“The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your emails or your wife’s phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards. I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things… I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under.” – Edward Snowden, as quoted in The Guardian
The Editors’ Quote of the Day:
Follow him on Facebook where you voluntarily agreed to give all that info and more since the NSA usually can’t scrape your contacts and constantly use GPS/WIFI/Cell to track you without hacking your phone.
I have 2 opinions on Snowden.
Many of us have been tasked and trusted to protect and secure our nations secrets.
The material that we were privileged to see and use to complete our tasks did not belong to us to use as we pleased. Snowden did not have the right to copy and share files with our enemies. He can rot in Russia with Puties cameras watching his every BM.
The older I get the more I think about issues like our automobiles and the government spying on us.
I would bet that 99.9 of our lives are pretty routine. Anyone who digs into our lives would be bored to tears. Do not waste a bit on me, nothing to see here.
That does not mean I agree that loss of privacy is ok. I do not.
I just do not think that a bunch of government civilians are going to take the iniative to watch me weed my garden.
Snowden is in Russia after a debriefing by the Chinese. And we should look up to him why?
In a perfect world we wouldn’t need the CIA or NSA or other unknown secret government organization. But our enemies have them and our enemies work every day to bring us down. So should we just give up? Sure, I’ll agree that we shouldn’t be spied on but what is the alternative?
IMHO the U.S. is naïve and stupid. We have probably a couple million Chinese citizens living in this country and I would bet 10% of them are spies? Why? We could live without them. Dianne Feinstein could find an American driver. Why do we let foreign citizens live here? Why do we allow unhampered immigration? Why do we allow 100,000 foreign students to attend our universities many of whom stay here and at the same time prevent U.S. citizens from attending those same universities?
Snowden
The means justify the ends Snowden. Traitor. Cost untold number of lives of our intelligence assets overseas and runs like a baby to what bastion of freedom? Oh yeah, Russia. That country that interfered in our elections and continues to do so.
I’ll take a Martin Luther King any day. Stood up for what he believed – went to jail often as a result. Didn’t whine about it and effected great change in the nation. Didn’t, for sure, run like a dog with his tail between his legs to escape the consequences of his actions. Agree with him or not, I have to respect the man who stood up and acted like a man. Great countries and great warriors always give credit to great courage.
Snowden, hopefully, will be stuck where he is for many years. I suspect he will not wear well with time. Those with conscience AND courage will be remembered long pass the time the odor of Snowden passes.
In a perfect world what Snowden & Assange both did, exposing irregularities and offenses by our government, can be justified or not for whatever reason. They did what the media is supposedly tasked to do, keep us regular folks informed of the shenanigans and overreaching intrusion into our lives not authorized under the Constitution by our gummint. “For our protection and safety” is pure hogwash. Our Constitution provides for gummint to protect our right to pursue happiness, not in intruding into the pursuit of happiness, among other things.
If the political/social situation keeps on it’s present path, it may not be too long, in the overall scope of things, before it’s all a moot point. If we don’t get the situation under control with a healthy dose of accountability and responsibility and a daily dose of morality we will find ourselves living a life most recently lived back in the 1890’s or earlier. Illegal immigration and cultural tribalism will be the least of our worries.
Bradley (now Chelsey) Manning did what he did because he found evidence of American war crimes being committed. If we condone American war crimes, we’re no different than the Germans who condoned the actions of the Nazis.
Edward Snowden did what he did because he found evidence of the government of the United States spying on it’s own citizens. If we condone that kind of activity we’re no different than those in the Soviet Union who condoned the actions of the KGB, or those in Germany who condoned the actions of the Gestapo.
Julian Assange and Wikileaks are no different than the Washington Post and the New York Times who did extensive reporting on the Pentagon Papers as released by Daniel Ellsberg. He too saw a wrong, the lies that led us into the Vietnam War and the unnecessary deaths of 58,000 Americans and a couple of MILLION Vietnamese.
Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Daniel Ellsberg, and the many other whistle blowers, who find nefarious actions by our government and broadcast it to the world, should be encouraged and applauded, not ridiculed. We need to know when our government is doing wrong and work diligently to correct the bad actions of this government.
It seems to me the reasons we are a part of the preparedness community is to prepare for the consequences of wrong doing by our government. The wrong actions of our government, whether it’s lying to the American people, spying on the American people, or committing war crimes globally, will cause blowback. That blowback for US government crimes is the consequence for which We The People will eventually have to pay the price, maybe the ultimate price.
Standing against tyranny is always just.
I appreciate your candor, Charles. I saw a t-shirt the other day: “Wikileaks says you CAN handle the truth.”
A simple word for that is “liberty”.
From what I understand, and I may be wrong, both Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden brought their finding to their superior officers and were rebuffed, then threatened. Manning faced the music and was kept in solitary confinement 23 hours a day in a cell lighted day and night at Marine Corps Base Quantico. He was held for months before being formally charged.
I wrote letters of protest to the base commander at the time. An aide for my senator confirmed what I state above and leaned on the Marine Corps to act honorably, which, if I rmember correctly, they did.
Perhaps Edward Snowden took note of PFC Manning’s treatment and chose a less painful way. Saying that, I have not walked in his shoes and have little idea of the threat he was under.
Both men were accused of betraying their country and compromising the safety of American intelligence agents. I have seen no credible evidence to support such allegations. As you imply, I believe they each, while admittedly breaking their top secret clearance oaths, served their country by exposing malfeasance.
Quoting you, Charles, “Standing against tyranny is always just.” And, I might add, patriotic.
Carry on
The one common thread between Assange, Manning and Snowden?
Non-compartmentalization.
Right or wrong, what most don’t realize is why did these people have access to such a wide network of trusted sources?
The same reason active HUMINT isn’t trusted with all aspects is the very same reason the axiom should apply in the electronic world.
There were definitive signs in both Manning and Snowden that went beyond ‘normal’ baseline behavior, especially all the previous leave and travel with Snowden. Manning was disintegrating – you can’t tell me his supervision didn’t notice if they had a pulse.
All these events are a symptom – until we have a just Gov’t (not likely) or a more robust classification system, there will be more. All three certainly weren’t the first.