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Meet the NSA leaker, Edward Snowden
Human Events ^ | 61013 | John Hayward

Posted on 06/10/2013 3:14:09 PM PDT by Fred

The UK Guardian revealed the source for its stories on the NSA phone-monitoring story (and, evidently, the Washington Post story about the PRISM Internet snooping program) is a 29-year-old IT specialist for defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton named Edward Snowden.

He says he enlisted in the Army with an eye towards fighting in Iraq because “I felt like I had an obligation as a human being to help free people from oppression,” ended up spending three years as a CIA security technician, and voted for Barack Obama. He now claims to be deeply disillusioned about Iraq, the CIA, and Obama. He might be one of the most disillusioned people in the whole world.

He’s also dishonest, having lied to his supervisors and claimed he needed time off for epilepsy treatment, when in reality he was copying classified documents and preparing for a flight to Hong Kong, abandoning his family and girlfriend in Hawaii without telling them what he was up to. He’s holed up in a posh Hong Kong hotel now, supposedly because he knows the U.S. government can’t get him there, and because Hong Kong has “a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent.”

Yes, when I ponder the spirit of free speech and dissent, China is the first world government that pops into my mind. Snowden is evidently thinking about defecting to China, insisting that Americans have that wonderful nation all wrong, and it’s not really our enemy. He also talks about seeking refuge in Iceland, and while he makes that sound like a wistful daydream, NBC News says activists in Iceland are pressuring their government to grant him asylum, while Snowden may have underestimated the willingness of authorities in Hong Kong to hand him over to American law enforcement. There has been some speculation that he might have been working as a Chinese espionage agent all along.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government
KEYWORDS: communism; congress; democrats; edwardsnowden; fascism; fisa; nsa; nsaleak; obama; patriotact; policestate; prism; repealfisa; repealpatriotact; snowden
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To: PieterCasparzen

Get rid of NSA!!


21 posted on 06/10/2013 3:59:00 PM PDT by Fred (http://thebubblefilm.com/)
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To: Uncle Miltie

If polls mean anything, it looks like Snowden threw his life away for nothing. Folks now have been conditioned to accept such violations as necessary.


22 posted on 06/10/2013 4:03:13 PM PDT by griswold3 (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes)
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To: griswold3

‘Those who would give up essential liberty 2 purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety’ Ben Franklin ... only took 200 years for the end of the Republic... WE MUST #repeal #FISA #PatriotAct never never support such laws ever...


23 posted on 06/10/2013 4:06:41 PM PDT by Fred (http://thebubblefilm.com/)
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To: GrootheWanderer
Where are people getting that he voted for Obama? It isn’t in any of the articles Human Events links to, and the only statement I’ve seen from Snowden is that he voted for a third party candidate in 2008 but hoped Obama would do what he said.

I got the impression that he voted for Obama in 2008 from The Guardian interview. He attributed Obama's election as the reason why he didn't go public at the time.

I'm admittedly projecting from his remarks, so it isn't necessarily accurate. I don't recall him stating that he voted for a third party candidate, however.

24 posted on 06/10/2013 4:09:32 PM PDT by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: IGNORANCE ON PARADE --)
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To: okie01

From an earlier Guardian article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/09/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-why

“A lot of people in 2008 voted for Obama. I did not vote for him. I voted for a third party.


25 posted on 06/10/2013 4:14:35 PM PDT by GrootheWanderer
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To: Fred
That would have been in the PRIMARIES!!! we are talking abut the general 2012 election!!! Pauliban are agent provocateurs of the uberliberals.

I've no idea how Snowden voted in the 2012 general election -- if at all. But his $500 contribution to Ron Paul is consistent with his actions and current state-of-mind (as expressed).

26 posted on 06/10/2013 4:19:24 PM PDT by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: IGNORANCE ON PARADE --)
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To: PieterCasparzen
Even if that’s so, the message is what matters, the messenger matters not. I don’t care if he’s lefty, right, innie, outie.

Agreed. The information needed to see daylight. I do not want any kind of "safety" that costs my freedom; after all, the safest place in the world is a solitary confinement cell.

A terrorist attack will not destroy America, but government tyranny will. This "War on Terror" is nothing more than a clever excuse the take away our freedom under the guise of protection. No person can be trusted with the level of information that our government has collected on its citizens - not a Democrat or Republican, Revolutionary or Patriot - not even you or me. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

27 posted on 06/10/2013 4:28:03 PM PDT by Always A Marine
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To: GrootheWanderer
Nothing in any of the articles Human Events links to says he voted for Obama. Where did they get that?

It was a surprise to me too. Could be speculation that turned into "news". For now I would take it with a grain of salt.

28 posted on 06/10/2013 4:33:52 PM PDT by InterceptPoint (If I had a tag line this is where you would find it)
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To: Fred

>> He now claims to be deeply disillusioned about Iraq, the CIA, and Obama. He might be one of the most disillusioned people in the whole world.

That’s a hilarious line Leno could use!


29 posted on 06/10/2013 4:35:13 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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>> Hes also dishonest, having lied to his supervisors and claimed

Give him a break. He thought he was doing God’s work.


30 posted on 06/10/2013 4:36:21 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Fred

I think it’s way too early too judge this guy one way or the other. But CIA training must be pretty darn good to equal $200K for a GED.


31 posted on 06/10/2013 4:50:17 PM PDT by MrKatykelly
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To: Fred

32 posted on 06/10/2013 4:52:52 PM PDT by JoeProBono (Mille vocibus imago valet;-{)
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To: Fred

I heard an NPR piece on Snowden this morning. It was sort of a Q&A between the host and a reporter and it was pretty obvious that neither approved of Snowden and that the proper position for an enlightened listener was to disapprove of him too. They made this obvious in that slighting way that liberals make things obvious without saying it flat out.

I’m a little conflicted because my read on Snowden is not a positive one. I think he’s a V for Vendetta loving drama queen. He’s come along at the right moment to embarrass Obama but I suspect he’s a self-important weenie nevertheless.


33 posted on 06/10/2013 5:02:09 PM PDT by Yardstick
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To: GrootheWanderer
Snowden: “A lot of people in 2008 voted for Obama. I did not vote for him. I voted for a third party."

Good to know.

34 posted on 06/10/2013 5:03:42 PM PDT by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: IGNORANCE ON PARADE --)
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To: Yardstick
I honestly do not care hear about your assessment of Snowden as a "weenie".

In the vast configuration of this massive wrong done to the American people buy our "government", your soap opra degree in psychology and lame diagnosis is not only ridiculous..it is desperate and pitiful.

Get real...

35 posted on 06/10/2013 5:07:32 PM PDT by Earthdweller (Harvard won the election again...so what's the problem.......? Embrace a ruler today.)
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To: Fred
News Flash

NSA has been recording ALL traffic since forever - or at least before the early 60s.

The only thing different today is instead of analog tape, it is recorded on digital media.

In the good ol days they had to tap physically into a line, then they moved on to catching loops between repeaters. Now they can catch signals off most anything via cell towers and taps into server backdoors - curtsy of M$.

Sat dump catching was new in the 60s. Now it is just routine.

This guy is a wacko and should never have been granted confidential clearances let alone Top Secret Whatever it is that he held. But then the days of million dollar security clearances are long gone.

Fleeing to China probably indicates he was turned by the PLA intel guys at some point. Will he return to the US? Maybe in a body bag, if the PLA ever lets him go, which if he was turned, they won't. All worried about US intel guys catching him he was ... wait til the PLA intel guys show him the real world.

As for any putative US prosecution, he will have signed a binding agreement for any disclosures making him eligible for $10K fine and 10 years hard time (no parole) (or that was what it was in the 60s).

Either way, he is going down.

Trouble is all the hard copy he took will do us all enormous damage and give the PLA still another leg up on the US especially hacking US servers.

my 2 copper pennies.

36 posted on 06/10/2013 5:11:53 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: Earthdweller

Yeah, well, there you have it — FWIW and all that.


37 posted on 06/10/2013 5:16:50 PM PDT by Yardstick
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To: Fred
What took him so long to out this radical violation of Americans civil liberties?

What the f**k? While you sat in your den railing at liberals, this guy was contemplating ruining his life by exposing what our government is doing. Your comment is incredible.

38 posted on 06/10/2013 5:25:39 PM PDT by BfloGuy (Don't try to explain yourself to liberals; you're not the jackass-whisperer.)
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To: Fred

The possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison? Or maybe the possibility of being assassinated?


39 posted on 06/10/2013 5:32:19 PM PDT by GrootheWanderer
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To: Fred

Wow, Human Events as the Volkischer Beobachter. Who would have known? The statists march.


40 posted on 06/10/2013 5:53:16 PM PDT by Luke21
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