First verified lie from Ed Snowden

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.

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.

He certainly IS the Issue!

We have a guy who has made known to every country out there that he has in his possession a huge amount of intelligence and the means to access it..... He IS Nat’l Security Risk for us if any nation determines to grab him..and the jerk says he’s not hiding..... yet changes hotels...moves around in the dark...and hides under his hoody so he can’t be be followed....????

For crying out loud...the guys in China singing his song to the Hong Kong Morning Post!...while humming the beauty of being in a city where they love freedom of speech!

He certainly IS the Issue!

For crying out loud...the guys in China singing his song to the Hong Kong Morning Post!...while humming the beauty of being in a city where they love freedom of speech!

No.

I also don’t automatically believe everything that every self-absorbed, attention-hungry ‘whistle-blower’ spews.

I also don’t automatically believe everything our government spews.

Big Obama spy government fan are we?

I see. for you this is an either/or black/white issue.

If I happen to think there is a good chance young Mr. Snowden is a selfish, U.S.-hating, left-leaning traitor, then I MUST think it's okay to have the government spying on U.S. citizens?

I think you are grossly oversimplifying the issue. I think it is possible to consider both of the "parties" to this debacle to be wrong.

PS- I don't want the U.S. government spying on it's citizens under ANY president. This particular string of government excesses did not start with Obama. It started with the Constitution-shredding powers given the office of the president under the "Patriot Act" -- but this Act's liberty-sucking SPIRIT goes all the way back to the Alien and Seditions Acts passed during the (senior) Adams administration.

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