“Our rights are not granted by governments. They are inherent to our nature. But it’s entirely the opposite for governments: their privileges are precisely equal to only those which we suffer them to enjoy.” – Edward Snowden
The Editors’ Quote of the Day:
Too bad he had to move to Russia to live as a relatively free man. To Americans, he should be considered a hero, not a traitor. If telling to truth about or government makes any citizen a traitor, America is lost.
That should be “our government”. Need to proofread before sending.
I don’t think he is a hero. He released classified information. This act caused deaths of people who were working to defeat evil in the world. He then went to China and Russia and spilled his gut (more accurately spilled the secret information he stole).
Snowden is a traitor. Not only did he release thousands of pages of classified information, revealing US intelligence sources and methods, but he immediately fled to Communist China and then to Russia. Adhering to our enemies and giving them aid and comfort is one of the legal definitions of treason (the other being taking up arms against the US).
He is no traitor, he is a whistle blower. He found information that clearly showed the government of the good old USA was and still is spying on all Americans, including you. There is no due process, there is no just cause, just spying on you and me and every other American. Snowden had to leave the country because he told the truth. The idea that anyone died because of his actions is propaganda. The truth means nothing, only the government sanctioned narrative. The narrative as propagated by the same deep state that has been attempting an ongoing coup d’etat against President Trump. Snowden helped to murder the narrative, that is it.
Those deep state politicians and bureaucrats are the real traitors to this country, not Edward Snowden, not Chelsea Manning, and certainly not Julian Assange who is only guilty of being a good journalist and publisher. Oh, and by the way, not you and not me and not JWR, though that same deep state would likely want to imprison us all for thinking and then acting independently.
As for Russia being our enemy; I still don’t remember a time when Russia (THE SOVIET UNION IS DEAD!!) actually attacked the United States. I’d much rather see us trade with Russia and the Russian people than to have our government make enemies of them. After all, Russia is about the most Christian country in all of Europe today. Why would we want to make enemies of our fellow Christians? Why, on God’s green earth, would we sanction our government taking actions that would kill our fellow Christians?
Don’t be a tool of those treasonous bas***ds. Don’t accept the narrative. Don’t believe the propaganda. Certainly don’t regurgitate their propagandist narrative.
Snowden a whistleblower? Not at all.
“The Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act of 1998,[1] amending the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949 and the Inspector General Act of 1978, sets forth a procedure for employees and contractors of specified federal intelligence agencies to report complaints or information to Congress about serious problems involving intelligence activities. ”
Snowden didn’t bother to follow the lawful process of informing the IC Inspector General or either of the Congressional Intelligence Committees of his concerns. That would have made him a whistleblower.
He simply copied classified information and gave it to the Chinese and Russians. That is a clear violation of the Espionage Act (18 USC 793 sections a, b and d.