Posted on 06/09/2013 11:41:17 AM PDT by sunmars
The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell.
The Guardian, after several days of interviews, is revealing his identity at his request. From the moment he decided to disclose numerous top-secret documents to the public, he was determined not to opt for the protection of anonymity. "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," he said.
Snowden will go down in history as one of America's most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning. He is responsible for handing over material from one of the world's most secretive organisations – the NSA.
In a note accompanying the first set of documents he provided, he wrote: "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions," but "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant."
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Your comment demonstrates a queer failure to read the article. Moron.
Right. Manning was having a gay snit and he divulged a large amount of classified message traffic out of spite.
wow. there are still a few american men (i assume he’s a citizen) with balls.
Better to go public and risk harrassment than remain hidden and have an "accident" next week.
I doubt anyone is taking what he says at face value. He has provided some TS documents and made some allegations. Now it is up to Congress and the MSM to investigate the matter. Hopefully, they will and not sweep it under the rug.
“You should recognize that this guy is almost certainly a big lib and a big Obama supporter. Time will tell on that but there are clues in the interview and the Guardian Q&A.”
I agree with you. But wouldn’t this be a great opportunity to bring over more big libs and big Obama supporters to the limited govt point of view?
And yet, what are the GOPe doing? They’re defending the very dragnet surveillance that this man has forfeited his life to expose!
Just watch as the GOPe waists this opportunity of a lifetime to snag a bunch of voters away from the Obama bloc.
“I’ve never been big on revealing secret information. So I can’t praise this man for what he’s done.”
Why has everything become so top secret in the government especially when it involves taking rights and privacy from we the people who supposedly are the government, and who pays the bills? Native born or even most naturalized citizens are not the threat.
So why are we not considered as esteemed citizens instead of subjects? I personally have not liked the trend of our government that came up with a plan to blame American citizens for 9-11, even though we had NOTHING to do with it. So Congress then created a Patriot Act that made all of us suspects. I didn’t like it then and don’t like it now.
In other words all that hopey changey hype was just a bunch of baloney... Won’t matter to the true believers and the takers though because it is way more important to keep those benefits flowing, thats the change they voted for, give me my Obamaphone, Obamahome, Obamaloan, EBT, SNAP, Obamacare, welfare, we don’t care, disability checks rolling in extend my unemployement until I qualify for my disability payments YO, I still need my 22’s so supersize and subsidize big government is the solution crowd...
I’m a bit mystified still. But, yes. First, Democrats have a history of exposing classified operations. Remember there was a long list of classified ops exposed on page one of the New York Times during the GW years intended to undercut both Bush and the war effort. It seemed CIA couldn’t keep any secrets at all during those years.
So having the president out this operation on prime time TV is par for that course.
This president has a history of this kind of sleight of hand, letting proxies do the dirty work while he appears to be above the fray. Remember, he’s the one running guns to the Cartel while encouraging the Mexican government to sue US gun manufacturers. He’s the one who continues to pantomime a “war on terror” while knocking over governments on behalf of Muslim Brotherhood.
Then we have this guy exposing a key surveillance operation and running to the Chinese for protection. How does he plan to live? Maybe he has a Plan B that he believes will mean he doesn’t have to worry about that for the rest of his life. Which could mean that the information he exposes to the press for his hero’s laurels is only part of what he handed over to the Chinese. Otherwise, how long is he going to be able to pay the tab on his Hong Kong hotel?
Remember we’ve had this kind of surveillance since at least the nineties under Clinton. Back then, to talk about it meant you were a conspiracy nut. Now the president himself confirms it while this kid takes the fall. I’m not sure I buy the “narrative” that is being peddled but I admit I haven’t firmed up my own view of what has just happened.
That this happened just while O is supposedly negotiating with the Chinese to stop their hacking is odd timing, but I can’t make any kind of connection there. I’m just thinking out loud here.
Mainly, I see this as a scandal almost custom made to drown out the other scandals he doesn’t want to talk about.
That's about it.
Because the GOPe have their nasty little fingers in this mess too. Don’t think they haven’t used this sort of information for their own public gain. I’d love to know of connections between access to this sort of information and insider trading that’s gone on.
I doubt that the Chinese will turn this guy over, he is a treasure trove of information on how the NSA does cyber warfare and has knowledge of how well the Chinese are doing against the US. I don’t think that where he went was accidental as he probably knows he will be both protected and probably paid fairly well for his knowledge. Otherwise he would have gone someplace where they don’t have extradition treaties like Brazil, although he probably know he wouldn’t live long there without protection.
But in any case I’m too old to not think he’s putting on more of a patriotic face than he claims. Or maybe not, but in any case this country has veered way off course. We are no longer the land of the free but are rapidly turning into a Fascist police state that looks to be a combination of Orwellian Big Brother and Huxley’s Brave New World. Depending on what he does going forward will determine in my mind if he is a patriot or just another traitor in a long line of them. Irregardless I think that he’s done the US a service by exposing this, now we’ll see how it all plays out.
Sad but Romney would have been no different than Obama or Bush or Clinton or Bush Sr. etc. I think that we truly did have a unique opportunity this last election cycle to get someone in the oval office that may have stopped this stuff, but everyone was too worried about his radical foreign policy stance. Doesn’t seem so radical compared to what Obama is doing now does it?
I don’t know this one hurts him with the left and the center.... Obama campaigned against all of this, and Bush paid a huge political price for enacting much of it, but the over-reach of big government with these programs pales in comparison to anything that Bush/Cheney ever could have dreamed of, so if there is any such thing as a principled liberal they will be up in arms about this scandal above all others, I have already checked on DU and they are ready to hero worship this guy, this very well could be the scandal that starts undoing the Obama Presidency. He is obviously going to have to answer to his base for this since they are genuinely surprised at the depth and scope of these programs, yes they are trying to blame Bush but that just rings hollow when their man has been at the helm for more than 4 years now and the power of these programs has grown exponentially..... Anyway we will see..
Based on I’ve seen and read, this guy sounds like another Bradley Manning, at the very least disloyal to the terms of his secruity clearance and at the worst a man capable of treason.
In the interview he comes across as a gay backer of the Occupy movement, self-righteous and self-aggrandizing and holier-than-thou no matter who thou happens to be.
He says everything NSA is doing is wrong but then says it’s up to the people to determine what is wrong. He reminds me of those idiotic “choose civility” bumper stickers which eliminate your right to choose by doing it for you all at once.
All that said, I think the government has gone so far over the boundaries of the 4th amendment with this and other programs that I’m not sure there is any way back to constitutionality for us.
But my opinion would not of itself be a license to break the law or violate an oath. Snowden can best justify his action only by demonstrating there are victims out there. I don’t think he’s done that—yet.
I wonder how much he’s going to give to China and how much of this data collection helped Obama during the elections. Once again, a greedy, self centered democrat has us compromised by the Chinese.
A poet. He may also die young.
“Because the GOPe have their nasty little fingers in this mess too. Don’t think they haven’t used this sort of information for their own public gain. I’d love to know of connections between access to this sort of information and insider trading that’s gone on.”
We all look at this story and try to relate how it affects us and in our mundane lives. The fact of the matter is that those (at the top echelons) who have total access to this stuff can easily change our democracy into a dictatorship, and can blackmail politicians and news reporters and others, and get rich in the process. Such information provides total control to the few who have access to it, and their Party affiliation makes no difference. Power corrupts always.
The only character, integrity and ethics I see are those that disclosed the gig. The rest want it to continue where the club gets rich and more powerful, while we schmucks lose our country.
We may not all agree on this now....but I will bet that we will before too long. Politicians need to work for the citizens. Until then we’re in trouble.
Ah a disgruntled lefty. Poor guy thought the savior was gonna save the country from what evil Bush did, but was blind sided by reality.
I’m just remembering all the huge gigantic trades that occurred right before the bottom fell out in ‘08. Someone knew something. Something really really big.
How’d they find out?
I have a difficult time endorsing anyone who wouldn't violate their "oath of security clearance" if it violates the Constitution of the United States of America.
Hitler demanded oaths to him. In the USA the oaths are to the Constitution.
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