Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance
GUARDIAN ^ | Sunday 9 June 2013 14.27 EDT | Glenn Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill and Laura Poitras in Hong Kong

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 ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Government
KEYWORDS: 0bamariggingamerica; 4amendment; 4thamendment; benghazi; boozallen; dell; edwardsnowden; fastandfurious; impeachnow; irs; nsa; nsaleak; obamarigging; prism; snowden; threatmatrix; whistleblower
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 261-280281-300301-320 ... 341-358 next last
To: PieterCasparzen

What a tangled web, everywhere you look is corruption and dirty laundry.


281 posted on 06/09/2013 8:56:05 PM PDT by seeker41 (Take back your country before it is too late-STOP islamic expansion in the USA remove zero)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 278 | View Replies]

To: Recovering Ex-hippie

This guy’s character will soon be destroyed and painted to be public enemy number one. It has already started. I saw your guy on FOX after reading the article and was disgusted. “Kicked out” in place of “medically discharged. The man was training for special forces because he wanted to fight in Iraq for his Country. Your guy made him seem a disgruntled, bad Army type simply because he had both legs broken in an accident and discharged. I highly doubt NSA would have hired him in security if he was so bad. Nor would the CIA.

Next I expect both the CIA and the NSA to deny knowing him. They are going to paint him as a looney liar.

I admire the man. Not many of us would be willing to give up everything for his beliefs. I believe him to be noble. I hope I am not wrong.


282 posted on 06/09/2013 9:03:44 PM PDT by publana (Beware the olive branch extended by a Dem for it disguises a clenched fist.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 217 | View Replies]

To: PaleoBob

He has said if there is any kind of crisis, all the government would have to do is pull the switch. Any hunch that anyone had would be grounds for investigation of the person under suspicion and of everyone he knows.


283 posted on 06/09/2013 9:09:00 PM PDT by firebrand
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 174 | View Replies]

To: seeker41

No, regular corruption and crime are chicken feed.

We’re talking globalism, the “financial oligarchy”.

Have you read Antony Sutton’s works, or watched his videos ?

I haven’t check out all the details, but if even the few basic facts are right, that means there is something to it, somethin’ real ugly.


284 posted on 06/09/2013 9:10:36 PM PDT by PieterCasparzen (We have to fix things ourselves)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 281 | View Replies]

To: Black Agnes

It was planned, according to a book called The Secret Weapon. The author’s guess was the Chinese. I’m not so sure, but it did seem intentional.

The Fed stopped it by the way, Paulites, before it went even further.


285 posted on 06/09/2013 9:13:49 PM PDT by firebrand
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 179 | View Replies]

To: GeorgeWashingtonsGhost

A patriot would not be waxing poetic about the chicoms and seeking shelter in Hong Kong. This guy looks like a naive and egomaniac Libertopian to me. I don’t doubt he will give information directly to the PRC, if he hasn’t already.


286 posted on 06/09/2013 9:13:52 PM PDT by lodi90
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 280 | View Replies]

To: sunmars

How can any American not be outraged? How can President Obama not be outraged? How can Congress not be outraged? How can the Supreme Court not be outraged?

Our allies and even enemies are outraged!

The USA where I was raised, a nation based on freedom, liberty and justice for all, is no longer in existence.

Now we live in an Orwellian totalitarian state. The question is what to do about it and when.


287 posted on 06/09/2013 9:13:52 PM PDT by FlyingEagle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EDINVA
<....”Ironic, Obama just met with the Chinese president over issues like hacking”....>

Interesting uh? There's so much more going on then we know in this whole affair. I'm keeping one eye open concerning Snowden.....the fact he's in China alone raises my brow.

With all these scandals I cannot help but see this as possibly on purpose...Do some WANT to see Americans in a civil war while they continue with their agendas while we are in such a weakened state?

The tensions worldwide, added in to the mix, makes for a very unstable world right now and seemingly increasing so....and why are we allowing China to arm our neighbors left and right?

Every nation seems to be arming up bigtime now....for whatever is going to erupt down the road....

Back to Snowden...China can pick or choose to do as they will with him...I understand his visa isn't any good now....but if they send him back here no doubt Obama will do a bit more than arrest him....but I think they're going to let the media ride with it for a time...use it to their advantage...(it engages the people...or otherwise occupies the headlines).

My interest is to see just what Congress does..other than talk...I have zip-zero expectations about all these investigations.

288 posted on 06/09/2013 9:19:39 PM PDT by caww
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 275 | View Replies]

To: firebrand

I’m not a Paulite.

BTW, remember all the giant trades that happened just before 9/11? Those weren’t stopped. Or even investigated.


289 posted on 06/10/2013 3:42:01 AM PDT by Black Agnes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 285 | View Replies]

To: publana

This person is an Obama supporter. A liberal.

The most dangerous threat to this country is not the CIA monitoring telephone numbers (though it IS a threat)

The greatest danger to this republic is pervasive liberalism and the accompanying socialist and Marxist underpinnings. Those underpinnings will destroy this country more thoroughly and completely than any monitoring program possibly could.

Monitoring programs and invasion of privacy can be stopped via oversight if there is the political will on the part of the citizenry and the government to do so.

Advocating and supporting liberal left policies that have as a goal the destruction of property rights and the ability to keep the fruits of your own labor will demolish the “political will on the part of the citizenry and the government” because destroying our wealth is the equivalent (with respect to freedom) to a farmer destroying the seed for next years crops.

Once that is gone, liberty and freedom go with it.

Because this person Snowden is like a blind squirrel that finds a nut by accident isn’t going to make me support or admire him. I think it is a fine circumstance that he did see fit to spill his guts, but I wouldn’t trust him or admire him.

I view him the same way I view an enemy traitor in a time of war who provides my side with information. The traitor may have all kinds of reasons for his actions (I felt I wasn’t getting the appropriate recognition or promotion, I didn’t agree with the direction of the war, etc) but he still supports the basic beliefs of the side he betrays.

In this case, the guy may be a disenchanted Obama supporter, but by all accounts, he still believes in everything a radical Obama believes in, and that makes him my enemy. Such a time we live in, where I have to admit to myself that I can view some Americans as enemies, but it is true that I do, as in “Enemies Foreign and Domestic”.


290 posted on 06/10/2013 3:47:43 AM PDT by rlmorel (Silence: The New Hate Speech)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 282 | View Replies]

To: Henry Hnyellar

Actually, it’s not all that hard to do if you work in the right area.


291 posted on 06/10/2013 4:01:46 AM PDT by BlueCat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 266 | View Replies]

To: sunmars

I wonder what type of care he is receiving regarding his epileptic seizures.


292 posted on 06/10/2013 4:03:42 AM PDT by mlizzy (If people spent an hour a week in Eucharistic adoration, abortion would be ended. --Mother Teresa)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: snarkytart
a disgruntled lefty

Probably. But he did the right thing.

293 posted on 06/10/2013 5:03:19 AM PDT by annalex (fear them not)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 178 | View Replies]

To: publana

You make excellant points. Thanks. I am keeping a very open mind. Perhaps he had no other recourse.


294 posted on 06/10/2013 5:22:13 AM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (Go Galt!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 282 | View Replies]

To: rlmorel

Excellant analysis.


295 posted on 06/10/2013 5:23:29 AM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (Go Galt!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 290 | View Replies]

To: Tainan

How many more “contractors” work for the NSA?

And do we “vett “ them all?


296 posted on 06/10/2013 5:25:00 AM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (Go Galt!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 258 | View Replies]

To: PieterCasparzen

No, but I will.

Its like you feel something in your gut-something is terribly wrong and start investigating the links (reverse engineering.) That is how it begins -you know what I mean. I started backtracking and my curiosity was aroused, I am not then smartest woman but my curiosty is dangerous;^)...

Been watching closely the global financial manipulation and intermingling of US defense industries (national security) since the 1990s. It has gotten very very dangerous...

We are headed down a slippery slope that has become a avalanche.! Not sure our country will survive at this point.


297 posted on 06/10/2013 5:30:59 AM PDT by seeker41 (Take back your country before it is too late-STOP islamic expansion in the USA remove zero)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 284 | View Replies]

To: sunmars

...and former Ron Paul supporter. No wonder the Democrats are in a tizzy over this....


298 posted on 06/10/2013 5:46:01 AM PDT by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's economic cure)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Irenic
? Ron Paul

You were right. Snowden turns out to be a Ron Paul supporter.

Here is the link to the FR thread in case you missed it:

FEC records show that Edward Snowden donated to Ron Paul

299 posted on 06/10/2013 6:07:15 AM PDT by InterceptPoint (If I had a tag line this is where you would find it)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: Recovering Ex-hippie

Ask how many H1B visa holders are contractors. From China and the middle east.

That answser will surprise you.


300 posted on 06/10/2013 6:08:20 AM PDT by Black Agnes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 296 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 261-280281-300301-320 ... 341-358 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson