Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Snowden Strikes Back at NSA, Emails NBC News
NBC News ^ | May 30th 2014, 4:26 pm | Mike Brunker and Matthew Cole

Posted on 05/30/2014 7:48:21 PM PDT by Dave346

Fugitive Edward Snowden on Friday challenged the NSA’s insistence that it has no evidence he tried to raise concerns about the agency’s surveillance activity before he began leaking government documents to reporters, calling the response a “clearly tailored and incomplete leak ... for a political advantage.”

“The NSA's new discovery of written contact between me and its lawyers -- after more than a year of denying any such contact existed - raises serious concerns,” Snowden said in an email Friday to NBC News. “It reveals as false the NSA's claim to Barton Gellman of the Washington Post in December of last year, that ‘after extensive investigation, including interviews with his former NSA supervisors and co-workers, we have not found any evidence to support Mr. Snowden’s contention that he brought these matters to anyone’s attention.’”

Snowden’s email followed Thursday’s release by the U.S. Office of the Director of Intelligence of an email exchange between Snowden and the NSA’s Office of the General Counsel. The Washington Post received and published a similar response from Snowden on Thursday.

That email, dated April 5 , 2013, and bearing the subject line “Question for OGC re. OVSC1800 Course Content,” was a request for clarification about a legal point in training materials for a mandatory course regarding policies and procedures restricting domestic surveillance by the NSA. Its primary focus was on the question of whether an executive order issued by the president could trump a federal statute.

(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: computer; data; spying; theft
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-85 next last
To: jiggyboy

I don’t disagree, but I don’t see anything in the Constitution, or at least in VI/2, about Executive Orders, which are therefore intrinsically suspect.


21 posted on 05/30/2014 8:53:53 PM PDT by aposiopetic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Craftmore

I agree with you, but it’s not just Obama. Snowden has exposed a government out of control, operating beyond the boundaries of the Constitution and the rule of law, and just as has been the case throughout history, those who do so are villified and called names. But it doesn’t change anything.


22 posted on 05/30/2014 8:54:24 PM PDT by bigbob (The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly. Abraham Lincoln)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: montanajoe

So your word is gospel, huh?


23 posted on 05/30/2014 9:03:01 PM PDT by HANG THE EXPENSE (Life's tough.It's tougher when you're stupid.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: depressed in 06

Other than his word, what evidence has Snowden offered?


NBC was able to obtain one email backing up Snowden’s claim that he had originally tried to follow the chain of command.

Snowden claims there are many more emails to back up his attempts. He claims he was essentially told to sit down and shut up.

NBC has (allegedly) filed a FOIA to obtain his additional emails to his higher ups....FWIW.

Time will tell.


24 posted on 05/30/2014 9:03:49 PM PDT by Jane Long ("And when thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: montanajoe

NSA director James Flapper was asked point-blank by Congress if his agency was doing surveillance on American citizens and he lied by saying ‘ No.’
Like Slick Clinton unaware of the existence of the blue dress, Flapper didn’t know that Snowden was about to blow the whistle on his lie.
You like being lied to by your government and spied upon, in violation of the 4th amendment?
In talking about totalitarian governments, Orwell spent considerable time talking about people who “said in their own subjugation and relish the subjugation of others.”
Might that be you he was talking about?


25 posted on 05/30/2014 9:09:00 PM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: tumblindice

“said in their own”= aid in their own


26 posted on 05/30/2014 9:09:57 PM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: aposiopetic

“Its primary focus was on the question of whether an executive order issued by the president could trump a federal statute.”

The question goes to the very root of Obama’s “fundamental transformation” of America. You citation is at the core of what Obama is unilaterally changing about the structure of this government.


27 posted on 05/30/2014 9:10:08 PM PDT by JimSEA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Dave346

Anybody noticing the similarity in the Russky’s use of Snowden tantamount to the LIBS exploitation of the likes of FLUKE, GIFFORDS, SHEEHAN or any such ‘martyr’ that is guaranteed to ‘embarrass’ the other side.

The only difference is that when the LIBS ‘drop’ someone, they just kind of squirm on the sidelines, popping up on occasion or being wheeled out for ‘special occasions’.

In Snowden’s case, a trip to Siberia is probably in his future - once his usefulness has been exploited for the last time.


28 posted on 05/30/2014 9:17:25 PM PDT by xrmusn ((6/98)"Those are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others. (G Marx))".)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dave346

Snowden is a Patriotic American who is asking others to stand against tyranny by big gov’t. He’s a Hero. JMTC


29 posted on 05/30/2014 9:24:30 PM PDT by JouleZ (You are the company you keep.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: HANG THE EXPENSE
“So your word is gospel, huh?”

My word is irrelevant. When Snowden signed up, he gave his word not to divulge the secrets he had access to. He broke that word. He is therefore a Traitor to his country.

The Constitution is not a suicide pact. The government has valid national security secrets that must be protected. Unfortunately, the government needs computer geeks like Snowden in todays world but it appears a significant number of them are security risks and should never have been given access to the information in the first place.

In my view the only way to make folks like Snowden honor their word is to shoot ‘em if they leak.

30 posted on 05/30/2014 9:38:55 PM PDT by montanajoe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: montanajoe

And when government oversteps the bounds of their charter/authority, then what?


31 posted on 05/30/2014 9:56:02 PM PDT by AFreeBird
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: AFreeBird

Then you use the channels that are available to make your case.

Chain of command etc...

So many libertarians love to spout off about the Constitution but they forget that any agreement depends on the integrity of the parties. If an individuals word is worth nothing then claiming he/she is somehow protecting the Constitution is just dumb.


32 posted on 05/30/2014 10:08:55 PM PDT by montanajoe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: montanajoe

You don’t suppose the oath he took had anything in it about protecting the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic do you? I would be curious about exactly what oath he took. Do you hold the politicians in the same disdain that ignore their oath to our constitution?


33 posted on 05/30/2014 10:12:19 PM PDT by HANG THE EXPENSE (Life's tough.It's tougher when you're stupid.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: HANG THE EXPENSE

“Do you hold the politicians in the same disdain that ignore their oath to our constitution?”

Yep..of both political parties. But even the idiots in Washington, for the most part, don’t leak the national security secrets they have access to..


34 posted on 05/30/2014 10:17:10 PM PDT by montanajoe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: montanajoe

Oh just CIA station chief in kabul and the shenanigans of pat leahy aka leaky leahy and teddy kennedy talking to the Russians during the Reagan presidency.I could go on.The rules for thee but not for me meme rules in DC.


35 posted on 05/30/2014 10:30:57 PM PDT by HANG THE EXPENSE (Life's tough.It's tougher when you're stupid.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: depressed in 06
Other than his word, what evidence has Snowden offered?

Nothing so they just want to hang him for no reason I guess.

36 posted on 05/30/2014 10:35:52 PM PDT by itsahoot (Voting for a Progressive RINO is the same as voting for any other Tyrant.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: montanajoe
Yep..of both political parties. But even the idiots in Washington, for the most part, don’t leak the national security secrets they have access to..

You mean like Ted Kennedy?

Kennedy-KGB collaboration

37 posted on 05/30/2014 10:36:58 PM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: montanajoe
I hope that should this traitor ever return to US soil he be meet by a firing squad

Other than the government saying he has done irreparable harm, just what exactly do you know that he did? Who has been harmed, other than a bunch of NSA types having their bell rang?

38 posted on 05/30/2014 10:38:31 PM PDT by itsahoot (Voting for a Progressive RINO is the same as voting for any other Tyrant.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: montanajoe

you’re right, you have nothing to say. all you can do is throw around a word - “traitor” - but you are unable to explain or justify it. like a kid who has a big new word he likes to use, but doesn’t understand.


39 posted on 05/30/2014 10:39:38 PM PDT by WilliamIII
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: montanajoe
But even the idiots in Washington, for the most part, don’t leak the national security secrets they have access to..

You too young to remember the traitors in the Senate that revealed CIA operatives and got them killed during Ronald Reagan's administration?

40 posted on 05/30/2014 10:44:34 PM PDT by itsahoot (Voting for a Progressive RINO is the same as voting for any other Tyrant.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-85 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson