Posted on 06/15/2013 10:08:07 AM PDT by kristinn
Edward Snowden’s expansive disclosures to the Guardian and the Washington Post about various National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs have only two corollaries in contemporary history—the classified cache Bradley Manning allegedly released to WikiLeaks a few years ago and Daniel Ellsberg’s dissemination of the voluminous Pentagon Papers to the New York Times and other newspapers in 1971.
Leakers like Snowden, Manning and Ellsberg don’t merely risk being called narcissists, traitors or mental cases for having liberated state secrets for public scrutiny. They absolutely guarantee it. In the last two days, the New York Times’s David Brooks, Politico’s Roger Simon, the Washington Post‘s Richard Cohen and others have vilified Snowden for revealing the government’s aggressive spying on its own citizens, calling him self-indulgent, a loser and a narcissist.
Yet even as the insults pile up and the amateur psychoanalysis intensifies, keep in mind that Snowden’s leak has more in common with the standard Washington leak than should make the likes of Brooks, Simon and Cohen comfortable. Without defending Snowden for breaking his vow to safeguard secrets, he’s only done in the macro what the national security establishment does in the micro every day of the week to manage, manipulate and influence ongoing policy debates. Keeping the policy leak separate from the heretic leak is crucial to understanding how these stories play out in the press.
Secrets are sacrosanct in Washington until officials find political expediency in either declassifying them or leaking them selectively. It doesn’t really matter which modern presidential administration you decide to scrutinize for this behavior, as all of them are guilty. For instance, President George W. Bush’s administration declassified or leaked whole barrels of intelligence, raw and otherwise, to convince the public and Congress making war on Iraq was a good idea.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.reuters.com ...
Thanks K
>> have vilified Snowden
Neither the NSA nor Snowden should be vilified right now. And let’s not forget that it is our elected “representatives” that permit and fund NSA activities.
OK. Pinging a few more interested parties.
Could someone enlighten me as to what “Snowjob” liberated from the NSA that is of any significance?
Thanks
Do you the location of Snowden lake or pond. And a Snowden Road or drive in relationship to either of the agencies (nsa or cia) involved with “Ed”? Who were they named after?
Are you referring to the representatives that claim they did not even know this was going on ?
>> ... the representatives that claim they did not even know this was going on ?
Well, I guess they need to vote for, and fund the program in order to know what’s in it. /s
The alleged NSA scandal will never get resolved to anyone’s satisfaction. The boogeyman ain’t the boogeyman. The boogeyman is the scapegoat and will take it on the chin should Congress decide to entertain the citizens.
Am I saying there is no truth to the allegations of privacy violations? No. Do I believe we fully know and understand the nature and access of the programs? No. Will we ever? No.
We will know. All of it. The Chinese already have it all. That is why the Oligarchy is jumping up and down and throwing poop around like there is no it tomorrow. Because, there is no tomorrow for them. Gameover.
>> We will know. All of it. The Chinese already have it all.
One might suspect given the reports he’s been voluntarily debriefed by the Chinese. If true, this is by definition an act of treason.
So shoot a drone up his but. Show the world you care.
No Constitution, No Borders, No USA
No country for old men.
What goes around come around.
You know, the usual suspects.
His good intentions will suffice. Ciao.
>> But taking your charge against Snowden for treason against the United States seriously
We should all consider the voluntary act of disclosing US natsec to China as treasonous — assuming the disclosure did in fact happen as reported.
It’s a good article you referenced, but I’m more forgiving than West of the instruments used to execute policy. I’m in agreement, however, concerning the politics driving the policy.
While taking the unpopular position of defending the NSA, I’ve made it a point to focus on the legislative and funding mechanisms that are ultimately responsible for the alleged Constitutional violations. From what I gather, West is speaking to the vicious cycle of Congressional incompetence and the second-rate statism it relies on. This IS indeed the problem. A problem the citizens continue to for wittingly or not.
I’m a Conservative libertarian. I’m very serious about Liberty. I’m also serious about identifying the cause of the problems which I believe stem directly from Congress, not the NSA.
This NSA disturbance is nothing compared to the impending exposure of health records through Obamacare. But that doesn’t seem to make the news. Why not?
FWIW, I don’t wish any ill-will on Snowden. He seems to believe he did the right thing.
Unfortunately ever since the toons have rode into DC on that one fair weathered late afternoon, the word treason has somewhat lost its meaning. And if you are treasonous against a Marxist dictator, what does that really make you ? So many questions. So little time.
>> So many questions. So little time.
So true, so true.
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