Posted on 06/12/2013 1:58:38 PM PDT by servo1969
NSA leaker Ed Snowden claimed to have broken both of his legs while training for Special Forces.
"In 2003, he enlisted in the US army and began a training program to join the Special Forces. Invoking the same principles that he now cites to justify his leaks, he said: "I wanted to fight in the Iraq war because I felt like I had an obligation as a human being to help free people from oppression"."
That is simply not true as the statement from the Special Warfare Center & School below clearly points out.
"Snowden was never a student at SWCS. He broke his legs while at Fort Benning. His intent was to enter the X-ray program – but that never happened and would not have happened because he only had a GED. Hope this helps.
Janice Burton
Deputy
Office of Strategic Communications"
The 18 X-ray program is a way to go directly from the street to the Special Forces course. You first would attend basic and advanced individual training and then airborne school. Upon successful conclusion of those you head to Bragg for some prep training and the Special Forces Assessment and Selection course. If you pass all of those, then and only then do you start Special Forces training.
Mr. Snowden wasn't even eligible for this program as he didn't even graduate from High School. So the claim that he broke his legs in Special Forces training is BS and that makes him a poseur. Well actually not even a poseur, he claimed to be training to be SF, so that makes him a poseur wannabe, or a wannabe poseur. I'm not real sure how the semantics of that work out. But either way, not really a great way to build credibility. He also made this claim that never rang true when I first read it.
"He recounted how his beliefs about the war's purpose were quickly dispelled. "Most of the people training us seemed pumped up about killing Arabs, not helping anyone," he said."
Right, so the people who weren't training you for Special Forces also happened to be knuckle-dragging troglodytes who were simply looking for a chance to go smoke some A-Rabs. Well I'm not buying it Eddie. I ran into plenty of your types in the military, disaffected losers who never actually finish anything but always have a bucket-load of excuses and who were always whining about how the system sucks. They were never responsible for their own failures, it was always oppression by the man. They were just too smart for the fools running things to recognize their brilliance. Sound familiar? They were also all varying flavors of bats**t as well. Check out Ed's spymaster tradecraft.
"WASHINGTON — The source had instructed his media contacts to come to Hong Kong, visit a particular out-of-the-way corner of a certain hotel, and ask — loudly — for directions to another part of the hotel. If all seemed well, the source would walk past holding a Rubik’s Cube."
A Rubik's Cube, now there is a really good way to remain nondescript. Or this bit of counter-surveillance expertise.
"He is deeply worried about being spied on. He lines the door of his hotel room with pillows to prevent eavesdropping. He puts a large red hood over his head and laptop when entering his passwords to prevent any hidden cameras from detecting them."
A red hood? Even the writer who is taking in all of this BS and peddling it to the public is making fun of you dude. Why do I get the feeling Ed also had a ninja outfit and throwing stars?
Whether or not Ed has any information that the government was doing illegal or even improper things is a completely separate discussion. The fact that Ed is a BS-peddling wannabe poseur is now established and ought to be taken into account when judging his words and actions.
UPDATE: Jonn Lilyea at This Aint Hell is also looking at the other things about Snowden that seem to have an air of barnyard ordure about them and had a pretty good idea the PNG wasn't in the Q course earlier this week.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/jun/06/verizon-telephone-data-court-order
Top of page 2, fourth line, item (ii)—this is what is illegal, harvesting all DOMESTIC telephony records without cause.
The judge should never have signed off on this order.
While this warrant is for 4/25/13 to 7/19/13, similar warrants have been renewed every three months since 2007.
FISA warrants were to cover communications that either originated overseas and terminated in the USA, or vice versa, but not for entirely domestic communications.
I’m glad Snowden blew the whistle.
If the IRS could hammer Obama’s political opponents over their political views, why would anyone expect that this type of surveillance would NOT be used in the same way.
Operation “Main Core” anyone?
Can you be trusted?
And Jack Webb- who knew he could do comedy?
It figures he could do it without laughing, though.
Well, PRISM, .....had we been told of that little program where they keep all of your communications. Can they look at it when you come under suspicion? They are assurring us they WILL NOT. Sure. That's good enough for me.
Words to live by...and never forget......"The human heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it."
Agree. Check Post 80.
“’ve been telling people if you don’t have a High School Diploma you are disqualified for many specialized jobs, including being an underwater BB stacker.”
I know some wetback contractors that make over 100k a year.
They are just good at what they do. Some people need an
education, some people need to get a lawyer and sue the
school/college to get their money back for a worthless
education. Some people self educate or are just plain smart.
However. “This guys is an invention. A nice shiny object for your distraction.”
Now that’s way outside looking in. On a hunch, I’ll say
your probably right.
Sounds like a lot of fast-and-loose parsing of words.
Seems Snowden was in the Army, and seems he broke his legs in a training accident at Ft Benning. Was he just training up to drop his selection packet? He may not be in the Q Course, but if was applying or talking to an SF recruiter, there’s probably a record of that. When you apply to be 18 series, there’s plenty of training you do prior to Selection. Now, SF may not take in 18 X-Rays directly from TRADOC with a GED, but I can’t imagine that they’d not take an applicant from another MOS, provided he had the right GT score and the right physical profile.
These days, the Army wants you to have a GED + 15 hours of college credit to be considered equal to a regular HS Graduate. If he was able to get in the Army at all, for any MOS, he probably met that criteria.
Do we know what Snowden’s MOS actually was? Clearly he was an 18 or 35 series if he was processed for TS (or TS/SCI). There’s little chance he qualified academically for 35 series (intelligence) and not 18 (SF).
At any rate, I don’t recall seeing anywhere that this guy claimed to be SOF, only that he broke his legs in a training accident and that put an end to his SOF career aspirations. So what? I’m sure a two minute discussion with the guy could make clear precisely what he was talking about, and either way it would have zero impact on the big picture.
Still, it’s awesome that the media still has the ability to investigate people down to the atomic level when properly motivated. If only we could harness this investigatory zeal towards vetting the background of the President of these United States, rather than microanalyzing a minor resume point of some low level flunkie who added valuable information about the encroaching surveillance state to the public discourse.
How good is our intelligence community at vetting security clearances if this lying, paranoid, delusional poseur get to handle all of this data?
The worse they make Snowden look, the worse it looks for all of those who let him get in the position to betray them.
He’s being smeared by people who know they were spied on. And not one person who smears him denies the government is doing what he said it is doing.
Still waiting for Barack Obama to be held to account for all his lies.
So what’s the Obama lie count now? About 10,000,000 million Obama lies?
What about the possibility of Overtime?
Why? If it's effective, why stop? Look, based on what we know about not only data collection, but data manipulation (whether in cloud data or pushed onto user controlled devices like PCs, cell phones, etc) how do we know whether Snowden actually:
1. Claimed he broke his legs ie whether that story was falsely created to then subsequently refute; or
2. He break his legs, but records have been altered to imply he didn't?
As the saying goes, all is fair in love & war. Make no mistake, the federal gov't is at war with people who subscribe to the principles enumerated in the Constitution.
There is an all out effort to discredit him, just as he predicted. The only thing we need to keep in mind is: have Constitutional principle been violated by this government?
Yeah, well, are you betting they're not?
Wow, this is really impressive, turn these folks loose on Barack Obama. /s
They’re simply trying to discredit him. Here’s the problem...They hired him!!
Spook hunters always troll the military. Snowden's record there doesn't mean much. Remember, the government is going to be on a full-court press to disavow and denigrate this guy.
He only had a GED? Big deal. He still got a top security clearance. He didn't need no stinkin' diploma.
So I guess that puts him in the same league as “war hero” Kerry and “baseball hero” Biden and “constitutional law professor and native born citizen” Obama.
Yes. Most of the guys I served with who entered with a GED were given time to get a High School diploma (I was Airborne Infantry). They had classes you could take on post. Also, his GT score must have been high enough to get into the Xray program. From the article:
"In 2003, Snowden enlisted in the U.S. Army, he told The Guardian, and BEGAN a training program to join the Special Forces.
But his time in the military did not last. According to Snowden, he was discharged after he broke both legs in a training accident. The Army confirmed Snowden's enlistment to The Guardian on Monday, but did not provide details about his service record.
His records indicate he enlisted in the army reserve as a special forces recruit (18X) on 7 May 2004 but was discharged 28 September 2004,” an army spokesperson told The Guardian in an email. “He did not complete any training or receive any awards."
So he began a training program to enter Special Forces. Not really a lie, he just didn't make it very far, as most do not.
I can’t get that stupid Alec Baldwin commercial out of my head - ‘what’s in your wallet’ -
someone should make a meme of:
HEY AMERICAN CITIZEN, WHAT’S IN YOUR CLOSET??
Everybody on this planet has at the very least, ONE secret they never want anyone to know. The idea of ALL your most personal info being collected DOES unnerve the average person.
Haven’t seen you around in a awhile. Nice to see you.
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