stored, or look at the browsing histories or Google search terms that you’ve entered, and it also alerts them to any further activity that people connected to that email address or that IP address do in the future.”
But if you have any other questions, there are thousands of us tech folks here on FR.
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