Posted on 08/15/2013 3:13:46 PM PDT by Perdogg
Former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden began downloading documents describing the U.S. government's electronic spying programs while he was working for Dell Inc in April 2012, almost a year earlier than previously reported, according to U.S. officials and other sources familiar with the matter.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
what’s a ronulan?
“So how much money did Dell soak the taxpayers for?”
Bigger question: Why are “sources” throwing Dell under the bus?
>> The fact that the evil Rove, Beohner, the left and most of the RINOs call him a traitor tells me
Snowden could have been the straw, not to break the NSA, but to expose the frauds in Congress.
Of the bazillion bytes and soundbites on the matter, only a small percentage addresses the fact that Congress legislates the policies and the funding through which the NSA operates. The same goes for every other “rogue” agency. It is our so-called “representatives” that are responsible.
Obama and his democrats are sweating over Snowden because Snowden exposed their Orwellian punk @sses.
Agents of the RNC (who have been compromised through blackmail) are also speaking against Snowden.
One thing is certain: Satan tells fewer lies than all of these people, and I am willing to listen to Snowden before I listen to them.
>> Bigger question: Why are “sources” throwing Dell under the bus?
Scapegoating, eventual extortion, and the reluctance to demand answers from the policy makers that facilitate the alleged nefarious activity.
Attacking Snowden's character is nothing more than smoke blown in our face to distract us from the fact that he revealed what is being done. As far as I'm concerned, the more I hear these kinds of stories, the less I'm drawn to any arguments about him being a traitor. The government can manufacture whatever the hell stories it thinks the low-information voters will swallow.
How is he a traitor to the American people by letting them know that the government is spying on them? Where is the treason in this? How is revealing illegal activities being done(against the American people) by a government institution treason?
The USA is the American people, not the government. The government has and will continue to do illegal things behind closed doors towards the people, and anyone who DEFENDS the people by whistleblowing is definitely not a traitor.
Exactly who was he betraying? The American people?
If someone is a traitor for breaking a law, what is an Agency, a President, a Congress, a Federal Employee, who breaks the Constitution?
I agree with you. There is no way the Russians and the Chinese kept him away from us because they liked him. If he had qualms about what the agencies were doing, he could have steered the NYT or someone to the story not unlike “Deep Throat” did. Instead he grabbed a lot of classified stuff and fled, winding up a guest of Putin..
“treason”
“he was a traitor”
You may be right. But it is a totally separate issue from what he disclosed.
What amazes and disturbs me most is that nobody else in the NSA disclosed this stuff. If they loved America and the liberties and freedom she stands for, they too would have disclosed this information.
Right now, the NSA should be forced to disclose to every American the data they’ve collected. Tell you what, I’d be satisfied initially if they just disclosed the “metadata” regarding their spying on free Americans.
open the files.
THEN let’s see who gets to be tried for treason, Snowden, or other NSA leadership who were “just following orders” while they violated every Americans Constitutional rights.
Say what you will about Snowden (it doesn’t matter) - freedom and liberty are better served WITH his disclosures than without them.
We KNOW Clapper is a liar. We can presume he’s not the only liar in the intelligence apparatus.
So let’s put the lot of them on trial - call it treason, perjury, violations of Constitutional rights....and lets see who gets convicted of what.
But first, show us the files collected on ourselves.
“If he had qualms about what the agencies were doing, he could have steered the NYT or someone to the story not unlike “Deep Throat” did. “
No, I do not believe he could have done so, nor do I believe the NYTs would have published the story. The two dedicated reporters who broke the story overseas were the only two brave enough to communicate for almost a year, risking their freedom (read what actually unfolded over time). This is a different world than 1972.
“Instead he grabbed a lot of classified stuff and fled”
Thankfully. I appreciate that someone, anyone, cares about freedom and the promise of America. We are standing on the cliff edge of totalitarian socialism and at a point where there is no turning back. I am appreciative that he sacrificed a comfortable life to sound a loud alarm bell.
“winding up a guest of Putin..”
The US gov’t pressured every nation they could to reject him, forcing him into accepting a second choice - only a nation that doesn’t give a flip what the US thinks.
oh, puleeze
do you HONESTLY think that he got asylum because he exposed spying on American citizens?
Something people have known about for decades??
Do you people honestly believe that Russia somehow grew a conscience, or China, to protect someone who exposed spying on AMERICANS??
Do you really need it spelled out??
I’m just not ready to call the guy a Patriot, there had to be a better way of exposing the agency. Giving the enemy classified data, regardless of what it was, is still giving the enemy classified data. And make no mistake, the Russians are still an enemy and they most certainly eyeballed what Snowden took. Unless the KGB has gone out of business,the Russians saw what Snowden had; it was his only currency..
And the NYT would have certainly run with the story. It wouldn’t have been the first time they have front paged classified data..
First, on some points, we agree.
“I’m just not ready to call the guy a Patriot,”
Mark Twain: a patriot is someone who loves their country all the time and their government when it deserves it. (quoted from memory).
‘there had to be a better way of exposing the agency.”
He is not the first whistleblower to emerge. I think there was one way - tell the truth to the world.
“Giving the enemy classified data, regardless of what it was, is still giving the enemy classified data.”
He gave the entire world the info. I’m OK with that approach. The light of day is a very good disinfectant.
“And make no mistake, the Russians are still an enemy and they most certainly eyeballed what Snowden took.”
Likely.
“Unless the KGB has gone out of business,the Russians saw what Snowden had; it was his only currency..”
They will keep him as long as it serves their interests. Our own nation’s government does what it likes - circumventing the law - to accomplish its interests too. I used to believe them. Now, I realize the system is about perpetuating power, rewarding friends, treating citizens as property and acting without regard to morality. I wish it was the country I grew up in, but I’ve accepted that it is not.
Running up internal debt, persecuting Christians, celebrating perversity, conspiring to control our lives, etc., will bring our country down internally. It saddens me. I see it. I am making plans.
ronulan= Ron Paul supporter.
If Snowden is a traitor, then Obama is a patriot. Sorry, you can’t have it both ways.
“do you HONESTLY think that he got asylum because he exposed spying on American citizens?”
Snowden and what he disclosed are separate issues.
Totally separate.
put him on trial, I don’t care.
I’m glad I know what he disclosed though, and you should be too.
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