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.
We have a winner!
<....”Guy gave up a $200K/yr. job, his family, girl friend”....>
Well maybe he got a bigger offer.
Rich Galen ; what ever happened to the constitution ??"The right of the people to be secure
in their persons, houses, papers,
and effects, against unreasonable searches
and seizures, shall not be
violated, and no Warrants shall issue,
but upon probable cause,
supported by Oath or affirmation,
and particularly describing the place
to be searched, and the persons
or things to be seized."
Absolutely stunning comment.
Everyone has the inalienable right to decide for themselves what should be legal and what is ethical.
If they are wrong, then they should suffer the consequences.
If they are right, then they should be thanked for blowing the whistle.
So then the question really is, is the NSA doing something unconstitutional? If it is, then it's Snowden's and everybodies moral responsibility to blow the whistle.
Spooked Rich Galen.
Galen obviously does not understand what the Constitution says and why we have it.........
If Barry can’t play with the spook toys he will destroy them.
I completely, 100% disagree. The man is a hero. How on Earth can a Conservative support a Police State and this kind of State intrusion into our lives?
I hope he releases more. It is time to expose the incredible damage to America caused by the Patriot Act.
But, I thought dissent was patriotic!
Didn’t the “Lion of the Senate” Ed Kennedy go to Moscow and collaborate with the Russians in an attempt to defeat President Regan’s policies?
Weren’t we told by the smartest woman in the Senate and ex-Secretary of State at opposition to president’s Bush’s policies the highest form of patriotism?
So, why isn’t the personal defense of our Constitution given the same praise? I am quite certain that he knew the fall out of his actions when he opened the can of worms up. While I am not willing, yet, to start founding father comparisons, I think it will end up there because this administration depends on secrecy to rule.
A-friggn-men. One of my favorite comments ever on this site.
The establishment types are hysterical. Good.
Thank you.
I wonder how FReepers would feel about a soldier refusing a “lawful” order to kill American citizens. Would that soldier be a patriot or a traitor?
I would call him a patriot.
Rich Galen is an old RINO for many moons. I don’t like him, never did. Here is another example why.
Also supports homosexual quote marriage
monda chupador
Snowden is a hero. He has given up his life to ensure the fascists do not go unchecked. If the GOP had the guts to do the same we wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with.
This entire snooping program has DONE NOTHING to make us safer. It has not stopped terror attacks here or anywhere in the world. It has, however, allowed obama to build a database of political dissidents, including those of you here on this site.
Sandy Berger was convicted of a misdemeanor count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material, and given probation, as you say.
Galen implies that we should give Snowden the Nakoula treatment, if not put him in front of a firing squad.
There’s no comparison between Manning and Snowden. Manning released diplotic and military classified information because he didn’t like the adminstration’s policies. Snowden blew the whistle on the emergence of a police state. When the government knows everything about everybody, they can find a way to make a criminal out of anyone they don’t like.
Good point. If it was for financial gain, or to the CHICOMS he certainly is not one. (hero)
As an obvious extension of Rich’s “logic” we should seek out all whistleblowers and immediately crucify them.
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