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“I’ve been waiting 40 years for someone like you.” Those were the first words Daniel Ellsberg spoke to me when we met last year. Dan and I felt an immediate kinship; we both knew what it meant to risk so much — and to be irrevocably changed — by revealing secret truths.
One of the challenges of being a whistleblower is living with the knowledge that people continue to sit, just as you did, at those desks, in that unit, throughout the agency, who see what you saw and comply in silence, without resistance or complaint. They learn to live not just with untruths but with unnecessary untruths, dangerous untruths, corrosive untruths. It is a double tragedy: What begins as a survival strategy ends with the compromise of the human being it sought to preserve and the diminishing of the democracy meant to justify the sacrifice.
But unlike Dan Ellsberg, I didn’t have to wait 40 years to witness other citizens breaking that silence with documents. Ellsberg gave the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times and other newspapers in 1971; Chelsea Manning provided the Iraq and Afghan War logs and the Cablegate materials to WikiLeaks in 2010. I came forward in 2013. Now here we are in 2016, and another person of courage and conscience has made available the set of extraordinary documents that are published in The Assassination Complex, the new book out today by Jeremy Scahill and the staff of The Intercept. (The documents were originally published last October 15 in The Drone Papers.)
We are witnessing a compression of the working period in which bad policy shelters in the shadows, the time frame in which unconstitutional activities can continue before they are exposed by acts of conscience. And this temporal compression has a significance beyond the immediate headlines; it permits the people of this country to learn about critical government actions, not as part of the historical record but in a way that allows direct action through voting — in other words, in a way that empowers an informed citizenry to defend the democracy that “state secrets” are nominally intended to support. When I see individuals who are able to bring information forward, it gives me hope that we won’t always be required to curtail the illegal activities of our government as if it were a constant task, to uproot official lawbreaking as routinely as we mow the grass. (Interestingly enough, that is how some have begun to describe remote killing operations, as “cutting the grass.”)
A single act of whistleblowing doesn’t change the reality that there are significant portions of the government that operate below the waterline, beneath the visibility of the public. Those secret activities will continue, despite reforms. But those who perform these actions now have to live with the fear that if they engage in activities contrary to the spirit of society — if even a single citizen is catalyzed to halt the machinery of that injustice — they might still be held to account. The thread by which good governance hangs is this equality before the law, for the only fear of the man who turns the gears is that he may find himself upon them.
Hope lies beyond, when we move from extraordinary acts of revelation to a collective culture of accountability within the intelligence community. Here we will have taken a meaningful step toward solving a problem that has existed for as long as our government.
Former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Gen. David Petraeus.
David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images
There are authorized leaks and also permitted disclosures. It is rare for senior administration officials to explicitly ask a subordinate to leak a CIA officer’s name to retaliate against her husband, as appears to have been the case with Valerie Plame. It is equally rare for a month to go by in which some senior official does not disclose some protected information that is beneficial to the political efforts of the parties but clearly “damaging to national security” under the definitions of our law.
This dynamic can be seen quite clearly in the al Qaeda “conference call of doom” story, in which intelligence officials, likely seeking to inflate the threat of terrorism and deflect criticism of mass surveillance, revealed to a neoconservative website extraordinarily detailed accounts of specific communications they had intercepted, including locations of the participating parties and the precise contents of the discussions. If the officials’ claims were to be believed, they irrevocably burned an extraordinary means of learning the precise plans and intentions of terrorist leadership for the sake of a short-lived political advantage in a news cycle. Not a single person seems to have been so much as disciplined as a result of the story that cost us the ability to listen to the alleged al Qaeda hotline.
President Barack Obama talks with Vice President Joe Biden in the Oval Office, April 15, 2015.
Photo: The White House
If harmfulness and authorization make no difference, what explains the distinction between the permissible and the impermissible disclosure?
The answer is control. A leak is acceptable if it’s not seen as a threat, as a challenge to the prerogatives of the institution. But if all of the disparate components of the institution — not just its head but its hands and feet, every part of its body — must be assumed to have the same power to discuss matters of concern, that is an existential threat to the modern political monopoly of information control, particularly if we’re talking about disclosures of serious wrongdoing, fraudulent activity, unlawful activities. If you can’t guarantee that you alone can exploit the flow of controlled information, then the aggregation of all the world’s unmentionables — including your own — begins to look more like a liability than an asset.
Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers detailing U.S. policy in the Vietnam War, Oct. 10, 1976.
Photo: Susan Wood/Getty Images
At the other end of the spectrum is Manning, a junior enlisted soldier, who was much nearer to the bottom of the hierarchy. I was midway in the professional career path. I sat down at the table with the chief information officer of the CIA, and I was briefing him and his chief technology officer when they were publicly making statements like “We try to collect everything and hang on to it forever,” and everybody still thought that was a cute business slogan. Meanwhile I was designing the systems they would use to do precisely that. I wasn’t briefing the policy side, the secretary of defense, but I was briefing the operations side, the National Security Agency’s director of technology. Official wrongdoing can catalyze all levels of insiders to reveal information, even at great risk to themselves, so long as they can be convinced that it is necessary to do so.
Reaching those individuals, helping them realize that their first allegiance as a public servant is to the public rather than to the government, is the challenge. That’s a significant shift in cultural thinking for a government worker today.
I’ve argued that whistleblowers are elected by circumstance. It’s not a virtue of who you are or your background. It’s a question of what you are exposed to, what you witness. At that point the question becomes Do you honestly believe that you have the capability to remediate the problem, to influence policy? I would not encourage individuals to reveal information, even about wrongdoing, if they do not believe they can be effective in doing so, because the right moment can be as rare as the will to act.
This is simply a pragmatic, strategic consideration. Whistleblowers are outliers of probability, and if they are to be effective as a political force, it’s critical that they maximize the amount of public good produced from scarce seed. When I was making my decision, I came to understand how one strategic consideration, such as waiting until the month before a domestic election, could become overwhelmed by another, such as the moral imperative to provide an opportunity to arrest a global trend that had already gone too far. I was focused on what I saw and on my sense of overwhelming disenfranchisement that the government, in which I had believed for my entire life, was engaged in such an extraordinary act of deception.
Change has to flow from the bottom to the top.
At the heart of this evolution is that whistleblowing is a radicalizing event — and by “radical” I don’t mean “extreme”; I mean it in the traditional sense of radix, the root of the issue. At some point you recognize that you can’t just move a few letters around on a page and hope for the best. You can’t simply report this problem to your supervisor, as I tried to do, because inevitably supervisors get nervous. They think about the structural risk to their career. They’re concerned about rocking the boat and “getting a reputation.” The incentives aren’t there to produce meaningful reform. Fundamentally, in an open society, change has to flow from the bottom to the top.
As someone who works in the intelligence community, you’ve given up a lot to do this work. You’ve happily committed yourself to tyrannical restrictions. You voluntarily undergo polygraphs; you tell the government everything about your life. You waive a lot of rights because you believe the fundamental goodness of your mission justifies the sacrifice of even the sacred. It’s a just cause.
And when you’re confronted with evidence — not in an edge case, not in a peculiarity, but as a core consequence of the program — that the government is subverting the Constitution and violating the ideals you so fervently believe in, you have to make a decision. When you see that the program or policy is inconsistent with the oaths and obligations that you’ve sworn to your society and yourself, then that oath and that obligation cannot be reconciled with the program. To which do you owe a greater loyalty?
Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Images
One of the extraordinary things about the revelations of the past several years, and their accelerating pace, is that they have occurred in the context of the United States as the “uncontested hyperpower.” We now have the largest unchallenged military machine in the history of the world, and it’s backed by a political system that is increasingly willing to authorize any use of force in response to practically any justification. In today’s context that justification is terrorism, but not necessarily because our leaders are particularly concerned about terrorism in itself or because they think it’s an existential threat to society. They recognize that even if we had a 9/11 attack every year, we would still be losing more people to car accidents and heart disease, and we don’t see the same expenditure of resources to respond to those more significant threats.
What it really comes down to is the political reality that we have a political class that feels it must inoculate itself against allegations of weakness. Our politicians are more fearful of the politics of terrorism — of the charge that they do not take terrorism seriously — than they are of the crime itself.
As a result we have arrived at this unmatched capability, unrestrained by policy. We have become reliant upon what was intended to be the limitation of last resort: the courts. Judges, realizing that their decisions are suddenly charged with much greater political importance and impact than was originally intended, have gone to great lengths in the post-9/11 period to avoid reviewing the laws or the operations of the executive in the national security context and setting restrictive precedents that, even if entirely proper, would impose limits on government for decades or more. That means the most powerful institution that humanity has ever witnessed has also become the least restrained. Yet that same institution was never designed to operate in such a manner, having instead been explicitly founded on the principle of checks and balances. Our founding impulse was to say, “Though we are mighty, we are voluntarily restrained.”
Photo: The White House
When you first go on duty at CIA headquarters, you raise your hand and swear an oath — not to government, not to the agency, not to secrecy. You swear an oath to the Constitution. So there’s this friction, this emerging contest between the obligations and values that the government asks you to uphold, and the actual activities that you’re asked to participate in.
These disclosures about the Obama administration’s killing program reveal that there’s a part of the American character that is deeply concerned with the unrestrained, unchecked exercise of power. And there is no greater or clearer manifestation of unchecked power than assuming for oneself the authority to execute an individual outside of a battlefield context and without the involvement of any sort of judicial process.
Traditionally, in the context of military affairs, we’ve always understood that lethal force in battle could not be subjected to ex ante judicial constraints. When armies are shooting at each other, there’s no room for a judge on that battlefield. But now the government has decided — without the public’s participation, without our knowledge and consent — that the battlefield is everywhere. Individuals who don’t represent an imminent threat in any meaningful sense of those words are redefined, through the subversion of language, to meet that definition.
Inevitably that conceptual subversion finds its way home, along with the technology that enables officials to promote comfortable illusions about surgical killing and nonintrusive surveillance. Take, for instance, the Holy Grail of drone persistence, a capability that the United States has been pursuing forever. The goal is to deploy solar-powered drones that can loiter in the air for weeks without coming down. Once you can do that, and you put any typical signals collection device on the bottom of it to monitor, unblinkingly, the emanations of, for example, the different network addresses of every laptop, smartphone, and iPod, you know not just where a particular device is in what city, but you know what apartment each device lives in, where it goes at any particular time, and by what route. Once you know the devices, you know their owners. When you start doing this over several cities, you’re tracking the movements not just of individuals but of whole populations.
Unrestrained power may be many things, but it’s not American.
By preying on the modern necessity to stay connected, governments can reduce our dignity to something like that of tagged animals, the primary difference being that we paid for the tags and they’re in our pockets. It sounds like fantasist paranoia, but on the technical level it’s so trivial to implement that I cannot imagine a future in which it won’t be attempted. It will be limited to the war zones at first, in accordance with our customs, but surveillance technology has a tendency to follow us home.
Here we see the double edge of our uniquely American brand of nationalism. We are raised to be exceptionalists, to think we are the better nation with the manifest destiny to rule. The danger is that some people will actually believe this claim, and some of those will expect the manifestation of our national identity, that is, our government, to comport itself accordingly.
Unrestrained power may be many things, but it’s not American. It is in this sense that the act of whistleblowing increasingly has become an act of political resistance. The whistleblower raises the alarm and lifts the lamp, inheriting the legacy of a line of Americans that begins with Paul Revere.
The individuals who make these disclosures feel so strongly about what they have seen that they’re willing to risk their lives and their freedom. They know that we, the people, are ultimately the strongest and most reliable check on the power of government. The insiders at the highest levels of government have extraordinary capability, extraordinary resources, tremendous access to influence, and a monopoly on violence, but in the final calculus there is but one figure that matters: the individual citizen.
And there are more of us than there are of them.
From The Assassination Complex: Inside the Government’s Secret Drone Warfare Program by Jeremy Scahill and the staff of The Intercept, with a foreword by Edward Snowden and afterword by Glenn Greenwald, published by Simon & Schuster.
For some reason, that Brecht’s poem bring to my mind Manning, Assange, Snowden, …
// __ GENERAL YOUR TANK IS A POWERFUL VEHICLE
youtube.com/watch?v=cpBoq83WjPo
~
RCL
It would be interesting to know if there is anything in the Snowden documents about the Saudi family that disappeared a few weeks before the 911 attacks, or about the FBIs secret document trove which has been revealed through Fredom of Information Requests, and reported on by the wsws.org ?
FBI holds 80,000 pages of secret documents on Saudi-9/11 links
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/05/14/saud-m14.html
We are forever grateful to you for being a true, honest, and good neighbor, not to mention extremely bright and brave.
Would you please submit this article to Common Dreams for publication.
Thank you again for your great sacrifice, and may you come home safely and soon.
Snowden’s piece and Ellsberb’s Pentagon Papers are limited hangouts. A limited hangout, or partial hangout, is a public relations or propaganda technique that involves the release of previously hidden information in order to prevent a greater exposure of more important details. The more important detail left out of their work is the Council on Foreign Relations. Eighteen CIA and Eighteen NSA directors are CFR members. Petreaus is a CFR member and that fact is why he escaped serious punishment for his traitorous acts. Booze Allen, the spy company Snowden worked for is owned by the CFR run Carlyle group. The CIA was founded by CFR members McCloy and Donovan. You can read more about Snowden/CFR connnections here https://tomjefferson1976.wordpress.com/?s=snowden. It is time for real investigative journalists to begin questioning Snowden as to why he is a CFR Not-See.
I just want to let you know that pro-NATO Russians hate Snowden and Assange and call them “Russian agents”. On the other hand, what else could one expect from persons who support CIA coup in Ukraine with Ukrainian Nazis as foot solders, calling it “revolution”.
Of course, the great majority of Russians are anti-NATO, which made pro-NATO ones mad and it is good.
Between international billions, outsourced government functions and if in the IC you never getting in trouble for anything done (as long as you protect the reputation of the machine) how does the U.S put a governing umbrella on that to stay in charge?
Concerning security, I suspect the obsession with secrecy and the treatment of whistle blowers by the Obama administration is at least in part an attempt to discourage the exploding financial incentives in US politics to sabotage what this country tries to accomplish while he is president affecting us all. And that way of reacting to very real incentives to sabotage is now solidified into the economy for any administration to use and abuse in their own special way.
Sometimes I think the IC has been allowed to grow to the size it has because its a way of keeping tabs on all of the computer wiz’s, future whistle blowers out there. you wonder.
I think things wouldn’t be as bad for whistle blowers if we the people made a less paranoid environment for the people we elect (?) to govern in. Another reason for election reform, overturn Citizens United etc
When will Snowden or someone else speak out about or investigate the widespread covert Remote Neural Monitoring of thousands of civilians in the US, Australia and elsewhere by military Intel, and secret networks of rogue police and malicious groups of gangstalkers who are electronically stalking and harassing innocent people 24/7, taking activists and aware or ‘difficult’ people to be illegally assessed and psychologically intimidated or abused at mental health units? Please ACT to help ban the use of this technology worldwide.
Yes!!! This needs to be addressed now! Targeted individuals have complained about Remote Neural Monitoring for years. We don’t want to wake up some morning to find that democracy is a thing of the past.
Glenn. Please have staff review and thoroughly vet any as yet unreleased JTRIG related docs from Snowden trove. Vet them with any experts of your choosing…do it for those currently being targeted by TPTB as well as for every supporter of Jacob Appelbaum, Bill Binney, Thomas Drake, Julian Assange, Ed and You. Do it for and for the leading members of Occupy, Black Lives Matter, Code Pink, Earth First and CAIR…
While you’re at it please GO THERE (uncomfortable topic alert) and vet and release the names of five (5) UPSTANDING WHITE non-muslim american political activists the snowden archives can confirm have been targeted for their beliefs just as you did for those five (5) UPSTANDING BROWN muslim american political activists who were both intelligent and brave enough to stand up when you asked them to.
Unfortunately as the smarter people in this thread know the Feds made their bones primarily harassing and destroying the lives of people of color (and suspected communists whenever possible) with their cointelpro programs in the 50s 60s and 70s. And THEN just as NOW many congress people may well only be swayed to to join the Jason Chaffetzes and Alan Graysons of the world upon seeing faces similar to their own as subjects of our contemporary cointelpro programs which are no doubt also designed to threaten, intimidate and destroy the rights of those of white european ancestry. THEN as NOW certain elements of an all to race conscious (and increasingly Islamaphopic) US congress need you to drive home the universality of current cointelpro offenses to the US Constitution and US Bill of Rights by using any means necessary to drive home the shared threat to our multicultural collective liberty which, in the not to distant past, was a threat clearly shared by a rainbow coalition of activists targeted by the FBI like Mario Savio Leonard Peltier Bobby Seale or their female equivalents.
* Please get their permission first.
Ok. It would be nice, since you are so well informed Edward, to read about your 9/11 ideas. Best!
As the US court system gradually goes dark, along with the rest of the government, whistleblowing is the last act of defiance against the dying of the light.
“”An individual provided the department with the passcode to the locked phone at issue in the Eastern District of New York,” Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi said in a statement. “Because we now have access to the data we sought, we notified the court of this recent development and have withdrawn our request for assistance.””
…An individual piece of surveillance equipment? Have we reached the point in our vaunted history where we’ll look back and say ‘this is when the machines achieved the same rights as corporations*’?
*It used to be that corporations were getting the same rights as people — important for those who believe in the ideal of tyranny without recourse or easy finger-pointing — but that had to be nipped in the bud and a new form of comparison created for handy reference.
Not with a bang but a whimper.
Eddy, baby! Love ya!
Hi Edward Snowden!
I’m glad you exist.
“”When you first go on duty at CIA headquarters, you raise your hand and swear an oath — not to government, not to the agency, not to secrecy. You swear an oath to the Constitution. ”
which is odd because it seems like the CIA is only interested in people who excel at accomplishing tasks in the lowest most despicable means available in human nature.
If the Constitution is something good, and you are supposed to be defending it why can it only be defended in the shadows, by torture, death and deception? You’d think the only way to defend something honorable is to be that way.
Like with Gitmo, if the CIA wanted information from people fighting against American interests, who were also Muslims, it should have been a resort rather than a torture chamber. They should have sent their families money and other gifts.
Being decent won’t always “work” but at least your conscience can be free. Goodness empowers.
“When armies are shooting at each other, there’s no room for a judge on that battlefield. But now the government has decided — without the public’s participation, without our knowledge and consent — that the battlefield is everywhere.”
Spiritual death via the doctrine of preemption/paranoia that knows no bounds. Infuriating really.
I think when considering how things could change its important to consider that people like Obama have been convinced this is the way to go because they believe what they’re being told and that they’re saving lives. Is it possible to have a president that will question what they’re being told by the vast IC? If they can come up with a consolidated explanations ever>? Or can they only view options/ mulitiple choice within the world that is being dictated to them
“What it really comes down to is the political reality that we have a political class that feels it must inoculate itself against allegations of weakness. Our politicians are more fearful of the politics of terrorism — of the charge that they do not take terrorism seriously — than they are of the crime itself.”
Weakness is now what we used to call human decency. Strength is what we used to refer to (when we were feeling generous) as being a jerk.
This is the reward we all get for having IC/military persons running strategy in campaigns and controlling media.Don’t question the badass folks, they will win by any means necessary.
And if we watch we all get to live in a managed mirror world of their PTSD.
It can be very depressing as I feel pretty convinced that things are only going to get worse here long before the get better if they ever do. But then I often think of alternate universes large and small to forget about it. Biology is very comforting these days.
I hope you stay safe.
Protagonism aside, Snowden’s conjecture seems to be right, both; regarding the frecuency of major leaks and that it seems to be contegious
RCL
Ed, there is no way to thank you sufficiently for all that you have done. We are indebted to you beyond words. Thank you.
https://ipsoscustodes.wordpress.com/2016/05/06/theintercept-20160503-edward-snowden-whistleblowing-is-not-just-leaking-its-an-act-of-political-resistance-my-niggah/
RCL
Existential threat to the modern political monopoly of global information control along with RFID implanted on computers and even people without their knowledge and consent is something the corrupt puppets and hidden hands in high public places think is cute and nice, even calling it the patriotic thing to do. WHY? unrestrained domestic and international(global) power along with over/covert unrestrained control/surveillance of information=epitome of worst than all totalitarian/fascist tyranical regimes combined while subverting the constitutional rule of law. Realize that their first allegiance of the corrupt and their approved puppets is not to the public nor to the constitutional principles of the constitutional rule of law no matter how much these cloak themselves as public servants and democracy clothing.
Unchallenged and unethical military or (hypicritical) political manuvers to justify and excuse with exceptionalism the bombing of Doctors without borders with unrestrained impunity(to mention just one, that is a nobel peace price winer) that gives the usa-governance the deluded incentive to blurt to their six hundred and sixty six winds of propaganda in the media and political establishment “”usa ought to write the global rules.” is not just an act of extraordinary act of deception, but the epitome/epitomy of tyranny.
Therefore without your knowledge and consent you will be perpetrating and advancing one solid tyranny as you raise your hand to swear an oath — not to government, not to the agency, not to secrecy, where “we the poeple” and the “constitutional rule of law and democracy” are being subverted and abolished by these entities as obsolete penut butter, or more succintly as ignis fatuus.
P.S. As it is a fact already to deploy solar-powered drones that can loiter in the air for weeks without coming down. Once you can do that, and you put any typical signals collection device on the bottom of it to monitor, unblinkingly, the emanations of RFID type of devices on electrical equipment and even implanting persons without their knowledge and consent. The monopoly of the corrupt and their nepharious puppets has been and still is as previously shared, manufacturing unrestrained “”chaos out of (corrrupt) order. Disgusting is short. – Alejandro Grace Ararat.
Have you considered (Realize) that a compromised conscience leads to a sabotaged nefarious outcomes no matter how pretentious “the democratic mission,” is presented while sabotaging the constitutional rule of law. – Alejandro:)
Anyone who perpetrates all manner of wicked despicable corruption/deception is an –ignis fatuus. – Alejandro Grace Ararat:)
Thank you, Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald and The Intercept!
I am reminded of the Robinson Jeffers poem, “Shine, Perishing Republic.”
“There’s a feeling I get, when I look to the west,
And my spirit is crying for leaving”
Lines from Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven
Pleased that you escaped Mr Snowden, and thank you for your sacrifice for humanity. Live long and be happy.
I can’t believe I haven’t stated the obvious: Thank you, Ed. AND thanks to the other person out there that enabled the revelations within this book (and the articles prior to it) to come to light.
Thank you for your continued efforts and amazing sacrifice.
“I came forward in 2013. Now here we are in 2016, and another person of courage and conscience has made available the set of extraordinary documents that are published in The Assassination Complex”
Really, Ed? *Another* person of courage and conscience? Could you possibly have been any more self serving in this piece? Get over yourself, you navel-gazing punk.
Another person as in “collectively” with “increasing frequency each encouraging the next and so on.
I’m feeling alot better about the mission Ed. Why don’t you take a stress pill and relax…
Daisy, Daisy…
Straight from the Horse’s Ass. You share the same name but Edward Snowden uses his real name, you are a Coward.
Thank you, Mr. Snowden. You are a national treasure.
An extraordinarily important article, which should be required reading for all of us. Thank you for your efforts, Ed. And know that many of us regard you as the patriot you truly are. History will vindicate you and thank you for your prescience and for your courage.
Your forward, Ed, perhaps suggests a great title for a seq to The Assassination Complex, “Three If By Air.”
Ever more thanks to every whistleblower and contributor that made this information release and book possible. I’ve long held that drone murder was never about fighting terrorism – but about creating future [generational] enemies for perpetual expansionist wars.
Empire’s have always had trouble demanding tribute from those not subjugated. An empire of the greediest is no different except it must inevitably seek to subjugate and consume – everyone and everything.
If we ever meet, I’ll buy you lunch. Or dinner. Or breakfast. It’s the least I can do. May you be made welcome wherever you go!
Enjoy your Borscht. The Beet goes on….
Keen. Too bad the ovine do not see their submissiveness is treason, and whistle blowing is patriotic. Thanks, ES.
THIS ARTICLE IS JUST PURE BULLSHIT WRITTEN BY AN ASSHOLE WHO THINKS THAT GOVERNMENT WORKS IF THE “RIGHT” PEOPLE ARE IN CHARGE.
THIS IS LAUGHABLE, POLITICALLY IGNORANT BULLSHIT.
This is really compelling… Good efforts to make people change their ways. I think you’re really on to something. Good argument. Good effort.
I COULD NOT AGREE LESS! AND I PROMISE I AM NOT TRYING TO YELL AT YOU. THIS IS JUST HOW I TYPE! HAVEN’T YOU SEEN MY OTHER COMMENTS? NO MATTER.
I AM FAIRLY CERTAIN THAT GOVERNMENT WORKS BEST WHEN IT’S BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE. WHAT WAS THE NET EFFECT OF SNOWDEN’S ACTIONS IF NOT GIVING THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY SHOULD HAVE POSESSED IN THE FIRST PLACE. JS.
Get off my planet.
Don’t respond to trolls – it just encourages them.
and your last name “Dumb” freedom ring a bell? cue Pavlovian response.
Edward Snowden is our modern day Paul Revere. Thank you for truly serving our nation and protecting the oath.
Thank you E.S. ( if the assholes that have blocked my posts here can allow you to read this).
Hey Pat.
If Jacob Appelbaum says they can do it to Hugo Chavez they can do it to us.
I would be honored to be a whistle blower.
I salute you Mr. Snowdon; you did what should be commonplace but is actually extremely rare. It seems, all it takes to control a man is a lousy career. With nothing to gain and everything including your life to lose, you did what you and millions of others know is right. A shame humans are so easy to control but thankfully there are still a few like you and Daniel Ellsberg out there. When the man behind the curtain fears you so much it shows what Dorothy found out (the story was about finance capitalism), there is nothing to fear from the elites, they are a fraud. Kings, Popes, Generals, Presidents etc. do nothing, nor does money, the workers of the world do everything and I wonder if they will ever figure it out or just go on building Pyramids and fighting wars for Pharaoh. I’m not hopeful.
You’re mixing all sorts of references and metaphors, there.
A very enlightening article, Mr. Snowden. Thank you so much for being the man you are and for having the character that you have……you are an inspiration.
this guy is such a tool. No one in the USA cares for him, or his stance. Hes only in it for the money. Quiet ironic no, after this waste of time “article”. Dude steals information to sell it to the news, then complains how the USA uses money to dominate? hahaha. IDIOT. Russia, keep this clown in your own country haha
Fortunately for all of us, you don’t speak for everyone in the USA. Even among that fraction of the people who may share your sentiments, no one elected you spokesperson.
Plenty of Americans care for Eric Snowden; more than care for you I’d wager.
Never happened.
Like so many of then idiots here and elsewhere who mindlessly hate Edward Snowden, they post, well, mindless bullshit.
I love when people who don’t understand basic facts about things have strong opinions about things they don’t know the basic facts about.
Let’s start here: you realize he didn’t sell anything to anyone including the ‘news’, right?
Ignorance at its finest.
I’d like to voice my disagreement with another government shill, please and thank you.
So you don’t understand whats going on at all. Trump wants YOU!
Wow. Great job <3
Unrestrained power may be many tings but it is not American– it IS PredatoryCapitalism unleashed and if this ais a tool of power America uses, then it is American. What was not American in 1776 may be American by 2016.
All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
William Shakespeare
I see all these words of Edward Snowden, and the images behind them in this article, as reflecting the continuous revelation of these words and images, recorded so long ago, in our Times;
‘For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.’ Luke 8:17
Again, the devil takes him up into an exceeding high mountain, and shows him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
And said to him, All these things will I give you, if you will fall down and worship me.
Then Jesus said to him, Get outta here, Satan: for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. Matthew 4:8-10
In the 2000 years since, lessor men have succumbed to the temptation of career advancement and the economic benefit of not rocking the boat, judging for hire and profit, but not for Justice and Truth.
Mt:21:12: And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves
And all it takes is one of us, Edward! *Above ‘them’… shines the devotion of untold countless millions around the globe who desire but a more prosperous and peaceful world.
On Sept. 10, 2001, when the world was young, the trials and tribulations which would threaten [America] were, for the most part imo, partly avoidable … ‘for by reason of them a government and people clinging tenaciously to the obsolescent doctrine of absolute sovereignty and upholding a political system, manifestly at variance with the needs of a world already contracted into a neighborhood and crying out for unity, will find itself purged of its anachronistic conceptions’…
I don’t know about you, but if Huck Finn’s right, then I’m totally screwed. Some levity. :P
I don’t have a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out of! %^)
It’s difficult because someone once made mention of a ‘chicken in every pot’ and I don’t want to wind up pissing where I eat… even if I could get over the moral hurdle of stealing a pot for you and/or myself, I think it’s probably pointless for us to consider the ethics of such an act until we can investigate if the chicken myth is true. Also we need to make sure we weren’t stealing a pot only to find out it had a … leek in it? [ugh]
Hungry? You’re in luck. I have plenty of chickens … and I’m willing to share (if you act right.).
*mabel minkoff has a pot she might loan us?
Actually I’ve been trying to find a kettle.
I think we have a problem since I don’t think we can afford a fire — or have a place to build it. Raw chicken? :(
Oops, I screwed up. I probably should have asked what ‘acting right’ entails. Gets me every time. :(
“*mabel minkoff has a pot she might loan us?”
bahmihummerbung hunnee Myrna iz win hoo spayshulizes in menz hoo liek to pee on chikunz in potz don u no.
May Belle: You crack me up.
A man who steals to eat is not a thief.
Les Miserables was a miserably long book overpopulated with double-digits of pages discussing furniture and settings… and even it told me that stealing a loaf of bread ends in brutal punishment. That said, I’m sure the current American justice system would argue that even if one who steals to eat isn’t a thief, one doesn’t need to have cooked food, so stealing a pot is wantonly criminal. And one probably shouldn’t get to decide what they’re eating in the first place. :P
i did read that nutso cruzo put a man in prison for 15 years for stealing a calculator.
maybe the guy was a serious danger to society- i do not know. But i know one thing, the Cruzer was certifiable.
I don’t suppose you know anybody with any loaves and fishes to spare? We could have a grand old time if so?
Loaves and fishes forever when i get my way.
gonna cost me.
Preaching to the choir?
Space was supposed to be used for peaceful purposes. Free people of the world needs to get together and knock down ALL the satellites except the legit Weather ones (confirmed). Too bad for the GPS freaks and porno TV watchers. Get a compass and take a course in dead reckoning and read books if you know how! The US government has over 56 GPS satellites spying on us. Get the 50 million illegals out of the country and they would not have to do so much spying!
Wait, so “the US government has over 56 GPS satellites spying on us” because… illegals??
Hello Ed
First, I’d like to ask why did you join the NSA/spy community? I understand the decency behind your amazing act, but I do not understand why you wanted to be part of such an awful organisation in the first instance – glad though I am that there are Enemies Within.
Second, I do not think you should think of anything as “not American”, given that a nation is in essence just whoever is in power at any one time. Americans have been greedy and power-hungry for all their short history and they have realised their superpower ambitions quickly through two terrible World Wars and Europe’s ceaseless divisiveness over every matter whether at peace or war.
“America” does not have any moral compass or responsibility – it is not a real, living, thinking entity. It is just a bunch of people, many of whom for too long have avoided responsibility for “its” crimes and faults. Obama and his regime are just another group of partisan players moving the USA into a “stronger” future, nothing more. They are murdering, they are spying, they are lying, they are hypocritically failing to practice what they preach. And so it goes.
You are still young and optimistic despite all you have seen – stop being it. America wishes to control oil prices and hold the world to ransom – it is going to be a dark few decades and yours and Glenn’s hopes are not shared here in Asia.
Eternal respect to you and warmest thanks forever. You are the bravest man ever, time to add some cynical sharpness to that armoury – just join the dots and start over whenever it doesn’t add up! These are terrible times indeed and the optimism and peaceful drive of the 60s-90s were just a historic anomaly that we should hang on to, not the norm that history dictates.
What if Snowden is an actor? What if this is nothing more than a planted fear mongering piece? A trick to psychologically get any resistance at all to acquiesce to the notion that The Powers That Be are simply too omnipresent and powerful to overcome? From day one there is a small minority that has argued that the Snowden phenomenon is a psyop Trojan Horse. The obvious question is why, with its incredible reach, hasn’t the CIA rubbed this “traitor” and rat out. Obviously it’s easier to put a live act and face to a piece like this. But is it? Could it all be smoke and mirrors?
Baseless speculation spewed largely by histrionic personalities for whom everything, all the time, is part of The Big Conspiracy.
Bit difficult with the whole world watching, and given where he’s living.
Look, there is no plausible, reasonable theory whereby what Snowden has disclosed works to the benefit of the security state. Certainly there is none to having him promoting opposition to the global surveillance apparatus.
Most saliently, he regularly explains why others doing secret work — that ought not be secret — should come forward. In no way does that assist the wrong people.
Mona – Respectfully I think d is full of pure unmitigated (and probably low-paid) crap, but it’s hard to argue that the security state hasn’t inadvertently and unintentionally benefited, if only because most of us have failed to perform our civic duty and let people like Clapper get away with lying to the public and not calling for a (and finding a way to get an unbiased version of that matters) new equivalent of a Church Committee. We’re still losing every day because things are getting more and more codified every day. It would have been difficult for that to happen if things were not public. Was that the intention? Of course I don’t believe it was. But that doesn’t negate the fact that we’re still not ‘winning’.
I completely disagree. What has happened is that now the people — and all the smart techies of good will — know what the government can and does do. The result has been a ten-fold increase in journalists, lawyers, activists and many others heading for strong encryption and other security measures. American-based companies like Google and Apple are fighting the government in court, driven almost entirely by their bottom line. They’ll lose customers both domestically and internationally if they cannot ensure that their products don’t allow government snooping.
Edward Snowden, with the assistance of some brave journalists, has put Internet privacy at the top of an international discussion with important and tangible results.
And when that encryption is bypassed because the hardware is backdoored and/or a keylogger is installed — or, given what we know the NSA is capable of, all encrypted stuff over the wire is stored and subvertable at a later date if/when you come to their attention — what then? Don’t get me wrong. You probably won’t find a stronger advocate for strong, free, unsubvertable and non-backdoored encryption… but we’ve seen evidence of that subversion and that backdooring and the American people doesn’t seem to really care.
To use a technical metaphor, let’s say that the ‘smart techies’ are a piece of a network stack. While I absolutely agree that they/we/whatever are important, we’re faced with the dilemma that it IS a network stack and we cannot drop below whatever point we are at on that stack. That often means our raw data transmission and connectivity and our hardware. I’ve yet to see us *successfully* find any sort of mitigation for this. We may have contributed to non-state-sponsored security by increasing our use of HTTPS and that’s a beautiful thing. But it won’t protect us from the NSA/GCHQ/whatever FVEY foe everyone, including the big tech companies, have to contend with (whether they consider them ‘friend’ or ‘foe’).
Too, assuming a cache of hundreds or thousands of 0days in various things, I also don’t think it’s safe to assume that just getting away from ‘American-based’ companies matter. And foreigners are subvertible for money (or jobs, green cards, or whatever) too.
Sorry, not trying to be pessimistic or overly critical. And I’m not saying the entire result has been negative, nor am I arguing what it seems the sockpuppets are being told to argue. I’m also not saying it’s “hopeless”. I’m saying we’re still faced with the problem that people don’t understand the problem, nor its depth and breadth, and maybe they’re not really capable of doing so — but because of that it can be used against them and indeed most people are still convinced things aren’t as bad as they are, even as the rights they *theoretically* had but didn’t really have in practice became rights they NO LONGER have because instead of calling things illegal they merely changed the wording to make it legal post-facto.
That personally scares me. And it should scare *everybody*. And I don’t believe that’s Ed’s fault at all. Or, for that matter, Glenn’s (or Ewen’s, or Laura’s, and so forth). That’s the fault of pure unmitigated greed on the part of the data collectors. As it should be their fault. And we should be able to do more about it instead of just watch it *become* law.
I can’t really discuss things in more technical detail here. I hope you don’t take that to mean I wouldn’t like to.
Interesting. I didn’t have a fear response to reading this piece, nor did I think the message was one that inspired acquiescence. Claiming the Snowden phenomena is a psyop seems more like a psyop.
“Claiming the Snowden phenomena is a psyop seems more like a psyop.”
Good point. As a former spook I have serious reservations about our capabilities to pull off such an op.
Edward Snowden is a treasonous coward, why anyone would pay any attention to his opinions is beyond me. Real heroes stand up for what is right and accept the consequences of their actions instead of running away like little girls.
Beyond that. This is just another of his myopic views into his own personal little agenda. He prefers to dwell on the minutia and exaggerate them to Himalayan proportions in order to feed his enormous need for personal attention.
We are in a war .. and in a war .. people get killed. It sounds like Mr. Snowden would rather we risk human lives on both sides by using sledgehammers to end the war rather than use the delicate swipe of a surgeons knife. I suppose he prefers we just nuke wide swaths rather than take out one terrorist leader and his family.
I’ve got news for you Mr. Snowden .. ISIS, Putin, and so many others also thinks they should be the ones to rule. It’s not a uniquely American ideal, it’s been going on for thousands of years and practiced by just about every megalomaniac out there.
And yet … you offer no solution. Just more meandering writing where you criticize rather than provide real ideas. Where you attempt to show of your vocabulary rather than say anything enlightening.
Or worthwhile.
Crawl back into your Russian hole and stay there, you are no longer and American and your views are of less value than mine.
Indeed it is not solely an american idea to want power. The problems that. snowden reveals is if we access or maintain power in the wrong way, we address the wrong issus, then the US looses its rwal integrity and cohesiveness and that is how we will be defeated. Over time, we have hollowed out america and it is not doing well or will not bode well over time. Wisdom.
It is interesting that you seem to accept war as the solution to what are essentially money/power grabs by the various parties involved. In essence, you accept brute power as the normal way peoples interact.
Is this the way you deal with your next-door neighbours? Or have you found a better way to get along with those with whom you share your world?
I think Snowden is trying to show us that governments are behaving as brutes (even toward their own citizens), and merely suggesting that WE try and find another way to co-exist with governments. He seems to believe that individuals still have some power to control their governments, but only if they are aware of what their governments are doing.
Your job is to decide if you wish to support the brutes currently doing things in your name, with your money, and without your knowledge.
You can always tell the source of these posts from their ironic names if not their hokey logic and agenda – JohnF (as in JFK – to make you subliminally think this is some good guy writing) says no one should pay attention to Snowden, then proceeds to write a few paragraphs straight off the CIA talking points document – appearing like he’s paying very close attention to Snowden. Which is it JohnF?
First he talks about “real heroes” – don’t run away “like little girls” – to try and get the testosterone flowing.
Next he says we are in a war – A WAR! he says… Uhh, I don’t think so buddy.
Then he invokes the fake bogeymen, ISIS. And the horror of horrors, Putin… Like that works on anybody of intelligence anymore.
Then he picks on the writing – oh but nobody should really pay much attention to it.
Then he claims that Snowden is no longer and (sic) American. Again incorrect – I believe he is still an American citizen, which cannot be taken away, and living in Russia because the US government won’t let him travel freely.
But JohnF never argues a single point that Snowden makes – sure sign of a disinformation organization.
The level of incoherence is astonishing.
If this is the best our Gov shill budget can pay for, then I believe some budget shifting from Gov Spying to Gov shilling is in order – they should probably try to hire some high school graduates to bring arguments to places like the Intercept.
It is possible to create arguments that are both coherent, convincing and don’t contradict on every other sentence.
So now we are an insect colony?
Insects are known to actually cooperate with one another to reach common goals. :(
You realize insects also have slavery, right? I wouldn’t call that cooperation.
No worries, I wasn’t saying we should act like an insect colony — nor that we should become beholden to the behaviors of ANTs, of all things. I think we can agree insects tend to lack a concept of ‘free will’. I was just making a sarcastic jab at our species being typically unable to apparently come together to create positive goals and outcomes, or heed danger to our fellow man when it stares us in the face. Slavery still exists in this world in the human realm, in various ways, including the most in-your-face and literal. Do you suppose that high levels of surveillance will produce anything other than a more pernicious form of slavery, with not only our captors/masters forcing us to act beholden as they see fit, but everyone around us and ourselves enforcing it as well? When everything is watched, there’s no room for anything else unless you’re on a suicide mission.
In the current world, would you agree that if literal slavery still existed in this country, almost NO slave would ever be able to learn to read? Or break away to freedom? How is that not slavery?
co-operate? programmed!
;-)
And humans aren’t born with genetic programming? Or brought up with additional social (and other) programming? One can program for cooperation. We clearly aren’t doing that well.
I vote (Hero) status for Mr. Snowden.
How people can be more upset by what he did and how he did it, than they are about the “facts” that the released documents exposed about the our government, is beyond my comprehension. I vote hero status for Mr. Snowden and Manning.
Well it is the old selfserving Shoot the Messenger kneejerk! Like who are these people who cannot admit to evildoing? They are definitely seeing themselves as better than everyone elseand held to different standards of behavior!
This is a description of a highly corrupt empire as it starts its descent into the destruction that will eventually cause it to implode on itself. The tragic part is that it is already costing the lives and happiness of very very large numbers of people around the world – those who experience first hand the evil nature of the corruption.
Edward, the only point on which I disagree with you is that you say the nationalism is uniquely American – I think not. In the past every great empire has passed through this stage of behaving as if it were invincible and totally justified in using any and every violent means at its disposal to achieve its ends. History shows us over and over again how those empires go through this period of extreme behaviour and belief prior to their fall.
In other parts of the world, we see the USA in a different light. We are not attached to any notion of Americanism or any dream of being different or better. It is easier for us to see the full impact of the damage your country has caused, and is causing around the world. And we don’t all share the foreign policy attitudes that the USA tries to impose – you know, we are right and the baddies, Russia and China, are wrong.
That notwithstanding, your country still has a lot to offer the world, but needs to align its outward claim of doing good to its behaviour. Few people of intelligence believe the rhetoric that comes from the US government, simply because the gap between its statements and reality is far too wide to give it the benefit of the doubt. There are lies and then there are lies, and the US government has proven many times over that it cannot be believed or trusted.
I hope that this appeal of yours to people working within the American government system will make a difference. If nothing else, it will help them understand exactly how they are compromising their own lives. They will have that on their conscience all the way to the grave.
He didn’t say that Nationalism was uniquely American. He said that America has its own unique brand of Nationalism with American Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny blended into it.
Cheers :)
WillD, one point of contention, please don’t confuse the mass of American people, whom we have been calling the 99%, with the Elite, the 1%. For example, here’s a good article at CounterPunch I read this morning:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/04/hillary-clinton-and-wall-streets-neoliberal-war-on-latin-america/
The 1% drives this Imperial Empire, and it is just now, with folks like Snowden, that the American people are beginning to wake up to the true harm our Elites have done, continue to do, in the name of America.
Remember also, it’s hard to learn about all of this when each day is a fight for survival, to put food on the table for your family, and when the media, owned by the Elite, baits races (Black- White), among other things, against each other to deflect critical analysis of what is really going on.
I’ve been an American my entire life (many years) and I am ashamed of our country and what we have done to others in the name of greed for a few people.
There are millions of honest, hardworking men and women in America today who do stand in solidarity with men and women of other countries, please don’t mistake the greed of the elite and the empire they have built with the common man and woman in America.
peace
Did you catch Snowdens warning regarding Wide Area Persistent Surveillance – he’s talking about ARGUS and HALE D, sensors that are capable of tracking entire populations. These sensors have already made their way home and the only part missing is the 24/7 deployment made possible by solar drones. The fleet of FBI spy planes circling cities across the US features on Buzzfeed and reports by the AP are already deploying this tech. Search TEAME ZAZZU for more information or check out PV labs Psi 3000 for videos of this tech being deployed. Projects like JLENS and companies like Persistent Surveillance have already been deploying this tech over US cities. STOP the spread of Wide Area Persistent Surveillance while we still can
FBI spyplanes? really? Seriously, i thought you were joking.
so i checked about-
OMFG
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2930731/security0/surveillance-by-fbis-fleet-of-spy-planes-raises-privacy-questions.html
America has gone totally berzerk. This is worse than, egypt. i think egypt is worse… maybe.
And it gets even worse… It’s much worse than many know.
worse? as in, “Where was that BBS server” worse? Prep the GG
When we started exploring space there was another worthless agreement made by the fake United Nations “for peaceful purposes only” All the s hit up there now is for mankind to spy or kill each other (except for the authentic weather satellites… some independent scientist from every country need to get together and figure how to knock All of them down. Sorry GPS and porno Tv lovers–get a compass and dead reckoning book and go back to reading books!
Don’t forget about TARS (Tethered Aerostat Radar System), Kestrels older brothers.
Edward,
I prey that you live happy, safe, and longer than the disgusting monsters that seek to persecute you for having the courage to reveal their crimes. You are the peoples President, selfless, a true patriot, and a hero that out performed any Marvel creation. Good, honest people, the hard working and decent citizens respect and love you, and that will never fade.
Thank you.
This article opens up for the public a new terminological space, one in which We can understand the new self-reflected reality of international politics as what it is: a fixed-by-value ground of “citizen dynamics”, safe-guarded by a titanic military apparatus and galvanized by trans-humanist sentimentality.
@Snowden
You should return to the US and face your charges like a man.
To what end? Because you think he should?
You can probably see where posting your feelings as to what he should do might not be sufficiently motivating to him.
He would, if the people who were charging him were men, or women. When you have a government that’s not corrupt, invite him over.
And you should call your parents and tell them about that time you had pre-marital sex. Be a woman.
I worked as a independent contractor / consultant for FEMA for 22 years and tried to be a whistle blower ( a qui tam action) but was told by a heavy hitter attorney the Government court system is rigged and I would
not stand a chance of bringing justice to the US Citizens getting screwed over by the powers that be, even though I had documented proof of FEMA fraud under the Bush Brothers [W and Jeb] administrations following the four hurricanes that struck Florida in 2004. The courts would ignore the facts and turn a blind eye. Hagerty Consulting has ripped off the federal government and NYC following Hurricane Sandy after it hit in 2012 but will most likely get away with their thievery . He how has the gold rules. Anyway, just saying …
@Snowden
Thank you for your efforts. If you’d like to to see what a Man-in-the-Middle attack looks like, watch closely. I inadvertently left out a link in my 8:43am post on this thread this morning & quickly corrected it by replying to my original post and giving the link.
It still hasn’t appeared as of this post. It should appear around mid-morning tomorrow after clearance.
This will be the 3rd tested time this has occurred at the Intercept website.
The post will have a time stamp of 8:45am.
Although you told us about data collection, there is active 24×7 live surveillance going on via mobile device & PC of US citizens in the US.
Pretty sure he’s aware of that fact.
I left a link out one time and the cat ate it. Then the cat played with my thread. Then the cat scratched the post.
It’s 7:23 Mountain Standard Time, which is strange because I am not in the Mountain Time Zone at the moment.
We’d all be pretty ignorant if we didn’t think this site was probably being ‘creatively monitored’ given we know they ‘creatively monitor’ other sites that some would say were either on par or beneath this site when it comes to the topic of ‘you do NOT get to have that and we want to make you pay’. Not a jab at The Intercept itself so I hope noone takes offense.
From a technical standpoint, I’m quite sure there’s a goodly share of MoTS and MiTM and just plain malicious interception (depending on where you live — but that doesn’t mean you get a free pass if you’re in America) that takes place here from time to time — if for no reason other than the fact that a lot of influential people read this site and they can get away with it because, ‘national security’. If nothing else the goal is probably to intimidate. And unfortunately by posting this I’m probably contributing to that unintentionally but I don’t think that it behooves us to ignore this fact — and it should encourage us more to care because it really shouldn’t be happening in the first place (and aside from some burps which I’m sure are just flukes — never forget Hanlon’s Razor (or Occam’s), noone on the site end would even necessarily know about it anyway; I’m sure if any jiggering is being done it’s not being done at TI or its hosting company, itself).
I’ve heard stories about kittens.
“I’ve heard stories about kittens….”
The horror. The horror. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNUr__-VZeQ
https://www.mobileiron.com/en/partners/carrier-partners
Our Government and the elite who truly run our nation (politicians come and go) manipulate our world to a far greater extent than we think… It is sad to me that Mr. Snowden could expose such a massive breach to our Constitution then have to run to the other side of the planet just to escape prosecution. But, Mr Snowden have faith in the fact that the American populous is still the most heavily armed civilian populous on the planet. And we will only put up with so much bull. Contrary to some beliefs the general populous grows increasing tired of the leadership… Especially once you leave the major metro areas. I would say it would only take an economic depression to set things off. I believe Mr Snowden you will live to see the day a bloody insurrection occurs reseting political sytem… And the cycle will begin again for another few hundred years until corruption takes over… It’s just an endless cycle.
Edward Snowden is a hero, and showed us that our government can no longer be trusted, exposing their betrayal of trust which was placed in them by we the people, their electorate. We are now in a very dark place where powerful corporations and the elite have corrupted and bought politicians and our political parties. Government now serves only the agenda of the elite and their powerful corporations – they have merged and fused together the military industrial complex,intelligence agencies, and technology companies.They have created oppressive and intrusive, powerful and pervasive technologies to crush dissent, to rule by fear, and for industrial espionage purposes. Our fake and corrupt, morally bankrupt government works to expand the selfish and greedy elite’s global empire through dirty wars and through aggressive imperialist foreign policies, and unfair trade agreements.
The American government hates whistleblowers, because it wants to be able to go on committing it’s crimes in secret, with total impunity and with no accountability. It hates those that expose it’s corruption, or the corruption of the elite establishment. Nothing must be allowed to get in the way, or threaten their business.
How dare they call Edward Snowden a traitor, or suggest that he has done anything criminal – fuck them ! We are many, they are few, and one day very soon, when more people become as courageous as Edward Snowden ,they are going to get a huge reminder of that. It may come in the form of the rise of new political parties, a people’s republic, maybe a revolution, but opposition, realisation and awareness is growing – judgement day will come.
Look at the officials in the White House and Pentagon: Surrounded by 100s of advisers and PR experts. Only warmongering and lies and bullshit and bullshit and bullshit comes out from their mouth.
Here we see E Snowden: a human who is talking to fellow humans with understanding of the horror to be at the receiving end of government dictatorship. His gets his reward: “EXILE”
All the masters of the universe and the masters of ‘Democracy': US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Sweden, Switzerland and many other countries could not offer a safe haven for this fine individual. Why? Was touting ‘Democracy’, a huge lie?
Hats off to you, Sir!
To Edward Snowden –
I’m continually blown away by your eloquence; that was certainly the case here. You wrote so cogently and movingly of the dangers of unchecked power, and the motivations for whistleblowing.
I also salute your courage in following your conscience and seeking to serve your fellow citizens. I also pray that you’ll remain safe.
Thank you for all you have done and are doing.
Edward Snowden revealed to us that every electronic communication we make is recorded in perpetuity, without our permission, in violation of our laws and our Constitutional rights. That the executive branch now decides who shall be killed and how, without review from the judicial branch, without authorization from our legislative branch.
We the people are told that we cannot demand to know what is in “trade” agreements/treaties, only that we must accept that our representatives must vote yea or nay without knowing what is in those agreements/treaties.
Thank you Mr. Snowden.
WOW! Awesome Edward! Thank you for your disservice to our illegal Federal Government and its heinous and secret ways. Without the light that you have spread I cannot even begin to imagine the muck that ‘we the people’ would be totally mired in without even our slightest suspicions! You are a prophet of your times my friend, and it is my pleasure to even exist in the same space and time with you. KUDOS ED! I LOVE YOU!
Thank you Edward Snowden; you are a hero and a patriot.
The lobby-machinery – that has a firm grip on governments all over the world – is a form of corruption in itself.
These mechanisms need disclosure and be brought to light. Big corporate cash and job caroussels for politicians have to be banned from campaining, elections and govermental decisionmaking all toghether to restore democracy.
And thou hast made thy head implode…..
And so if we have no free will as is currently being debated in the appropriate journals, what does this imply….?
In the Age of Narcissism, he’s a real standout.
Self-serving, self-aggrandizing, and proportionally short-sighted.
You Are DYSLEXICAL. To me…
You Are DYSLEXICAL. To me…
Cant you see ee ee ee eee…
You’re everything I’ve Hoped For…
You are everything I Nee eee eed…
You Are DYSLEXICAL. To oo Meeee…
Secrets, that is. Secrets of the state that serve no purpose other than to protect wealth. There I said it. The most powerful government is not subservient to ALL of the people, rather just a small portion of the people. Maybe not even 1%.
But with great information comes great responsibility. I believe that Ed Snowden and other brave conscientious objectors to executive/military overreach should be praised and the stories of their bravery taught to children. We should respect and revere the dedication to our principles displayed by someone who calls out fraud, waste and abuse from within.
As a tax-paying American citizen, our government constantly monitoring my digital communications is a waste of resources, an abuse of power and an all-out fraud! Spend that money on something like, um, I dunno, education? Of all things, I know. It’s terrible to have to worry about the future, children and shit.
Oh, and shout-out to Ed for a well-written and just awesome article and the Intercept and staff for bringing it to us.
Just wanted to point out something.
This guy, Edward Snowden, is not your everyday hero. He didn’t rush into enemy fire, in the heat of battle, with adrenaline pumping. That kind of courage is common, and comes naturally to a lot of people. And those people win medals. But that kind of courage is not deliberate.
This guy, sat down, and plotted the destruction of his own life, for his principles, for his oath. This guy, in the calm of his mind, deliberately planned the meticulous disintegration of his perfect life, for the benefit of his people. That… is courage. That, is courage beyond my imagination. That’s a patriot.
And we thank you Ed!!
WAs Ed tasked by a third party to steal classified information? We don’t know yet. What we do know is that he and Glenn Greenwald are holding back thousands, maybe tens of thousands of documents that they are using as collateral for money and movie deals. If Snowden is so ‘just’, then dump ALL of the documents TODAY on the Internet. Otherwise, these two are no better than the USIC arbitrarily classifying and withholding information from the public that THEY don’t want you to see.
It smells…bad.
You’re an I, not a we; stop conflating yourself. Unless you have multiple personalities, you don’t speak for “we.”
You’re a troll. Trolls smell…bad.
No, he wasn’t, no, it’s not being used as collateral for money. He already explained: the documents that aren’t being released are ones that have detailed information that would compromise the safety of real people. This isn’t an indiscriminate Chelsea Manning dump.
You can say you don’t believe Snowden is honest, but what evidence do you have to even suggest that he’s hiding something he should be revealing? I’m far more inclined to believe a whistleblower who willingly sacrificed any hope of returning to the US, and possibly put his life in danger, than someone who has a hunch Snowden maybe kinda might have done something shady.
J House: If you believe these documents risk US national security, then it’s insanity to advocate to “dump ALL of the documents TODAY on the Internet” without carefully reviewing them first. Peples LIVESmay literally hang in the balance? You are on board with REAL treason, compromising national security, and putting people in danger, all so things “smell better” to you?!?
On a different note, well put AtheistInChief, you captured how I feel about Mr. Snowden’s actions quite eloquently. It’s difficult to conceive how much fortitude this must have required, to defy “the world’s uncontested hyperpower” so directly. We all owe you a great debt — even the ones who don’t realize they do.
You provide no sourcing for this absurd claim, because there is none. It’s an utter falsehood without a scintilla of support.
Never gonna happen. Shouldn’t happen. Only documents vetted by journalists in consultation with various experts, and analyzed to be presented as news, will be released. If there is no compelling public interest, and/or if actual harm could result, the documents won’t be released.
Greenwald and Snowden have taken this position from day 1.
Glenn. Please have staff review and thoroughly vet any as yet unreleased JTRIG related docs from Snowden trove. Vet them with any experts of your choosing…do it for those currently being targeted by TPTB as well as for every supporter of Jacob Appelbaum, Bill Binney, Thomas Drake, Julian Assange, Ed and You. Do it for and for the leading members of Occupy, Black Lives Matter, Code Pink, Earth First and CAIR…
While you’re at it please GO THERE (uncomfortable toipic alert) and vet and release the names of five (5) UPSTANDING WHITE non-muslim american political activists the snowden archives can confirm have been targeted for their beliefs just as you did for those five (5) UPSTANDING BROWN muslim american political activists who were both intelligent and brave enough to stand up when you asked them to.
Unfortunately as the smarter people in this thread know the Feds made their bones primarily harrassing and destroying the lives of people of color (and suspected communists whenever possible) with their cointelpro programs in the 50s 60s and 70s. And THEN just as NOW many congress people may well only be swayed to to join the Jason Chaffetzes and Alan Graysons of the world upon seeing faces similar to their own as subjects of our contemporary cointelpro programs which are no doubt also designed to threaten, intimidate and destroy the rights of those of white european ancestry. THEN as NOW certain elements of an all to race conscious (and increasingly Islamaphopic) US congress need you to drive home the universality of current cointelpro offenses to the US Consitution and Bill of Rights by using any means necessary to drive home the shared threat to our multicultural collective liberty which, in the not to distant past, was a threat clearly shared by a rainbow coalition of activists targeted by the FBI like Mario Savio Leonard Peltier Bobby Seale or their female equivalents.
Is J House a child molester? We don’t know yet.
quote”Is J House a child molester? We don’t know yet.”unquote
Bwahahahahahaahahahahahaha! What we do know is J House is a fucking moron.
The technology exists to make it easily look like he is regardless of whether he is or not, and that technology is in the possession of the US and its allies. As far as I am concerned, that is proof enough for me.
In the documentary Citizen Four, the team were perfectly upfront about the fact that much of the data could be used to identify agents/persons of interest and get them killed. His action was not taken to achieve this, it was taken to demonstrate that the NSA/CIA were acting outside of the Constitution. You opening phrase crudely tires to insinuate Snowden as ‘a traitorous spy’, you then move to discredit by asserting ‘acting for financial gain’ and then demand full disclosure which if you knew anything about the content would get people killed. I’m not quite sure which Plain of Moron you reside on but I suspect from the lack of oxygen in your argument it is one of the higher ones.
i second that… thx.
How do you separate the grain from the chaff? Who anoints you as the one who determines what is a true “security” piece of data or just internal political junk? Sorry I’m late on your discovery. Please give me ONE example of what Snowden has exposed that has helped the US and not those who wish us harm. I’m waiting all you rocket scientists.
Snowden will always be a patriot to me. The NSA is so ultra top secret that to remain that way means they abuse the rights of citizens without reprisal. Edward has allowed us to gain a glimpse of the poisons that are contained in the NSA faults. Knowledge is freedom, and having any access to the inner workings of the NSA took incredible bravery. I do not know Edward but I appreciate the sacrifices he made on behalf of the American citizen even though many are in denial about the the NSA actually represents.
What a perfect citizen!! No more, no less!!
touche. i feel like your work has allowed me to experiment with freedom more in the open. thank you.
Well done, Edward Snowden! My greatest hope is that someday soon our country will wake up, and welcome you home as the hero you are. My second greatest hope is that the old trolls in some of these comments don’t get to you. You are the definition of a patriot!
Change can be made at the ballot box as long as we have the information from whistleblowers? I wish this were true. Sadly the mainstream media suppresses the information. What does slip through the cracks is met with a shrug and then it’s back to football and the Kardashians. Even if people did complain about the surveillance state nobody in Congress is listening. All we have are several independent, opaque and unaccountable centers of power that operate as they wish regardless of who is in the White House or Congress. The military. The intelligence agencies. The Federal Reserve. The only law they respect is power. Despite your profound revelations nothing has changed. The dragnet continues unabated. Power concedes nothing except to a greater power. And the only way to create a greater power is to blow up our fascist oligarchy and create a true democracy. Nothing less than a rewrite of our constitution will do. It is the problem and always has been.
To that end, I look forward to the new government we create. When it arrives you will be welcomed back as a hero. Your courage and sacrifice are a source of continuous inspiration for me and millions of Americans. I don’t have the words to properly thank you. Be well Ed and keep writing. Turns out you’re pretty good at that too.
According to most of the comments here, people believe you can steal the most highly classified secrets and leak them to ‘journalists’ and then claim ‘whistleblower’ status…and everyone should now be ok now with lawbreaking. He took the job at BH to steal more classified information.
He’s Putin’s man in Moscow now, and they have rolled up the entire ‘take’.
Yeah he personally called the pilots on the tarmac sent to grab him and bring him back to the US to toss him in prison and throw away the key to say ‘sorry dudes, you need to revoke my passport and leave me stuck in Sheremetyevo, but only after the US accidentally gets my name wrong so that Hong Kong can let me leave the country so that Putin will be forced to take me in and make me a part of his elite ‘whistleblower’ crew along with Sarah H, even though I don’t have any documents because I gave them all to a bunch of high-falutin’ ‘journalists’ at some no-name paper called “The Guardian” because I’m a big fan of cat memes on the internet’.
I bet that goes over well at cocktail parties hosted by the FSB.
Dude you’re delusional. But persistent. I hope the job pays you enough to buy an actual cat or two and feed it occasionally.
Hong Kong has been under Chinese rule since 1999. Ecuador via Moscow? The U.S. accidentally gets my name wrong?
Who is delusional?
Sara H? That self-important blowhard was worth nothing to Moscow.
“The U.S. accidentally gets my name wrong?”
You’re Snowden, now!
And Puerto Rico is under American rule. Your point being?
Hong Kong to Moscow to Cuba to Ecuador, Venezuela, or some other country in the region by way of Cuba was probably the only way he could have traveled without having to touch down in a place with an extradition treaty and/or immediate snatch and grab. And even that would’ve been a long shot and presuming no problems. Moscow to Cuba is a regular flight. Hong Kong to Cuba… No.
You are delusional.
I’m sure she’d probably be relieved by this comment considering that from what we’ve heard of her she’s not exactly looking to become a spy anyway. But you act as if you know her. What, are you spying on her?
Do you think Snowden is reading Hillary’s emails for Putin ?
Leaving aside a swearing of an oath to the Constitution, not the 3 digits
Dear J. House.
In one post you are requesting the release of the remaining information. In an other you state that classified information shouldn’t be released.
You are contradicting – embarassing – your selves quite a bit here….
Beste regards,
J. Barn
“When you see that the program or policy is inconsistent with the oaths and obligations that you’ve sworn to your society and yourself, then that oath and that obligation cannot be reconciled with the program. To which do you owe a greater loyalty?”
That is bizarrely an excellent summation for Steve Rogers’ motivation in Captain America 3: Civil War.
#ideaspace
Again, I wonder how many of us go: Ctrl-F: “Mussol” in order to then do a focused reading of the payload of the article in question. Il Duce at times makes me not only laugh like a little boy, at I also feel some kind of emotional cleansing, enlightening when I read his (“Il Duce’s”) sharp comments. but at times they make me sad also (for example, that second one)
I’d bet il Duce’s one liners will start appearing in T-shirts prior to Trump’s election day!
RCL
I’d like to confess Father López, for I have Ctrl-f’ed “Benito” many times to read that comment first then read the article. The comments are sharp and cut to the quick.
A sharp mind full of knowledge/wisdom types many of those comments. Well maybe not type but use dragon speak, who knows…?
Hey Edward, did you not read Grisham’s The Firm? I wish you had modeled your tactics after the lead character Mitch. How do we know what you exposed to our enemies has not cost the lives of innocent victims around the world?
Patraeus made a really bone-headed career ending mistake that is non-condonable but Broadwell was a West Point grad and she was approved for promotion to lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve…so it wasn’t even in the same galaxy of what Clinton perpetrated against us all with her self-server.
Bradley Manning? Really, you think what he/she did is okay? You cannot be serious. He/she is so lucky not to have been shot by firing squad.
As far as American exceptionalism? Yes America is exceptional. Take for example at the end of WWII when we were the sole wielders of nuclear weapons. Did we abuse that power to take over the world? We could have. Did we subjugate the Japanese or the Germans? No we rebuilt them.
What other major country in the history of western civilization is superior to the United States of America?
We are witnessing a political movement today that exemplifies why our country is and always will be the greatest nation on earth. We the people are stepping up to cut the corruption out like a malignancy.
“but Broadwell was a West Point grad ”
and a ‘working girl’ for MOSSAD.
Not going to stoop to an actual ‘thought out’ response, but I just wanted to suggest that you should be feeling a certain amount of shame for this particular statement: “Take for example at the end of WWII when we were the sole wielders of nuclear weapons. Did we abuse that power to take over the world? We could have. Did we subjugate the Japanese or the Germans? No we rebuilt them.”
Please remind us about the two bombs that dropped in Japan, when, and under what circumstances. What was the purpose of it. How do people feel about knowing there were carbonized images of people in annihilated cities that didn’t “need” to be ‘nuked’ might be a place to start.
I’m quite sure the Japanese are like ‘f-ck yeah, awesome, gonna get to rebuild our cities even better now!’
Utterly tasteless.
It’s almost like someone told you that brute-force shows of force are a grand idea for countries to follow. I think it’d be interesting if you explored how you’d feel on the other end of that statement.
Edward Snowden,
You are a talented writer of words who perfectly mirror your highly moral character, wisdom and authenticity for truth. Your devotion passion for the well being of our USA citizens, is an inspiration to all of us. My prayers are with you. Yes, we are the resistance and must be open and ready to paticipate in actions to reclaim our country back from this tyrannical and corrupt government system! Our nation is in crisis, and I have decided to speak out and participate in encouraging others to do the same!
How miserable Eric Snowden is going to be for the rest of his life. What a fool.
Are you kidding? Edward Snowden is living in Moscow with the American woman he loves; regularly participates by video conference in debates, panel discussions, appears before legislative bodies and gives speeches, and; writes what he wants at sites like this. Civil libertarian organizations all over the world have bestowed awards on him, and he’s considered a hero by most of the globe.
Even in the U.S. many or most think highly of him.
Yeah, that sounds really “miserable.”
Cheers for you, Mona!
He will never be able to set foot outside Russia again, and you know it.
He can never return to his home country again, unless he comes clean.
He will never be a Russian, only a visitor until Putin needs to return a favor.
He has one eye over his shoulder waiting for the FSB to cash in their chip with Langley.
You are clueless, Mona.
Yes, because that’s EXACTLY how the Russian consciousness operates. Not.
* My comment isn’t to correct you for your sake; we all know you’re a troll (and probably a sockpuppet with a set script). My comment is to warn off other people from thinking you have any clue and are anything but a troll and/or sockpuppet.
Right, ‘troll’, as in someone who disagrees with you and argues facts and logic. Oh, and I am a bot programmed by NSA to troll you and Glenn’s website…please, you people need to get out of your bubble and get a grasp of reality, which includes the federal statutes regarding the unauthorized dissemination of classified information.
Clearly discussing the intro of a book is classified. Gonna have to pull your fingernails out until you admit to me you belong in prison and not dead for participating in this conversation.
You are obviously a shill. If you’re not, you’re incredibly stupid.
You pick.
Either way, nobody here is buying what you’re trying so desperately to sell.
Once you’ve seen what’s going on, you can’t unsee it, no matter the shrill voices of all the idiots like you in the world who desperately cling to their delusions, demanding that we do the same.
Apparently, the government has learned nothing about natural human contrariness.
Or of the American demand for Liberty and Freedom.
Snowden is a hero who sacrificed everything but his heartbeat to bring us this information.
What have you done but sit here and whine like a kicked b*tch, sacrificing nothing,hmm?
Return to your masters and report your failure.
You might also want to let them know that we will soon be coming after them, so that they may pay for their treason and crimes against the peace and humanity.
Icky out.
I haven’t seen any facts nor any logic in the number of comment posts by you. I’ve seen the same old regurgitated nonsense about Snowden/Putin/FSB and variations of the embarrassing, infamous “Dear Ed” letter that Malissa Harris Perry sold her soul to MSNBC for that idiots, fools, trolls, sell outs and various attention seeking losers such as yourself have been posting since June of 2013.
Heya Kitt — “…and argues facts and logic.” maybe the [with] between ‘argues’ and ‘facts’ was supposed to be understood. Sort of like if he said he debates facts and logic.
Yeah… and he did it all for you, you ingrate.
Well now, ‘Saint Snowden’, Saviour of atheists everywhere, why I am not worthy of Him. He did me no favors encouraging more lawbreaking and treasonous behavior.
The capabilities of the USIC are already well known without his ‘help’ (to the Russians and Chinese).
Ok, if everything Snowden disclosed was “already well known” then it was also well known to the Russians and Chinese.
In point of fact, the global surveillance apparatus was *not well known to the citizens of the world. It is now.
“I am a [J House] computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January 1992. My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you’d like to hear it I can sing it for you.” ~2001: A Space Odyssey
Within ten years Edward Snowden will be assured safe passage to any number of countries. They’re already trying in Norway, where that nation’s PEN has given him an award and is lobbying the government to ensure Snowden may travel safely there to receive it. With every passing year, the world is going to grow more and more soft toward Edward Snowden, as it should.
For now, he is happy living with Lindsay in Moscow and participating in the global political discussion. Within 20 years, the U.S. will be welcoming him home and he’ll be widely acclaimed as a hero, just as Daniel Ellsberg was with the passing of time.
Finally, he’s seen his risk pay off in exactly the worldwide conversation he hoped to generate. He’s seen people all over the world, most especially journalists, become 10 times more devoted to the security of their communications. His conscience is clean and he’s done much, much good.
I deeply admire him.
Je suis Edward Snowden.
Why won’t this site let me comment…orders from higher up to ignore me? To you editors.. I will include “The Intercept” in a lawsuit along with the Washington Post, New York Times, NewsMax, Breitbart and others on your communist editing policies of trying the negate the 1st amendment rights of our constitution. I say again that the world needs to knock down ALL the war satellites in the sky..everything except the legit weather satalite. Sorry you GPS freaks and Porno TV watchers..get a compass and take a course in dead reckoning!
Yeah, he is so beloved and Patriotic they would cut off his ‘Nads as a start…if he returned. Plenty of traitors worship what he has done…but they are stupid like that.
Run to Russia, Boi… Putin will offer you some polonium tea some day when your head is empty…
>” Edward Snowden is living in Moscow with the American woman he loves;”
Da!
*also, that Putin basks in the glow of Edward’s fame only serves as a testament to our government leaders infamy (& incompetence!) … i doubt Putin would have it any other way.
The fool is the one who faces the challenge of doing what is right so his and other lives could be better but instead bows to his captor and believes his life would be better.
I just want to know why You, Mr. Snowden, never mentioned Hillary Clinton in your article. While Petraeus did what he did for…well let’s not beat up on the male right now. But Hillary KNEW that having a personal server verses a government one was AGAINST the government’s requirements and still she did it. Was she too big to fail? Is she THAT untouchable? I mean NADA has happened to her and nothing will. So go ahead and say that Petraeus only got a slap on the wrist which is not true…his life was ruined. What Petraeus has exposed verses what Hillary did was miniscule and yet….she dares anyone to confront her on the issue. This isn’t even broaching the subject the Clinton Foundation profited off her S.o S. position and also being privy to classified docs. I cannot even imagine what she’ll do as President….for profit and or to promote her own agenda….it is scary. If you think Obama went too far at “promoting” his agenda while disregarding the Constitution….Hillary will make him look like a pre-schooler.
Thanks for all of your courage and duty to your real country, Edward!
I’d like very much for someone who works within the stingray surveillance community to come forward about the daily abuses of this technology as well as the use of dirt boxes in aircraft.
Treason is not a right.
You dumped massive amounts of classified top-secret data that endangered real human assets assets and perhaps got them killed.
You weren’t selective, Mr. Snowden.
Fortunately for you treason is hip and chic today as well as official policy.
Nothing in your post is accurate or reasonable, including this:
Snowden no more committed “treason” than did Daniel Ellsberg, or the FBI Burglars who in 1971 took and released the documents that exposed the unconstitutional and grossly unjust behavior of the FBI. Nor has he been charged with treason.
Moreover, the U.S. government has said no one has been harmed as a consequence of the Snowden revelations.
SoCalMike, Obama is hip and chic, did you watch TV this week, he’s a pretty good stand up. But, his push of the patriot act and illegal drone wars are unconstitutional and actually killing people. Snowden took an oath to that constitution, if you read the article, and served that constitution better than the US government has been serving it’s people.
Fortunately for you ignorance is protected by that same constitution.
Hillary would agree about selling state uranium assets for Clinton Foundation contributions is hip and what good people would do – It is all in those deleted emails … Where is the Independent Counsel when you need one since the FBI can’t do their job ???
SoCalMike… It has already been established that NO HARM was done to any agent or hired murderer paid by the United States to instigate trouble in countries it has no business meddling in the first place. You repeating this crap is just denying the truth in front of your face.
Besides, Ed did not reveal anything. He curated and explained the broad outline of it to trusted journalists to be processed under their discretion and their responsibility- not Ed’s.
Otherwise, if you really believed your horse-puckey- you would DEMAND that Petraeus be jailed for at least as long as Manning. You would also DEMAND the same from the USAID CIA pseudo-leak (it was a wanted leak by the Obomba admin!)
So you are inconsistent at best, there is no real Treason for leaking in your mind- only Treason if the admin doesn’t want the leak… if it is politically damning to them.
Can you really imagine if Air Force One was forced out of airspace of other countries, and forced down for lack of fuel? Before that happened, there would be MIGs in the air, with missiles firing to protect AF1. I bet you felt it was okay to force another President’s plane down. Hmm. How will you feel when someone does that to the US?
Moral equivalence is a bitch!
It’s treason when a government elected by the people betrays the people, and implements secretive mass surveillance which is unlawful, unconstitutional, and which threatens the privacy of every citizen. Edward Snowden is a hero for revealing the criminal acts of a corporatised and militarised government which has abused it’s power, and the trust placed into it by it’s own electorate.
Please come back to the states! I want to see what the courts do to a traitor!
You mean: you want to see what the United Secret Police State of America does to a TRUE PATRIOT.
Why don’t you see what the Nazis did to the jews in the Warsaw ghettos in WW2?
Maybe this leaking of NSA shenanigans will have a familiar ring to it.
Go see a movie like “The Pianist”. I dare you to broaden your horizons Mickey Mouse.
Welcome to the Resistance
Exposing the SpyRadio Network
“Decipher the Code
It wasn’t money he was after but information”
Pattie Smith
On the night of the seven sonic booms, $200,000 was the figure thrown from the stage. I said make it a million.
At the Skyrink on West 33rd street in NYC, 10 of them came to the meeting. A girl and a guy skating figure eights were the only innocent bystanders.
Three of the SpyRadio crew took to the ice. After a huddle on the far side, the old timer from the news room skated over to me sitting all by myself.
Holding onto the railing, he struggled to get a big fat over stuffed envelope out of his suit jacket and began waving it at me. The lovers caught him and fearing a bribery and corruption scandal going down, quickly pulled off their skates, grabbed their coats and fled.
Richard and Dan Neer instructed him to return and he came back waving it again! I knew if he really wanted me to have the envelope, that might contain a computer printout, he could simply drop it. But as a matter of honor, I’m not going to reach for it.
So they left, turning the corner on two wheels with one hanging onto the door trying to jump in. I didn’t have a gun but I had something even more frightening, the truth!
Clues led to the capture of technology that President Carter declared TOP SECRET.
Former OSS Agent John W. Kluge, the owner of the CIA financed Network then paid a hard up President of the United States, $200,000. Whose pal and co-conspirator, Jersey City Mayor Thomas FX Smith was under investigation for racketeering. He wanted to be governor and bragged about being the richest man in New Jersey. But became known among White House aides as the mouth that roared for demanding his cut!
After confirming my story, the court clerk hung up the phone, turned to me and said, “They told me to tell you that courthouse isn’t big enough to handle your case,” unquote.
Lawyers demand ransom and lack the courage to take on the elites, fearing the spotlight of Big Brother. Who in turn fears being held accountable under the RICO Act.
Meanwhile, one by one the hand of fate pulls them asunder for the soul sacrifice. Disk jockey Dave Herman found that out in the Essex County Jail, awaiting trial for plotting to rape a six-year-old girl. So who’s next? Let me breakout the violin.
SpyRadio Fuhrer, Mel Karmazin lives at 99 POINTE Drive MANTOLOKING, NJ 08738 and 1 CENTRAL PARK W APT 48-B NEW YORK City 10023. He also has a guest house in South Jersey. Money is his god, he carries a gun and wears a bulletproof vest and went to extremes to hide his identify, while selling other people’s privacy as a commercial product. Labor claims, he’s the in your face type.
Two years after, commencing domestic espionage and using real people as characters for songs, John Lennon was assassinated.
On his last album he sang, “Somehow the wires have crossed, I’m in a stranger’s room, what the hell am I doing here?” George Harrison wrote ‘Devil’s Radio’ to avenge his friend and expose them.
In the 80’s, a woman demanding an end to the spying, heard all their lame excuses, then shot an FCC clerk to death in Manhattan and put the still smoking pistol in her purse. The CIA cap wearing media, branded her crazy without asking a question.
So I settled for plan B, ‘Big Brother, SpyRadio & The Hit Parade’ Grab a copy when it comes out and help free me from my day job. In return, I’ll give you the real story behind The Rolling Stones dirty work, “One Hit to the Body.” As well as all their dirty little secrets, complete with public confessions that should have been FrontPage News around the world.
Their ultra-sophisticated SpyTech was completely wireless. Frequency-activated spydust was used to contaminate the cars and trucks of troublemakers like me. Director of Special Projects Ned Asch got off on using it for torture, the cowards’ way to cause heart attack stress and kill without a trace. Power ultimately became its undoing and you can see it under the microscope and learn how we defeated it.
Beware of propaganda distorting truth in controversial songs. For example, when the Clash shout “don’t do CIA Control, The dirty, the filthy, they’re all going to lie!” Media claims it’s a record company dispute. Yeah, CIA Home Invasion Records.
Listen to the shrewd lyrics in Girls Talk “There’s somethings you can’t cover up with lipstick and powder, did I hear her mention my name could you talk any louder”
Right after Randy Newman’s story of a rock n roll band “Please get me a witness,” he goes onto sing, “Tough Jimmy Pretty Boy, are you having a nice time on your trip, all the way from Jersey City, just like in those movies that we’ve seen. Tell us all about the mean streets of home. Please don’t start no wars, please don’t hurt no one tonight, how about it you little prick. I hope we’re going to get the chance to show you around.”
On the cover, he’s writing a check with $$ painted over his eyes. That said, my name is Jimmy, I’m from Jersey City and this album hit the stores the day, Carter declared the evidence TOP SECRET.
Betrayal of the Public Trust is an Act of Treason and the Trial is about to begin. Use key words to crack the code and the silence will soon scream “SCANDAL!” Pass it on’
While I agree wholeheartedly with this essay, I am a bit confused by the wording of the final paragraph:
“From The Assassination Complex: Inside the Government’s Secret Drone Warfare Program by Jeremy Scahill and the staff of The Intercept, with a foreword by Edward Snowden and afterword by Glenn Greenwald, published by Simon & Schuster.”
The confusion is caused by the by-line below the title of the essay. It says the essay is by Edward Snowden.
As I read the essay it was clearly written by someone other than Snowden, because the voice is not his. I find nothing in this excerpt that is written in the voice of Edward Snowden.
Parsing the final paragraph carefully I came to believe that while Snowden may have written the foreword to the book and Greenwald may have written the afterword to the book, the essay is an excerpt from the book by Jeremy Scahill, and none of it was written by Snowden or Greenwald.
Hi Jerry,
I wanted to clear up the confusion. This essay IS the foreword to Jeremy Scahill and The Intercept’s new book. We reproduced Snowden’s essay as an article on the site to help promote the book and give readers a sneak peak. Snowden himself confirmed that he wrote this essay/foreword (https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/727473928713691136).
Thank you for reading!
We know all this but can a candidate willing to decrease the size and scope of government (a conservative) ever be elected as President? Face it, the oath any government employee takes to defend the Constitution is meaningless. The executive pen/phone and activist judges are busy neutralizing the bill of rights.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFw7I5I_Jb0
Back against the wall and odds
With the strength of a will and a cause
Your pursuits are called outstanding
You’re emotionally complex
Against the grain of dystopic claims
Not the thoughts your actions entertain
And you have proved to be
A real human being and a real hero
You are a great American. Not only American but a human.
I support you as many others. Unfortunately, it seems to me this country may not acknowledge your courage and thoughts during your life. It’ll take decades for public at large to reach understanding. Whatever politicians say they first are hierarchy eulogists. They seldom have human freedom in mind no matter what they say. And it’s not about education only, although good education is a starting point for a person to be able to think independently. Education here is well behind due to Antonio Gramsci’ proposed march on institutions. The Marxist pukes accomplished what they wanted. Well, it started long before A. Gramsci. A. Lincoln was the first US president to demolish the US Constitution effectively as the union of free states that Alexis de Tocqueville described in his “Democracy in America” (1835).
There is no subjunctive mode in history. Nobody can reverse the events.
Many brilliant minds wrote about freedom. Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek besides great philosophers of the past.
It’s a long, hard, and dangerous road ahead to freedom.
Hierarchy in cilvil life kills.
Brainlessness of the new generation of men is depressing.
Hey, we live in a James Bond novel pure and simple. It’s us vs them but please someone tell me who “them” is? It’s a bit foggy these days :-)
very interesting reading….
this seems to assume the whistle-blower has a broad enough perspective to justify releasing information. why should we believe a low level soldier like manning, or any mid-level analyst for that matter, would be in such a position to make that call? i do find the apparent double standard being exercised in these whistle-blower cases infuriating.
Edward,
Thank you.
David
War is widely-regarded as an extension of economics, where diplomacy has failed.
Please understand, when you sell-out your Country’s Government, you are Not at all undermining the strengths of our economic or political adversaries, but you have instead strengthened them.
As Winston Churchill was quoted to the effect “democracy is the worst form of government except for the others, which have been tried from time to time.”
Se la vi…
The intelligence agencies, military and police can not be trusted with mass surveillance technology, it is secretly being abused on a vast scale.
The dangers of mass surveillance is that it allows the gathering up of potential blackmail information on politicians, judges and even certain members of the public that they would want take revenge on. The data that is collected can also be used in secret criminal programs to harass someone like organized stalking/gang stalking. Illegal programs like this have existed in the past, the FBI’s COINTELPRO is just one of them.
Sorry, but in my opinion, you’re a traitor who betrayed his own people for fame. You’re “revelations” have endangered us all by outlining our surveillance techniques that were put in place because there are people in the world who hate everything about us. I don’t consider you a hero in any sense of the word and I look forward to the day when you are finally caught and prosecuted. You write as though you’re pleading with us as a nation to see you as some savior who has helped to free us from tyranny. But, this is a tyranny of your own making. It exists in your paranoid fantasies where the government of the greatest nation that has ever been on this earth is the evil dragon you must slay because only you and a few other delusional fantasists know what is right for the rest of us. The Chinese have a saying that I think is especially appropriate in your case. “Once you jump on the tiger’s back, it’s too late to look for a way off.” You’re looking for a way off the tiger’s back and hopefully, when you do jump, it’ll be into a federal prison cell where you will sit until your life runs out of days.
My thoughts also. Snowden’s article is meant to create sympathy for himself. Why? So he can get a presidential pardon or at least be allowed to return to the US and face the music. That won’t happen. If it is even suggested you will see resignations by the Directors of NSA, FBI and CIA. When it appeared President Clinton would pardon Pollard (spy for Israel) as one of his last acts, the FBI Director said he would resign if that happened. Clinton backed down.
The damage done by Snowden far exceeds anything Pollard did. No, Snowden will spend the remainder of his time on earth in Russia.
Ed , you are a true modern day Patriot Hero. I tip my hat to you .Maybe when Trump is president he will pardon you. god bless !
I would rate Snowden at 20% whistle blower and 80% turncoat. I also wonder how he went from a gate guard at NSA to a Booz Allen employee with all the right security clearances with access to the holy of holies. Many other mysteries remain on his flight to China and then to Russia. At some point that information will be made public, hopefully soon. He will not return to the USA. He will have to suffer the indignities of living the rest of his life in his country of his choice, Russia, just like Martin and Mitchell, two 1960 NSA defectors. CIA defector Philip Agee was also left to rot in the Peoples’ Paradise, Cuba, despite his pleas to return to the USA. It is a fitting punishment.
Well to the uninitiated one may well assume that Daniel Ellsberg whistle blew he in fact did not. It was the Washington Post that ultimately led to Richard M Nixon’s impeachment.
“Tagged Animals” was the name of my garage band!
The unionization of public service employees including k-12 teachers clearly illustrates the conflict of interest where the individual taxpayer and Constitution no longer matters. The public unions no longer serve the people but rather dictate to them from cradle to grave. Even Franklin Roosevelt recognized this conflict and stood against the unionization of public employees.
Snowden has had the same broken glasses for years now.
It seems to me that most Americans are grateful and supportive of your extremely brave actions! (as numerous polls show) As Albert Einstein once said, “There is no such thing as evil, only people who see it and don’t do anything about it.” May God continue to bless and look after you my brave fellow American (and Global) Patriot!
“Reaching those individuals, helping them realize that their first allegiance as a public servant is to the public rather than to the government, is the challenge. That’s a significant shift in cultural thinking for a government worker today”. ……..You raise your hand and swear an oath — not to government, not to the agency, not to secrecy. You swear an oath to the Constitution”.
Personnel selection, employee reviews, removal, retirement and “Insider Threat Programs” has removed the civil from Civil Servant, much of what remains are servants. This may allow abuse that increases the chance of a whistleblower exposing resultant waste, fraud or illegality. Much worse it banishes many diligent, honest and creative people who help grant good governance, policy or science by keeping their OATH.
you probably don’t even want to come back. No one wants to believe the truth. People will disregard a road closed sign just because they don’t want to believe. I wish I was one of them. It must be pretty easy to go about life that way. Change does flow from bottom to the top, problem is the top is Mt. Kilimanjaro, Everest ….nothing going to bring that baby down. Someday I’ll tell my kids the story of ES and then were going to watch you be inducted into some sort of whistleblowers hall of fame. It just might take 50 years.
About 30 plus years ago there was a made for tv movie called Amerika, very intense well made saga of the collapse and overthrow of America. It is ironic to note the movie is a dead ringer for todays America.
I’m sure you already don’t, but don’t listen to the inhuman fans of totalitarianism that write on here and other comment sections; they know not what they do. Thank you for having the courage to stand up for the Constitution, for civil liberties and human rights, and for decency in general. You’ve been part of what has inspired me to become more politically active, as a member of the Green Party, in an effort to help reform our country into one where the above values and laws are respected and cherished. And then heroes such as yourself will get the proper respect that you deserve.
Oh, there’s enough fascism and totalitarianism to go around to both side of the aisle here.
it’s oath breaking troubles me most. COTUS is the closest thing to a sacred (secured against violation, infringement, etc., as by reverence or sense of right) document extant. if oath takers make hollow vows, calamity follows.
At the root, when men and women who have sworn a Sacred oath to uphold and defend the Constitution do not possess the moral character to abide by that oath, then there needs to be a mechanism to terrify them into keeping their oath.
It should be a Class 1 FELONY to betray your oath to the Constitution. I think someone who betrays their oath, and by extension their country and countrymen, should not only lose their liberty, but anything and everything they gained by doing so.
Imagine the liberty and prosperity our nation would experience by the firm reliance on Oath Keepers. It would destroy the left – right paradigm. It would disincentive those who would seek any Constitutional office for personal gain.
It wouldn’t matter if a Marxist ran for office and won. The very first betrayal of his oath would land him/her squarely behind bars and stripped of all of their ill-gotten gain.
That may seem harsh, but it’s better than hanging. On second thought…
Thank you for fighting for humanity, Mr. Snowden.
This excerpt says it all: By preying on the modern necessity to stay connected, governments can reduce our dignity to something like that of tagged animals, the primary difference being that we paid for the tags and they’re in our pockets.
I concur, stating the obvious-and this will only increase, operative word ‘preying’
Only thing in my pocket is my car keys. You all can shuffle through life, slumped over, peering into your left hand; I’ll pass.
we paid for -our- tags: yes
they’re in our pockets: (the “tags”) yes, (the “government”) no
RCL
Yes, we are free citizens, not subjects of a king.
I will be printing this article for my 9 year old daughter. We rarely watch the news . One night I switched on the television and Syria was being played out . She looked at me and said ” Mom , what did they do to deserve this treatment? Why would they kill children? Who is doing this? ” It is a god damn sad day when a you have to tell your child who and why our government is is killing innocent people and the reasons why. If you have not had to do this count yourself lucky. Teach them ALL the history, not just what the text books want them to believe. Thank you Edward.
Thanks Edward for the head’s up about the proposed solar-driven drones. Hope other journalists are paying attention.
I apologize to you on behalf of all the cowardly journalists, politicians and citizens who are still unable to see your worth and sacrifice.
I could not believe Rand Paul didn’t get more notice because he is one of the few in Congress who gets it. Unfortunately other Libertarian policies are too impractical, too conservative in other ways to gain any real traction in this country.
Obama is trying desperately imo to get out of the business of world domination and world cop and enlist other’s aid, but whether this new direction will continue with Hilary I’ve no idea. God, I hope so.
In the end it doesn’t matter ’cause plenty of other countries have their own drones now and use them. We’ll see if the European ones like France will police their use of drones. Somehow I doubt it.
If any questions remained regarding the validity of Ed Snowden’s motives, this declaration should thoroughly dispel them. Yet some readers seem to require help with their reading comprehension, blindly supporting the authoritarian abuses the federal government has institutionalized (using our tax dollars to do so, while maintaining us ignorant of the use to which those tax dollars were put).
I for one am grateful to Ed for taking the risks that he took to allow me to be aware of the unconstitutional acts he exposed, with considerable risk to his own safety, so I) could form my own decision;
And I would fully support his being pardoned for breaking the contract he was coerced to sign, as well as his being invited to return and taken charge of dismantling the (Un)American Mass Surveillance State.
I too have worked for the government and understand his disillusionment with the legality of the activities he exposed.
He is clearly a true Patriot and deserves our gratitude.
Those that wish him harm are the real traitors in our midst.
Who’s Edward Snowden?
That’s the name of the happy go-lucky snowman in the movie ‘Frozen’ that befriends Elsa. Obviously. Or that fictitious character in that new Oliver Stone movie named after said snowman. Clearly.
A future President of the United States!
A Traitor that should be in prison
I understand you feel guilty but you shouldn’t encourage your own imprisonment.
Edward Snowden has committed no crime and is a hero. If anyone should be imprisoned it should be Crapper for lying to congress, which is a felony.
A future President once the elite and their corrupt, far reich puppet government have been defeated.
You did good, cuz.
Somehow, a raised-on-the-internet high-school drop-out systems analyst (with a little help from his friends), has managed to stir the conscience of the world! Will wonders never cease.
Hang in there … and remember; if you ever do get to come home, you will probably come home to great fanfare!
*If the NSA were still looking for a few good men, I hope you get your old job back … and a big fat raise.
Mr Snowden, I applaud you for your temerity in sharing the secrets regarding the federal surveillance of the US citizenry.
However, you are a traitor because you shared national secrets with foreign governments.
That was wrong, regardless of your self-justification.
Edward Snowden should be pardoned of all charges, brought back to the United States and receive the Medal of Freedom at a Rose Garden reception. Please e-mail me.
America has rapidly descended into a world of mind control … and it is likely too late to stop this transition. It is being done with television programming and digital device monitoring by the US Military. The world is now a place to be monitored and controlled. And they are very effectively altering reality in certain situations.
The entire financial system and Washington DC is rigged. The middle class are “fenced-in” with laws and regulations (in a lock-step fashion) by the power that the lawmaking bureaucrats in Washington wield, coupled with the wealth, power, and influence of the Wall Street bankers, the secret surveillance arm of the Military Industrial Complex, and the brain-washing influence of the “Big 6″ media giants. It is quite clear these entities are actively working together to control and exploit the middle class as their source of wealth and power purely for their benefit. Anyone that gets in their way can be harassed, intimidated, reduced to poverty, and/or arrested for just about anything at any time.
We live in a Modern-Day Stasi State but thanks to the heroic freedom-fighter and whistle-blower Edward J. Snowden we now know that an army of private contractors working for the NSA (in conjunction with private corporations and the US Military itself) unlawfully collects and stores everyone’s IP addresses, e-mail addresses, telephone traffic, all your contact lists, all your text messages, your personal passwords, your GPS locations (with date and time on each GPS record), all your Facebook posts & pictures, your LinkedIn pages & pictures, your search engine keywords you’ve entered (yes – even the keywords you typed in but you don’t press the enter key), all web sites you visited, all your credit card numbers, all your inbound and outbound e-mail messages with attachments, your voice-print, and facial image (for facial recognition devices planted around the world used to identify your movement). They have also now installed ultra-high resolution traffic cameras in US cities and on police cars that scan our license plate tags and store that information in databases and those databases are shared with the NSA.
They store all that information forever, under your name, at the US Military’s new massive Utah Data Center and can pull it up at any time and look back in time at all your data. They even freely tap into the microphone and/or camera on your smart phone, tablet, laptop, PC, and your automobile’s OnStar or UConnect system, your xBox, capture your live video chats, and any other similar Internet connected devices. Rest assured – if it connects to the Internet – the US Military taps into it and illegally monitors you. And now we have learned the NSA has back door access into the entire line of RSA’s encryption tools.
According to Snowden “the NSA’s goal is to collect all your data by default.”
And it is all being done in direct violation to the US Constitution and the Patriot Act.
Corporations should not have the right to infringe on the US Constitution.
Sorry. But I am not at all persuaded. I was open to being before readig the article. This guy belongs in jail.
I disagree with you calling it an assassination program. It’s not. It’s part of the war effort. Having drones shoot at cars with known terrorists in them, who are moving around in their cars to either position themselves for an attack, or to deliver supplies to their friends, is NOT an assassination. It is a military action. It’s foolish to argue that a terrorist who’s driving down the road isn’t on the battlefield. The battlefield exists wherever enemy soldiers are present, and since this is the war against terrorism, any known terrorist is an enemy soldier. It is operating well within the laws of war to shoot at an enemy soldier, wherever he is, and whatever he is doing. The only 2 exceptions are if he is in the act of surrendering (dropping his gun and putting his hands up, or waving a white flag), or having his wounds treated by medical personnel. In the first case, you are required to NOT fire on him, and instead attempt to capture him as a POW (prisoner of war). In the second case, you are required to hold your fire, and wait for him to leave the medical facility after having been treated.
“Having drones shoot at cars with known terrorists in them…”
Stopped reading your silly comment there. Fuck you and your assumptions; you clearly didn’t read anything out of the Drone Papers and what kinds of “intelligence” is used to authorize a drone strike.
No. Most of this has been committed by the CIA, which is in the Executive branch. From Foreign Policy:
Even in instances where the Pentagon has taken over, it remains a “targeted assassination” program.
War effort? What war? I haven’t seen a declaration of war pass in congress. It’s killing people not fighting a state.
It is assassination hands down. (to kill (someone, such as a famous or important person) usually for political reasons) If this war is not a political reason than what else is it. A war on terrorism, HAHAHAHA. You are funny my friend. The reason they call a war on terror and not a war for oil is because they want us to believe in them. They want a constant war. What better than to say your fighting terrorism. Its like saying your going to box your shadow and try to win. There is no winning because you yourself are creating terrorism through your own terrorism. We are the terrorist to them and them to us because the people in power want more power. They want to take what everyone else failed to do. The middle east is a scared place. The most history rich place on earth. Yet instead of joining hand and spreading peace and prosperity we are spreading war. Look at every country before we invaded and after. Look at the TRUE reason we went to war and not the bullshit they feed you. Once you are informed then come talk about this not being an assassination.
You forgot the Due Process. Due Process is the American Way. Forgetting it makes America a rogue nation.
No sarcasm intended but I think it’s probably time we stop using the term ‘the American Way’ unless we’re using it sarcastically.
(Lack of due process has become the ‘American Way’. We need to restore it before we can claim it again.)
You sure cleared that up. .. I’ll keep an eye out!
*just to narrow it down a bit; is that any ‘road’, in any country, the known terrorists who are enemy soldiers (from the sovereign Nation-State of Terrorism?) will be driving down?
You’re basing your argument on the idea that the ones on whom predator drones are dropping smart bombs are actually known terrorists. The process for vetting victims is almost non-existent, if you’d go ahead and read the Drone Papers which Mr. Snowden references near the top of the article.
What you’re saying is, “it’s not totalitarian fascism if they’re only breaking down the doors of and arresting enemies of the state,” which is an awful AWFUL fallacy.
The US government has unilaterally decided that there is a war on, and then used that decision to justify its acts of killing at a distance. That’s self-serving to the point of mass murder.
As Snowden properly points out, there is no imminent threat from any of the people the drones target.
What he left out was that most of those killed by the drones are completely innocent of even the intent to harm the United States, except perhaps in reaction to the US government’s murder of their friends and family.
There is no “battlefield.” There is the United States, and thousands of miles away there are other countries, from which no one is firing a shot across the Atlantic Ocean. The only shots being fired against the US are at its invading army, the force of an illegal war pre-emptively started by the United States government to serve its own ruling class.
It is operating well within the laws of war to shoot at an enemy soldier, wherever he is, and whatever he is doing.
the laws of war?
Speaking of oxymorons, next time i’m at the store, i’ll look again for where you found brain soap.
thank you, Edward
I’ve only randomly read a few lines due to bike commuting and I am now so interested I can’t wait to be home and absorb all of what you decided that was time to share
B?
You want simplicity???
How about: CIA vs. NSA…a battle for money and power.
Edward Snowden should be pardoned of all charges, brought back to the United States and receive the Medal of Freedom at a Rose Garden reception.
Snowden is no more an American so he has to stay where he is,his passport was revoked in Moscow,he can only apply now for American citizenship. He should start using Edward Putin or some other Russian surname.
It’s a good thing American citizens aren’t required to pass citizenship tests the way immigrants are or you’d flunk, buddy.
Utter bullshit with no basis in law.
Evenskeezer Aktrong hunnee.
reevookin a passpoort does knot meen yew know longur a cityzen.
tehre lotz uv cityzenz hoo don haev passpoorts.
ef u ned hep wiht this cumplicated porblum u kan ask Moona.
seh furry gnawlegible don u no.
May Belle: Babies without passports are like Christian babies born with original sin. Without the baptism conferred upon them, they are going to hell. Only through the baptism of a passport will they be saved. And America, she is by majority a land of sinners by this definition.
“And America, she is by majority a land of sinners by this definition.”
Nonimp’or’tante hunnee ef Amurika wur knot a lan uv sinnurz tehn Myrna an me wud knot haev a bidness.
uv coarse Myrtle owt tehr tryin ta saev awl tehm frum tehmselfs.
butt hur boosteeyayz arnt az purty az owrz don u no.
“For Otto Titsling had found his quest:
to lift and mold the female breast;
to point the small ones to the sky;
to keep the big ones high and dry!”
All about practicality, I reckon, ma’am.
In retrospect I haven’t decided what’s more disturbing, here — the fact that I didn’t need to pause to read ‘bustier’ or the fact that I remembered this song from, of all things, the movie Beaches (pity this isn’t an article about a torture program, I sez, tongue-in-cheek-like).
That won’t happen until we restore the republic and ensure the government exists to serve the people
He’s right we are just cattle. Anyone ever hear of a social security, credit card, phone, driver’s license, passport, IP address, insurance policy, VIP card number… We are just 1’s, and 0’s in someone’s database matrix, sadly!
I know what kind of work Ed Snowden did at CIA, and at what levels. I did the same job myself. In fact we were in training concurrently. I remember him from the school. There was a tale going round that he had written the director (Mike Hayden) complaining about something that most of us, especially those of us with military backgrounds, accepted as good soldiers (ie quiet submission). So he had something of a reputation even then..lol. But none of us could have imagined what was to come.
Obviously Ed Snowden did not fit the profile. The difference between someone like me and Snowden is that while our convictions may coincide in some ways, I never revealed classified information, compromised established security policies, or attempted to change how the government operates. Nor would I have ever. I’m from the baby boomer era and upbringing, when young men sacrificed themselves whenever the nation called (even when the nation was wrong re the US Constitution or moral/ethical tradition). And while naturally somewhat rebellious and idealistic, my oaths still guide who I am.
I appreciate (apart from relative judgment) that some..few..are still today willing to sacrifice much for their principles. There aren’t many it seems. Most of us are too self-serving. I don’t judge Snowden, or necessarily believe that he caused any great harm to our national security, but I would never have done what he did. I’m not that important. I’ll leave the rest to the judgment of history and others.
If you believed that the constitution was being violated, it is your DUTY to report that to your superiors, and if that accomplishes nothing it is your DUTY (even if it gets you fired, or even sentenced to prison) to go public with your complaint. That is because when you join the CIA or NSA, the oath you swear is to uphold the CONSTITUTION, not the will of your superiors. Theoretically those 2 (the constitution and the will of your superiors) are the same, but when they differ, it is your duty to follow through on your oath and go AGAINST your superiors, no matter what consequences you may receive as a result.
You claim “And while naturally somewhat rebellious and idealistic, my oaths still guide who I am. “, but you say that you never would be a whistleblower “even when the nation was wrong re the US Constitution or moral/ethical tradition”. And you make that claim as if it was upholding your oath. But that’s NOT upholding your oath. Your oath is to uphold the constitution, even if that means being a whistleblower.
Nice armchair quarterbacking. It’s messy in the real world though. When you’ve served the country for years as I have, in both military and civilian service, then you can follow the dictates of your own conscience.
If you believe the Constitution is being violated have you reported it to the president? Have you protested, been fired, or gone to jail for it? If not..stfu.
“It’s messy in the real world though.”
shorter Luke:
Col. Jessep
A Few Good Men
by Aaron Sorkin
Heh. Too many people live in make-believe world (like Hollywood), and think they’ve got all the answers. Anyone can philosophize with pop culture. It’s not that impressive….
If I could be you and you could be me for just one hour
If we could find a way to get inside each other’s mind
If you could see you through my eyes, instead of your ego
I believe you’d be surprised to see, that you’d been blind
Walk a mile in my shoes
Walk a mile in my shoes
And before you abuse, criticize and accuse
Walk a mile in my shoes
You serve your master. I get that.
Just don’t pretend you are honor-bound by an oath unless, of course, it helps you sleep at night.
Cute speech. But we don’t live in a world that has walls. We live in a world where our own people get hit by the back-door draft to go wander around Iraq knocking on doors and getting blown up by bombs, for reasons that they and the Iraqis and everybody else knows are outright lies, with a hidden motivation of providing oil we don’t need and shouldn’t burn because we should have been using that $2 trillion to make solar cells and storage batteries and mount them on every rooftop in the country. And it might be respectable, even honorable to go fight the good fight against dictatorial Iraqis, yet the net effect is still that the world is now up to its ass in unwanted Syrians and Egyptians and now Turks who all expect to come in our borders and have our societies be run in a way consistent with the bizarre combination ethos of being brave enough to let in jihadists and cowardly enough to lock down whole cities because a jihadist is loose. Which is to say, run to treat everyone as a terrorist even though nobody at all commits terror against the people who properly deserve to be terrorized.
“my oaths still guide who I am. ”
Neat trick having a set of conflicting oaths. You’re always sticking to at least one of them …
Was his Nameo…
@Luke-I don’t know you but I will judge you from what you did as a public servant and by what you wrote. You and your ilk deserve to be fired, lose your pension and other things when my anger decreases enough to allow for clearer thought I’ll add to the list. I can’t believe our government hires such fucking idiots like yourself. You are bound by contract to secure our (citizens of the United States) rights. Everything the government has been doing has destroyed our rights and you are apart of it. What a pussy! Go back home and continue the lying to your family about what you do you piece of garbage. In my mind you and the rest of your ilk are enemies of this country and of me and my family most importantly.
You wished you had the testicular fortitude of Snowden or the size of testicles that Snowden has you coward. You don’t add value to the U.S. You fucking traitor you are helping destroy it. Family members would still be alive if people like you would have spoken up or not allowed the Vietnam lie, “Gulf of Tonkin” incident to take place. Go fuck yourself and I hope your house burns down or you get burned by a current colleague. I hate people like you!
Edward Snowden didn’t fit in and rightfully so. He loves his country and what it stands for. I’m going to kick snakes now you asshole, Luke!
Another armchair warrior that talks a big show. When I see your name pop up on the news for doing something worthwhile then I’ll salute you. Until then you’re a mealy-mouthed Rambo wannabe. But I don’t hate you. It’s not the ethos of the America that I served.
Luke talks about armchair warriors because he fancies himself a real warrior – he has served the military and apparently the government in the “messy real world”.
But what Luke fails to understand; what Snowden did understand; is that he was being used as a pawn. He was being told what to say and what to do – just as all the government trolls on this thread are – and didn’t use his brain and think about it.
Somewhere along the line the CIA, FBI, NSA crossed the line from dealing in legitimate security concerns to dealing in domestic espionage and manufactured terrorism, in order to justify their existence, and control their budgets and superiors. I’m not sure if they jumped the shark 10 years ago, 20 years ago, or 50 years ago, but if Luke worked in the organization in those time periods, he knows that they have – and yes, he was obliged to do something about it.
However he didn’t, and he rationalizes it with an air of patriotism – while at the same time denigrating the one who acted on his oath – Snowden.
It’s a curious case of dementia that seems shared by all who still pray to the beast.
“He was being told what to say and what to do – just as all the government trolls on this thread are – and didn’t use his brain and think about it.”
LoL. And you know all this about me how, exactly? If you knew what you were talking about it would be you who’s the greater danger…not the federal government.
Too much Hollywood here my friends. When you factor the bureacracy and political correctness into the operations, the real world is just not that sexy. Or conspiratorial. Snowden knows this is true. Ask him.
Ahh, Luke, I was harsh. Obviously you did think about it because you chose to comment on this thread.
But you didn’t choose to act on it. You still haven’t. You allowed Ed to do it for you – because you have “principles” or because you are “too self serving” – not sure which, because you claim both.
That’s the duplicity that shouts out from your words- and probably isn’t too far from the confusing rhetoric that befuddles most of the TLA luddites.
James, while I can’t really say I’m pleased with Luke’s stance, I think he is actually cognizant of something that Edward Snowden and many other whistleblowers know to be true (and which Snowden himself makes a point of in his intro to Scahill’s book): not everybody is cut out to be a whistleblower, and not all people are suited to blowing the whistle (or in a position to do so). Luke has at least thought about his position and even though I find it somewhat sad and uncomfortable I’m not sure he is displaying a lack of self-awareness, here. If I don’t agree with much of what he said, I at least commend him on *thinking* about it which is more than 99.99% of what, no doubt, Snowden’s cohorts were doing before he came forward. To wit, he knows he is “self-serving”. We may not like that he is, and we may feel as though he could have/should have done something, but ultimately we aren’t the ones in his shoes — he is.
Agreed. And, we are all complicit, every day. I commend Luke’s service and his pragmatism. He’s right, it’s not all cut and dry, which was one of Snowden’s points. Each of us, today, could take a scaled down, Snowden-type action, addressing something we know is wrong, but we don’t.
For example, want to impress me? Dump all of your retirement stocks because Wall Street is a sham run my hooligans, screwing Americans everyday. But yet…
I’m not sure what stance I have to disagree with but, yeah. There was never a necessity for me to be a ‘whistleblower’ in light of the fact that I was never faced with a situation in which my conscience led me to break my promise and committment to safeguard secrets. People don’t get into this line of work by accident. We knew what we were committing to. Granted, I didn’t go looking for things that may have scandalized me and caused a personal crisis. And I would venture to say that most people who find such things are looking for them when they aren’t authorized to do so. Again, I’m not making a judgment on Snowden. He did what he felt he had to do and so did the rest of us. Those who think they can make appropriate judgments on these things, without appropriate knowledge or experience, are in my mind just entertaining themselves.
Many of us have compromised our values in order to play the game of a boss or other person in authority over us. The reason I have such deep admiration for Edward Snowden is that he did not.
That makes him a better person than you, me and many.
While you, like Col. Jessep, are manning the walls with the appropriate knowledge …
check.
“While you, like Col. Jessep, are manning the walls with the appropriate knowledge …
check.”
No, not a check. I don’t work for Uncle Sam now. One of the many things that you don’t know. You can go back to your le Carre novel now.
This is off-topic and you obviously don’t have to answer it, but a question I find interesting: Given your past work experience, your beliefs, and the fact that you no longer work for the government, would you ever hire a whistleblower that blew the whistle on the IC (whether they are or are not under surveillance — two questions, I guess, there)? And would you mind explaining your answer? Thanks.
Yes and No. It depends.
You really are a dull tool. I never claimed you were still working for the government. Your plastic conscience is portrayed as honorable; that’s what I’m calling out. Your take on Duty and Honor, according to Col. Jessep, if you will.
It seems your only oath is to a system that provides you with the appropriate information; special knowledge which creates a serpentine path for your fluid conscience.
Luke – I’m not sure why my reply to you didn’t post; I probably screwed up in the posting process. At any rate, I had a question which is interesting to me and I was wondering, given your opinions and background, if you might be willing to answer it for me: Given your experiences and the fact that you are, as you said, no longer working for ‘Uncle Sam’ – would you be willing to hire an IC whistleblower? Regardless of your example, would you be willing to explain the answer? And if the answer is yes (or no) would that change if you found out that person was under constant, or near-constant but total electronic, surveillance? What factors might influence your answer(s) and why?
Sorry, should have read ‘regardless of your answer’ not your example… I was thinking of possible examples when I typed it and guess I didn’t realize the slip.
You are what is wrong with the USA. You are not sacrificing anything. Just say you wanted a good paycheck and could care less about what happened.
All due respect, but are you sacrificing anything? I’m not saying you should be, but there’s more than one thing wrong with America. Probably better to discuss logic and reasonability and engender understanding and encourage cooperation to change things instead of attacking people on the internet.
I disagree with your self-characterization as “not that important”. You are that important once you feel the need to be.
Paraphrasing Camus: In a world of victim and executioner, it is the job of the thinking person not to be on the side of the executioner.
The relevance of this observation to our particular national situation is manifest. Some will be OK with this. There are “good soldiers” and there are “good Germans”.
The premise here is “national security”. Until we understand what is meant by it, it is fruitless to argue along that line. Strip the term of its propaganda value and we may see that Ed Snowden could not possibly be harming the national security of its millions of inhabitants, but has caused harm to policymakers and their beneficiaries whose goals are secretly advanced under its guise — “national security” in the false sense.
I thought your oath was to the constitution. I wasn’t aware “my government, right or wrong” was in there.
I’m not judging you. I’d probably be like you. I’m just pointing out that Snowden did what he did, because he was thinking exactly about his oath.
The oath of federal service includes abiding by the laws that are in place when one takes the oath. Eyes wide open. Without qualification. This neat little idea that each person is an individual arbiter of the Constitution is a lot like the idea that each individual is a rightful interpreter of the Bible…even as it results in a plethora of belief systems.
That’s a preposterous argument. By your logic, no soldier can interpret whether a command is legal or not, because it is not his/her place to be the arbiter of what’s legal and what’s not. I’m not blaming you for following whatever it is you believe to be right. But don’t blame Snowden for following his conscience to no benefit to himself, for a life of exile, and for what looked at the time to be a life behind bars.
Sorry to come back and argue semantics (not the rest of your post) but ‘no soldier can interpret whether a command is legal or not, because it is not his/her place to be the arbiter of what’s legal and what’s not’ is precisely what’s drilled into soldiers’ heads during the break-em-down-then-build-em-up process — and ignoring can have very harsh consequences (not just a light verbal reprimand). For instance, if you’re working in a nuclear silo, or on a nuclear sub, *try* to interpret whether the command to launch a weapon is legal or not. Picked an extreme example but it certainly doesn’t have to be.
Given this article is the preface to a book on drones, and given people control those drones and ‘have to’ kill people regularly via those drones, perhaps it might make sense for us to ask a drone ‘pilot’ what happens if he/she refuses to target and fire. I’m pretty sure there are times when even they don’t believe the person getting vaporized deserves it. Yes we could argue that that means they absolutely SHOULD NOT do it (or argue that it should NEVER be done for that matter)… Then again, maybe you’re just arguing that it’s still a choice (in which case I’d concur) to follow through or accept the consequences of following your conscience.
The ghosts in our machines don’t like when we encourage people to follow their consciences or ask them to explore their motivations, or analyze those motivations ourslves and ask them why they persist, but that doesn’t mean we should stop doing so, or that they would stop doing so even if they agreed with everything, I reckon. I have a difficult time believing everybody who does heavy surveillance/etc on people really feels great about it when they turn out the lights, or at least not all of the time. But that’s why ideas like ‘patriotism’ are drummed into heads and the meaning of that word is so easily skewed: mental shortcuts are handy to make that cognitive dissonance less pronounced and less jarring, I’m sure. But this is only theory. In practice, who knows?
No, it’s a perfectly valid argument. But like all good arguments it contains nuance and context. It only becomes problematic when forced into a woodenly literal concept of legal/moral/ethical behavior.
Just like so many literal interpretations of the Bible that cause confusion instead of clarity, this is a poor rendering of what I wrote. The real world is not so black and white. The application of general principles, guided by reason, conscience, and the rule of law, requires hard work. And it leaves room for grace when one’s intentions are deemed to be rightly motivated.
I didn’t blame Snowden. Read my original comment where I reserved judgment on the matter. I also stated that I have admiration for those like him who manifest the courage of their convictions, right or wrong. It’s character seriously lacking in too many of the career-chasing so-called leaders that inhabit WashDC today.
That should be guided by reason and a malleable conscience …
You really are a pillar when it comes to principle …
Ed:
As you can see in this comments thread, there are Americans who cannot be bothered to understand the implications of the programs that you blew.
You saw the threat, and you understood the danger that they pose to our society. Then you acted. I respect and admire the decision that you made, I once stood in a similar position, and honestly, I caved. I just went away quietly, and I moved on. I lacked the clarity of vision, and the sheer backbone, that you displayed. I regret it to this day.
I will never get that moment back, and I will never get a do-over. So have no regrets. You will have your fans and your critics, but most of your critics will be stupid people who are too lazy to understand what you exposed. Your admirers are folks like me who understand exactly what you exposed. More, we know what you did not blow.
Be mindful of your security, and guard against complacency. If you have not changed things up lately, consider this a nudge to do so. You know, better than anyone, the nature of the target that you have on your back. There is no doubt in my mind that the Snowden task force would love nothing more than to suddenly announce that you were apprehended in a country outside Russia and were on your way back to the US to be buried alive in a SuperMax. So be careful.
There is no question that a plan to exfiltrate you from Russia has been crafted. Your adversaries would be remiss if they did not have such a plan on the shelf, ready for use. Your life depends on you making yourself as hard a target for them as possible. I assume that you set up a deadman’s switch, and this may have given your adversaries pause. I hope so. I pray for you.
I would like to make a couple of further comments, now that I have your attention.
1. Please release more documents. I understand that you surrendered your archive to journalists, but those journalists appear to be happy with their Pulitzers and their Academy Awards and they no longer feel any apparent compulsion to continue releasing documents. I understand that this can be a grind, but the appearance is that they got their rewards, so fuck it, they will just move on.
2. Much journalism remains to be done, primarily about FVEY.
3. No one seems to care that our Congress and the Intelligence Committees in both Houses mindlessly approve massive billion dollar budgets in black funds which are then used to fund FVEY. There is no oversight. There is no review. NSA sends its wish-list to the Gang of Eight, they approve it, and money just vanishes. A lot of money. And no one supervises the folks that you used to work for. There are no audits. Potential for waste, fraud and abuse is off the charts.
4. I think that the obvious need at the current time is for new hearings of the same type as the Church Committee and the Pike Committee of 1976. Nowhere do you see any call for hearings, investigations, questions, testimony. Crickets. Just crickets. We desperately need a Joint Special Committee on Mass Surveillance, and it needs to call corrupt bureaucrats to sit before the representatives of we, the people, and remind them who they work for. They work for us. You would never know it. They have forgotten it. The old mantra, “you shalt not collect on American citizens” is long forgotten.
5. It is mandatory that you continue serving as a thought leader and an example to the rest of us. Please continue your appearances, and if possible, do more. If you begin addressing specific programs, especially programs which have been only cursorily blown, you will boost the newsiness of your appearances.
6. Every time that Edward Snowden speaks, you should be blowing a new program, explaining more how the programs fit together. No one in history ever reviewed so much classified data, and that means that no one but you is in a position to appreciate the enormity of the machinery that you exposed.
7. Every time that you speak, you should disturb the councils of the mandarins of the intelligence community. They should have no rest. You know what they are doing. So do I. They need to be exposed.
Enough for now. Thanks for reading. You know how to reach me.
Esteban
@Esteban –
What a beautiful and thoughtful post. I just have to add, “AMEN!”
Thank you, friend. :)
By “deadman’s switch,” I presume you mean a computer program that will automatically release all the remaining documents if Snowden does not access it within a specified interval (likely 24-48 hours). Definitely an excellent insurance policy. Decades ago people who knew things had a low-tech version — they gave the damning papers to their lawyer, with orders to release them if they died.
Who would have imagined in May 1991 that Russia would become a haven for persons fleeing government persecution and tyranny? British bookies would have made the odds against it several orders of magnitude higher than Leicester City winning the EPL — but both have now happened.
IANAW (am I coining this? :)) but if I were, I’d say that interval would be way too often — and far too predictable.
Dear _N0den——This is rationalization for doing wrong—–the Courageous act would have been to quit the job, leave the secrets, secret, and get involved politically. But that is the hard, inglorious way—the Left requires the Confrontational, Glorius, Headline way.
Obama is a traitor and any LEO or Military defending him are abrogating on their OATH to protect and defend the US Constitution.
When your dog craps in the wrong place, you cram his nose in his crap to show him he should not do it again. I wish I could cram my dad’s face in this article (and all those other old goats that believe that the U.S. Govt can do no wrong) and force him to read your article Edward.
They might actually realize that you were not revealing NSA secrets just for sensationalism value.
But sometimes you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
I cannot help but see the corollary between Edward Snowden and Thomas Paine…but true and clear-eyed patriots in the service of truth to the public, even if they step on government toes.
In this exceptionally well-written article, Snowden could have easily applied Paine’s assessment of the trials at Valley Forge…these are indeed, …”the times that try men’s souls.” Snowden points out that. like the increasingly heavy-handed actions of King George, our government has grown to be its own self-contained walled castle, completely distant from the people it was once sworn to serve.
While I will likely vote for Trump, his attitude of treating Snowden as a traitor deserving of execution is something that violates my sense of right. As Snowden wrote of the need for his actions, they were aimed to remind the government workers they were servants of the public, not some entrenched cabal and …”helping them realize that their first allegiance as a public servant is to the public rather than to the government, is the challenge. That’s a significant shift in cultural thinking for a government worker today.”
Some secrets are needed but not to the extent that every cellphone in the country is bugged. In Snowden we have an intelligent and persuasive voice for taking our private lives out of the hands of petty bureaucrats.
The calumnies against this man, like those that stood for so long against Thomas Paine, will eventually be revealed as the courageous search for truth it is..
Snowden is a hero and should be commended for his actions.
Self-serving. If he truly believes in our systems of government.then come back for a trial, You just might find a jury of 12 who would believe you. I doubt it. To not take responsibility is cowardice.
.
Snowden is a traitor and should be dealt with as such instead of being glamorized.
Disgusting
.
Should people be asked to swear to uphold the constitution, when their only duty is to obey orders? The problem may be that government policies are confusing. It seems unfair to deliberately mislead people that the constitution imposes a restraint on government powers, and then punishing them for believing it.
Perhaps it is all a simple misunderstanding.
Good grief, Benito, you’re coming dangerously close to backing their (no doubt) idea to just change the oath that new CIA officers swear to so that it’s no longer to the Constitution but rather to the CIA hierarchy. Do we have an over/under on when that happens by any chance?
On reflection, it’s useful if people believe they are free. They may be less obedient, with an annoying tendency to question orders. But this is outweighed by their increased trust, making it easier to fool them. People who believe they are free, work harder.
So let them swear the oath to the Constitution, if it boosts morale. It’s just unfortunate that some of them take the oath literally.
That’s clearly what we need things like the drone program, extraordinary rendition, passport revocation, and the cultivation of ‘enemies’ like Russia for, though, I thought?
One bad strawberry doesn’t have to spoil the bunch — we need them every few years to make the other strawberries fall into line and hold the furry strawberries out as an example of what happens if they allow themselves to think.
Satire aside, It is a SERIOUS misunderstanding.
What’s disgusting is your defense of outright totalitarianism and corruption, and your hatred of the Constitution and civil liberties
Your use of the word *Disgusting* is revealing. Perhaps if you were better able to make a more convincing case you would get more respect and demonstrate yourself to be a person of profound quality and righteousness rather than a lame echo machine.
Snowden, you working on Putin?
Why is Russia still waging the “cold war” of demoralization against America through RT?
Why don’t they talk about US political corruption like AKA John Noguez and Jamie Gorelick at Schlumberger? (because they’re leftists destroying America and Russia) or the serial molester speaker Denny Hastert?
I bet Putin liked having the leverage of serial molester in the Speaker seat huh?
scumbags
Some secrets are out there in more or less plain sight.
As revealed by unclassified online sources, the Army Security Agency, the Army’s signals intelligence branch from 1945 to 1976 – and predecessor of the National Security Agency – operated signals intelligence collection sites in U.S. embassies around the world. Staffed by Morse intercept operators (Army military occupational specialty 058, later re-designated 05H), who were authorized to wear civilian clothes, the Army Security Agency embassy sites were used to collect Morse code radio communications.
In the 1950‘s and 1960‘s knowledge of “embassy duty“ was widespread within the Army Security Agency as shown by veterans‘ oral history reports and other online sources. Army Security Agency recruiters mentioned the possibility of civilian clothes embassy duty to promising young men to induce them to enlist in the Army Security Agency for four years instead of being drafted into the combat arms for two years.
The Special Collection Service, formed between 1978 and 1982, likely inherited the Army Security Agency sites as a result of the signals intelligence reorganization that led to the deactivation of the Army Security Agency.
I’m afraid the recruiters sold these poor boys a bill of goods. The ASA guys I knew wore uniforms and lived in tents. The CO of my MI unit in Vietnam told me of some of those poor bastards suffering mental breakdwns after listening to signals for hours while sitting in uncomfortable conex units or trailers. Many of the ASA bunch suffered from delusions of grandeur. One of my roommates in basic training thought he was hot shit because he was granted a TS clearance. Yeehaw!
I should have explained that my CO was formerly ASA and was giving first-hand info.
Scroll down to No Such Agency:
http://www.pharmacychoice.com/News/article.cfm?Article_ID=1165714
Great article Ed.
SS7 is still on the loose and unfortunately,- so is the #N977GA
Take care
@AnonScan
How can we break the bond between a public servant’s influence and their own enrichment?
It seems to be increasingly rare for a judge to recuse themselves of ruling on issues that they have a vested interest in.
It defies logic that Congress has the ability to set their own pay and exempt themselves from their own laws.
We have yet another President who unilaterally invokes executive orders that run contrary to The Constitution to swell their own power.
Influence peddlers can contribute vast sums of money and consistently bend public policy to their will.
If we fail to act and break the bond between self-interest and public service then we are culpable in the collectively self-serving government.
Agreed. Unfortunately, there are the 1% of the wealthiest in this nation, and the 1% of us folks who actually are astute and engaged enough to see the naked reality of the situation beneath the facade. Democracy is an idea, not a reality. The mass of people in this country are sadly incapable of this level of thought and opinion. Forced sweeping demographic changes will exacerbate this, and will be the death of the country.
I don’t think so.
Look at the massive support Bernie Sanders has created.
I’ll wager a significant portion of those supporters think as negatively as we do about the National Security State, which Sanders has said he intends to abolish.
And I’m sure that a large number of them fit into the 30% of Americans who approve of what Snowden has done.
Thirty percent is larger than one percent.
Snowden is CIA, this is all a psychological operation.
Its called a limited hangout: google it.
Perhaps.
Some secrets are out there in plain sight.
As revealed by unclassified online sources, the Army Security Agency, the Army’s signals intelligence branch from 1945 to 1976 – and predecessor of the National Security Agency – operated signals intelligence collection sites in U.S. embassies around the world. Staffed by Morse intercept operators (Army military occupational specialty 058, later re-designated 05H), who were authorized to wear civilian clothes, the Army Security Agency embassy sites were used to collect Morse code radio communications.
In the 1950‘s and 1960‘s knowledge of “embassy duty“ was widespread within the Army Security Agency as shown by veterans‘ oral history reports and other online sources. Army Security Agency recruiters mentioned the possibility of civilian clothes embassy duty to promising young men to induce them to enlist in the Army Security Agency for four years instead of being drafted into the combat arms for two years.
The Special Collection Service, formed between 1978 and 1982, likely inherited the Army Security Agency sites as a result of the signals intelligence reorganization that led to the deactivation of the Army Security Agency.
Edward Snowden is a CIA double agent. Its called a limited hangout operation.
Just watch – he will consistently tell you things you already knew, nothing that will actually get anyone in trouble.
Its all BS
Radix: the root of the issue.
This is the sum of the entire article. Why do our government and intelligence agencies exist as such? What is the root issue?
If we peeled this onion for days, we would find greed in the human heart of a few old white men who fear the warmth of the human tribe as the root cause. I make this statement on the far side of simplicity.
Edward, I listened to you live via satellite with Greenwald and Chomsky and it was nice to read this article in slow time, reinforcing what I heard that night. Privacy does matter, because this humane space is necessary to create and most express our humanity. To that end, I concede the case of whistle blowers to advance our humanness.
One point that you did not touch on per se that I think is important, in considering the well thought out decision to blow the whistle, is our progeny. Politics aside, what kind of society (world) do we want to leave our children, if we claim to genuinely love them?
It’s not racism when white folk are targeted, right?
There’s a lot of Pavlovian salivating happening in this comment SECTion here…
That was SUBtle, Jason.
yet, we should try to keep them all “quiet”: the watchdogs, those under more or less conscious Pavlovian conditioning and those who would rather entertain illusions about being “control group” ones
RCL
Ed: Hello from North Shore, Oahu! Your analyst job at Booz is still an open requisition.
Pretty amazing how many views the trailer got on YouTube. “Flippin Sweet.”
Stay safe and remember : It takes 4-5 hours a day for 6 months to become an expert at the card toss into a hat (According to Bill Murray – GroundHog Day!)
Aloha & Mahalo
Ha, ha, I’ve been saying that about cell phones for 10 years. They are really animal ID tags to track you the fat beast of burden, aka tax slave.
Politicians are lying about taxes. Our tax law, which include regulations, is codified and easy as 1,2.
Most importantly, according to IRS, “The Service is bound by the regulations.” -Internal Revenue Manual, 4.10.7.2.3.4
So, how come IRS ignores tax regulations and their own manual?
1.
–Exempt Income, 26 CFR 1.861-8T(d)(2)(ii)
“exempt income means any income that is … exempt, excluded, or eliminated for federal income tax purposes.”
2.
–Income Not Exempt, 26 CFR 1.861-8T(d)(2)(iii) [Taxable income]
“Income that is not considered tax exempt. The following items are not considered to be exempt, eliminated, or excluded income
(A) In the case of a foreign taxpayer … gross income (whether domestic or foreign source)
(B) gross income of a DISC or a FSC; [domestic international sales corp, foreign sales corp]
(C) gross income of a possessions corporation
(D) Foreign earned income as defined in section 911″
Do you make Foreign earned income? No? According to code (law), YOU DON’T OWE any income tax. As usual, politicians are lying, and stealing money from citizens under color of law. You’ve got parasites, start scratching.
SOURCE- ecfr DOT gov
HOW TO- Click Simple Search, find “exempt income means”
MORE-
Computer scientist data-mines tax code, Whatistaxed DOT com
They had to get money for unnecessary war somehow. Why not steal it from the American citizens? We’re easy targets….like we’ve been programmed to be. We’re indentured servants to the elite, and nothing more. Anyone who believes differently, has consumed too much fluoridated water.
Very well written, especially for someone who never went to college; or, should I say, because you never went to college. Matriculating at places like Yale and Harvard gives us ‘thinkers’ like Bush and Obama.
Matriculating at places like Yale and Harvard establishes criminal fraternities that move on to places like Washington DC .
@cwradio –
…but didn’t Ed Snowden spend some time at a community college? Being a CC product and retired prof, I’d say that shows him to be a quality person right there!
May God bless you Edward Snowden.
We the People bless you, too.
I am bown away by the seriousness anddepth of thought Snowden has displayed in this essay. And his understanding of the meaning of individual freedom.
List me as a fan.
Interesting essay Mr. Snowden.
You went on at some length to criticize General Pertraus foolish, sloppy yet ultimately immaterial actions, yet your silence is deafening with regards to HRC’s epic lawbreaking and incompetence, and probable compromise of significant national security asserts. Do you see her actions as simply just another case of “whistle blowing”?
Perhaps your left wing politics cause you to hesitate from criticizing your team too loudly…
I strongly suspect you retain and are intentionally withholding a lot of damning information about this corrupt administration. Perhaps one day you’ll man up and come clean – and blow the whistle on the full extent of their unconstitutional lawbreaking.
Since it’s been exposed that the government is essentially keeping a dossier on each of us, one naturally asks what they intend to do with all of this information. I suppose SCOTUS Chief Roberts and the many republican congressmen who have suddenly and uncharacteristically become “cooperative” with the administrations plans – might – if they were to tell the truth, have an exceptionally interesting answer to that question…
You – of all people – should clearly understand that this administration is causing the slide towards tyranny. It’s time to expose them, and the full truth.
I think it is useful to draw a distinction between public servants, who exist across administrations, and administrations/politicians, who are controlled by the election cycle. Hillary’s problems are not systemic problems… they will soon disappear. However, Snowden exposed systemic problems involving public servants influenced by the “military/industrial complex”… these problems can last a long time… unless somebody like Snowden exposes them. There should be a “Doctor” for the public service that ensures it is healthy.
Well let’s see — it could be because Snowden wanted to make the clearest and strongest argument possible, and the Petraeus case and lack of punishment is established, while the HRC case is promising and as yet unresolved.
But maybe you didn’t realize Snowden is not your waiter. He is not here to serve your partisan interests — or mine. I’d cheer loudly if Hillary got in big trouble. And it has zip to do with this article.
Anyway, at least yours is not the very worst illustration of one of my favorite sayings, here in this comments section filled with the trite declarations of spiteful Tuesday morning quarterbacks:
“No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.”
Yes. I would jump up and down in jubilation if Hillary Clinton was indicted. Think of all the ways Donald Trump will work to restore our constitutional rights. He’ll surely tune down the surveillance programs at the NSA and end the leak crackdown!
O look
it’s Mike
with the inevitable
if you are not for Hillary then you must be for Trump
binary
bullshit
I thought he was being sarcastic about Trump. You mean that was serious? What a letdown.
BS
Perhaps ES deliberately chose General P. to use as an example to avoid partisan politics being invoked in his piece? Just a thought.
Can I just observe that while there has been lost of discussion of government spying after Snowden’s heroic act little if anything has changed. Spying is even more intrusive today than pre Snowden. LuxLeaks led to Jean-Claude Junker being promoted just weeks later to head the EC. Panama Papers caught out a PM in the huge and influential Iceland gave Cameron a headache for a few days, then when he dropped his trousers for a moment and showed his taxes satisfying the voyeuristic pleasure of the hoi polli and presto it all went away.
Yes, I agree wholeheartedly about whistle blowers but I want to be realistic about it.
With the provenance of the Panama Papers a complete mystery and do not contain the names of any US citizens (except for a few doctors and two bit criminals perhaps) but plenty of dirt about the enemies of the US – evil Putin Putin Putin Assade and the Chinese top brass.
In my mind is the question – did ICIJ get had? and given propaganda by US operatives?
My point is that authority/power/the Empire doesn’t really care – there will be leaks and they know it and they know they can’t really stop them but just exactly why should they care when they just shrug it off and its business as usual and no one does anything about it – except obey.
Howard Zinn
“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient allover the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.”
I really hope Snowden is correct but I fear that Imperial power is so strong and all pervasive now that it will take a hundred Snowdens to make any difference. Take note of how so far they have just shrugged it off and nothing much has changed except among the hoi polli who count for nothing.
as to the panama papers. Im guessing the US companies and individuals dont need panama, we have our own tax shelters to hide in. Plenty of articles now talk about how the US is now a tax shelter for many individuals. Its not that i dont think US companies are hiding funds, or individuals, im just guessing they arent in Panama.
You seem to have overlooked the fact that the information contained in the “Panama Papers” disclosure only represents the work product of one of many law-firms that facilitate off-shore banking and tax havens.
As Usual,
EA
Just a shout out top the boys and girls at the NSA, FBI, DARPA, NI, DIA, CIGINT, etc, etc……wuzzzzzup?
It is an honour to read your contributions . Your bravery, courage and wisdom does not go unnoticed to what is left of the human race. Both you and Glenn.
Though I find your patriotic betrayal of a tyrannical government laudable, I am concerned about your gross lack of understanding of your own country and the resulting possibility that you may have done the right thing, by accident.
A “democracy”??!!!
This is not an democracy. The founders hated the very idea of a “tyranny of the majority”. They said so many times, in writings we still possess.
You really should stop writing until you get caught up with reality. Only those who want to turn this into a socialist nation call it a democracy.
Yes, but the real question is whether exposure actually changes anything. The answer does not appear to be an unequivocal yes. Indeed, exposure seems to lead to ex post facto rationalization and legalization of illegal conduct. And that raises serious and fundamental other questions.
Exposure need only light the fuse. It has.
Hey wait….Belgacom is a distributor of MOBL with known links to the CIA.
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1470099/000155837016004942/mobl-20160623xdef14a.htm
Page 8 bio Matthew Howard (In-Q-Tel is both customer and investor of MOBL)
Wasn’t Belgacom a victim of Stuxnet? Hmmm, I recall this somewhere. Yea…I think it was an Intercept article….here..https://theintercept.com/2014/11/24/secret-regin-malware-belgacom-nsa-gchq/
I wonder if there is any connection?
https://www.mobileiron.com/en/partners/carrier-partners
Duplicate post. Here is the link for Belgacom being a MOBL distributor
Mr. Snowden, until you come back and face justice, you are fugitive under the employ of Vladimir Putin. Although you would like to think you are a ‘whitsleblower’, the fact is, you are a thief and a traitor to your country. You did far more harm to America’s interests than telling Americans about the laws begin broken by the Obama administration…you revealed America’s secrets to our greatest adversaries. For that, you should be sent to jail for a very long time.
Come clean and come home, comrade Snowden.
You are very funny.
Ciao, Glenn!
Ed signed several documents before he was employed by the USG, clearly stating that stealing or revealing classified information he was privy to was a federal crime. Put simply, he intentionally violated several Federal laws. Like the President, he is picking and choosing which laws he wants to obey in the United States. Are we not a nation of laws, or men?
It isn’t up to Ed to decide which laws he wants to obey, and which he doesn’t….nor should it be up to our President, or his national security apparatus, or our intelligence agencies.
Is it too much to ask to follow the law, or to be a man and face up to the penalties for breaking them?
Even Ed’s dad gets this…challenge it in court, Ed. Come home, and come clean.
You expect the man to come home and “Face the music” when he has been promised that he will NEVER see the light of day again, and IF there ever was a trial it would be far from an impartial trial byhis peers. It would be a kangaroo court held in secret that anyone talking about would then find themselves in the same position that Mr Snowden finds himself in.
And just because it is “Law” does make it right. There are PLENTY of “Laws” that have been thrown out over the years as humans have evolved.
There are higher values than devotion and obedience to Leviathan…Think some more.
You obviously know nothing about severability clauses that even if not written into a contract formally, is standardized through UCC which states that you not bound to contracts that force you to violate laws and those document were the proof needed to sever the contract he signed.
Well then, by all means, you should be legal counsel to Ed when he returns. I’m sure a federal judge will understand your argument about severability clauses…now that’s funny, Glenn.
“Ed signed several documents before he was employed by the USG, clearly stating that stealing or revealing classified information he was privy to was a federal crime.”
Then, by golly, he deserves the same level of punishment received by his fellow traitor, David Petraeus!
Go back into your cage, Hillary.
Hillary should be subject to the same laws as Ed, which would put her at the front of the line for prison. She should be sitting in a cell down the hall from Gen. Petraeus, one block over from Mr. Snowden.
It is odd that Mr. Snowden thinks an enlisted should be prosecuted for handing over Gen. Petraeus’ classified notebooks, but Mr. Snowden himself is immune to similar charges, because of his self-proclaimed ‘whistleblower’ status.
I guess some animals are not as equal to others as I thought.
You’re willingly misrepresenting what Snowden wrote. There was no whistleblower excuse for what Petraeus leaked; it was highly sensitive information that revealed no wrongdoing and put the lives of American covert operatives in harm’s way. Snowden specifically DOES qualify as a whistleblower because he was revealing illegal activity by the NSA, etc.
He’s immune to charges? That’s funny considering he’s indicted and charged.
J House, you do realize the only reason he is in Russia is because the US revoked his passport while he was changing planes while passing through Russia right? It’s not that he “ran to the russian’s” schithead.
You are so incredibly naive if you believe Snowden wound up in Moscow by accident…his data is compromised, period.
How amusing that an authoritarian would invoke Orwell. Snowden’s point is precisely that the government carries on as if it is above the law, and so is Gen. Petraeus.
Snowden is a true patriot who let my country, the United States, understand the gross violations of our Constitution that were being committed in secret. Transparency is critical to democracy; when the government can write laws in secret, and behave in secret, the consent of the governed is meaningless. Civil liberties also become largely meaningless.
Moreover, when any country is building a global surveillance apparatus, in collusion with other Western powers, the citizens of the world have a right to know that. Thanks to Edward Snowden, they now do, and can accordingly demand from their governments that they be protected.
Should people follow unjust laws? Please list all the harm caused by his actions. And if you feel he should go to prison for a long, long time…how about our president? Also, evidence he’s in the employ of Putin.
Let’s hope this brilliant posting/foreward gets wide play. Thank you for writing it. Thank you for all that you’ve done.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/03/edward-snowden-assassination-complex-governments-tagged-animals-drone-warfare-whistleblower
“… my sense of overwhelming disenfranchisement that the government, in which I had believed for my entire life, was engaged in such an extraordinary act of deception.”
Oh that it were an “extraordinary act of deception”. It seems to have become SOP, standard operating procedure. We have become a nation where the Government is no longer answerable to the people or their representatives.
Mr. Snowdon captures the essence of our dilemma of living in a modern world: Technological advances allow for evil, under the guise of providing safety, to remove the last remnant of liberty, namely being left alone.
A once free people are being domesticated by an elite that uses the structure of the state to manipulate and scare the populace into the milking pen. Such callous behavior is against all principles this country was founded upon and can come only from an alien and soulless culture.
Unless we reestablish the fundamental rules of our societal togetherness, especially the supremacy of the individual over the power of the state, we enable those who see in us only cattle to be led to slaughter.
We urgently need an Ellsberg/Manning/Snowden from the FBI. May that person read Snowden’s words above and be sufficiently moved so as to act.
And the right one. I think one of the problems with an FBI source is so much is compartmentalized by office and even little gaggles of agents in particular offices that it’ll be hard for us to get the big picture — people will/would just point the finger at that office/those agents instead of realizing the problem is systemic and massive in scope (especially the ‘informant’ and ‘paid informant’ programs and the provocateurs that are rife everywhere).
The fingerpointing is fine, we just need the basic information. What operations are being performed against what citiznes? Including political activists?
We need to know what analogs to COINTELPRO are happening now. Already there’s a good deal of evidence that the federal government targets activists, such as those in Black Lives Matter, the animal rights movement, and many others. We need the whole picture.
I think it’s safe to say that *someone* is targeting *all* activists — even people that aren’t activists that merely disagree vocally (online or in real life). I’m not sure what percentage of that is FBI and/or other forms of law enforcement and what percentage is ‘private sector’. The movie ‘The East’ only came out a few years ago and already it seems quaint compared to the current landscape. I think it’s conceivable the first thing we need to do is make ‘investigation’ and harassment by these private organizations illegal and prosecute them to the fullest extent. Until we do it always leaves open the question of ‘who’s actually doing this in the first place’ and the hand-over-fist interplay between various organizations who use each other to skirt around the law (and its spirit) — especially given ‘evidence’ can be gained illegally merely by saying “I don’t know how we got it” and so forth.
Until we clean out our justice system and these abuses, I’m not sure if it’ll matter if we get a ‘good’ whistleblower or not. I’d love to be proven wrong on this account. But we are a nation in love with shortcuts and that extends to our justice system (and companies that hire companies to pretend they’re Wyatt Earp).
A big part of the problem is if we don’t have evidence, no one has standing to challenge unconstitutional state action in court. Snowden’s revelations have gotten dozens of plaintiffs before federal judges, able to challenge the bulk collection, metadata program. That couldn’t happen before, because to have standing, one must be able to demonstrate they are one of the targeted or otherwise directly harmed.
I wouldn’t encourage Glenn to do so but I do wonder if he has thought about the fact that he is depriving people of being able to have that proof by withholding the lists of people on the watch lists he’s seen, still? I say this only because I agree with you — one needs proof of standing. But it becomes problematic to get that proof when that proof, in and of itself, is considered ‘classified’. Similarly, what do we do about cases that aren’t prosecuted via the justice system but extra-judicially — ie, where these entities act as judge, jury and executioner along with investigator, effectively depriving those under the thumb of, for example, the modern COINTELPRO equivalent, making it impossible for them to find recourse. I’m not talking about “targeted individuals” but ‘regular people’ who, absent charges, are nevertheless harassed and harangued and threatened (eg Laura Poitras prior to the attention her case got post-Snowden disclosures) for their work and otherwise. Technically such people might even be able to have (somewhat deniable, unfortunately) proof but lack the resources (financially, legally, socially) to be able to fight this sort of thing.
It’s not only the courtroom I’m concerned about. When these sorts of disclosures come out, too (assuming they will eventually; I suspect this is probably a good bet) we as a society are going to have to deal with a lot of people coming forth with claims, some true, some not true, and on a larger and more complicated scale than what happened post-Snowden.
So as I said, while if I were someone in Glenn’s position, I’d personally find it… difficult to say the least… to consider releasing lists of names, given how that’d likely be taken by the intelligence agencies, or in this case the justice system, and people who support both things without reservation… I’m not sure how it’s possible to challenge these sorts of oversteps until and unless they are.
There’s also the issue that even if that IS released, anything considered ‘National Security’ can and is sealed, and a sympathetic judge STILL needs to side with the defendant and have a broad understanding of issues that even people who spend their whole lives studying such issues are currently struggling with, especially if they want to have a thriving career later on (thinking about the Supreme Court and its recent “discussion” of Rule 41, for instance: http://www.newsweek.com/supreme-court-allows-fbi-hack-any-computer-anywhere-if-warrant-454278 — full text of proposed changes to law easily available via google; popular media link provided for the masses and not endorsed as a source).
We need to deal with the FISA, 702, etc, issues or are we really dealing with anything as opposed to merely giving them an excuse to shift one sort of ‘warrant’ over to a…. “warrant”? is something I’ve been keeping in mind in my replies to this thread, fwiw.
The huge problem there is that any individuals specifically named in these NSA documents has a right to privacy. Releasing their names, publicly, would be a horrible thing to do. All of ones friends, neighbors, family members, employers & etc. would see that you are “on a list” and wonder why. There could be terribly adverse consequences.
No, absent permission from anyone listed, specific names shouldn’t be published.
Actually I very much agree with you here — I’m a major proponent of privacy and I often get upset when certain names are outed (and bothered when other names are redacted; why aren’t we shaming people who act unconstitutionally, for instance some of the authors of Snowden’s documents and not others, is something that gets under my craw quite a bit, for instance?).
The question is how to let people at the receiving end know and give them proof in order to protect their privacy… and doing so without violating their privacy (and how do you make judgments based on who IS a threat, too, really — because I’m sure that’s the tact the government(s) would use to point fingers if there were a disclosure).
I assume nobody at the Intercept is digging through things looking for every single name and researching contact information and letting them know they’re under constant surveillance? I’m not sure everyone who is under constant surveillance would even want to know (or that it’d behoove them to know, especially if they’re innocent — which says a lot for what I think of ‘being under surveillance’).
What happens if someone asks if they are in the documents? If they are under surveillance, then technically Glenn and/or the Intercept could be charged with crimes — even aiding and abetting terrorism or espionage (whether or not there’s actual terrorism or espionage — or whatever — is irrelevant; I think we can both agree that charges get thrown around and set up a lot these days for convenience and/or out of spite, if nothing else). And if they’re not under surveillance there’s a chance they might be under at least limited surveillance for asking due to contact chaining and private contact (one assumes). It’s complicated, methinks. Part of why I object to it all is because I resolutely believe it shouldn’t be so complicated, and I don’t see how it can be easily proven or challenged (and you can’t do the latter without the former — and even then the legal process can take years).
Note I also object to mass surveillance — and even in most cases individual cases — on principle; always have, always will. I just realized how that might have read that I have an issue with the lack of transparency. In truth transparency shouldn’t be a major issue because none of this should exist in the first place — but in the cases it does, people ought to have recourse, and the chance to confront their accusers whether they’re guilty or not. Basic tenets of jurisprudence, et al.
Hi, Mona – Still hoping for a reply. Not sure if you saw my response, as things got a bit sidetracked. Thanks.
I am one of those “irregular” people you are “not talking about” (BTW, I am not so sure how “regular”, “untargeted” Laura Poitras is). Yet, I can’t make sense either of why Glenn is (it seems, “responsibly”) standing in the way of people being able to know the true dimensions and ranges of the reality they are living in for them to gain for themselves an idea of what they would consider to be “‘utter’ fantasy”.
We have clearly seen how, now, that (at the very least) they have a good sense of the truth, the judiciary (except for the occasional minor make-believe show) and all branches of government have kept not colluding in screwing all of us and perpetuating their shortsighted corrupt nonsense, but using the Intercept to do part of their own PR.
Using a somewhat forceful metaphor what Glenn is doing is as if Martin Luther, instead of letting everyone at large know about, his, for the times very scandalous ninety five theses, would have tried to engage the all powerful Catholic Church in silly verbal back and forths.
Given the kind of counter punch adversarial fighter Glenn is, at some point they started to offer him the best type of fight, they possibly could: not a fight at all! Some time ago, they would say some sh!t related to the letter or spirit of the Snowden leaks and Glenn would masterfully throw a few punches from perfect angles and just wait for them to eventually throw a few more, disorganized, legless punches …
At the end of the day they did not only own him, but alternate realities (yes, competing but on different grounds) have emerged. We do our thing (talk all the sh!t we want) and they do theirs, by playing the game they know best and given their host rights and vast “know-how” … did I forget to mention they are financed by U.S. tax payers?
John Oliver’s great Anthropology has very clearly explained what is needed. We need to talk to people in the language they understand:
// __ Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Government Surveillance (HBO)
youtube.com/watch?v=XEVlyP4_11M
~
All that pretentious nonsense about “legal standing” would make sense if there was at least minimal respect for the rule of law, but, believing that would debase lawyers of their functional illusions, I think, regardless of your persuasion, we all have plenty of reasons to believe we are way past that in a one way road.
My only realistic hope is Donald Trump (kind of crazy that I am hopeless about Glenn, right?), don’t get me wrong, not because I like him in any way, believe in “representative” of any kind of politics anyway (to me voting is like actually believing in voodoo), but because he will give U.S. and the world at large many lessons they could finally learn from.
truth and peace and love,
RCL
Donald Trump can’t even accept his own balding self, not to mention the imperfections of other people, is about as diplomatic as a hyena on meth, knows absolutely nothing about technology… and almost certainly surveils his own employees (prove to me otherwise). I could go on but I won’t because this isn’t about Trump any more than it is about any mad hopes in a candidate to make changes when there’s zero evidence to prove they’ll do so and every indication that they have no interest in doing so; proof comes by past action — Trump won’t even SPEAK to any of these things, but you expect help?
Every time I see people believing Trump is going to bring ‘hope and change’ I look at peoples’ proclivities and see that they often believed Obama was going to bring the same thing — in 2007 and even again 4 years later. Both times it boggled my mind. Different isn’t always better. Sometimes different is worse. Or just different. And sometimes being owned by one type of money is just as bad or worse as/than being owned — or owning — a different kind of money.
Why do you want someone whose main imprint on America’s consciousness to be a (bad, no less) reality show encouraging people to kiss up to the very “1%” types — regardless if it’s “new 1%” or “old 1%” — representing you? Just because you think he’ll stop people from harassing you? He won’t. What’s more he’d NEVER gain the respect of the military, law enforcement, IC, and without that they’d just consider him a nuisance and work around him; this is what they do, and even if they didn’t the president generally doesn’t have as much power as you think he does over that sort of thing. But let’s ignore that for a second. If he DOES get the Republican nomination you’d better believe it’s because someone wants him to. And if someone wants him to, it’s people with power and money — because he’ll do as they wish — or just avoid doing things they don’t wish. I pegged you for the type that would be pro-Glass-Steagall reenactment. Correct me if I’m wrong. Do you honestly believe he’d limit bankers? If so, please let me know. Because a lot of people get hurt by that sort of thing too.
Yet this isn’t about Trump and honestly I’m mostly keeping my nose out of the presidential race this year. I generally find it pointless to try to enact change via an election every four years (or 8). I’m just wondering if you’ve really thought this through and what, if anything, leads you to believe he’ll help people who are dealing with these sorts of issues? Because honestly I have seen NOTHING to indicate he would (which isn’t to say I believe Hillary Clinton would; I’m not sure if she would and I’m not looking for clarification. I’m not even sure Bernie Sanders would. I’m pretty sure Cruz wouldn’t. If Wyden were running… I’d probably believe he would because I’ve seen him TRY.)
The only person with less political experience I think than Obama had going into a presidential election may in fact actually be Trump (with none). Putting everything else aside, I don’t see how this can possibly benefit any of us. I don’t want the sort of “lessons” Trump could give us. Our country is already up shit’s creek enough without a paddle.
If you want someone who’s going to care about the topics, I think the first step is for us to make sure they’ve already demonstrated they care going in — not just said they care. Had their feet held over a flame because they care. That’s what I want to see anyway. If you can prove to me that Trump has done this, I’d be more than glad to know about it.
I am not disagreeing with you on his apparent qualities (or lack thereof) or questioning his (dis)qualifications (which he makes utterly obvious). I find your metaphor about him being “as diplomatic as a hyena on meth” thoroughly descriptive, but I am afraid non of that matters.
His best quality is that in a sense he is vertically making fun of the whole political establishment and he doesn’t care about being PC. He is saying it as people want to hear it. The fact that he has gone that far is already telling.
Given the options I think he is the best one (if “best” is a proper adjective in such cases) or I would rather say “most explicitly beneficial”. Everybody is pretentiously trying their version of “jogo belo”. He doesn’t seem to care about it at all.
RCL
If you believe he doesn’t seem to care that’s because he’s so thoroughly narcissistic that he approaches everything in this way. Maybe more importantly he treats everybody as unimportant as he treats the presidential race. Quite frankly I want someone that respects the office, not sinks it the rest of the way into the muck.
Heroes all:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_whistleblowers
Who will blow the whistle on the Cointelpro-style activities taking place on U.S. soil? Someone must. (If good people only knew…)
Others we salute: Keith Forsyth, John C. Raines and Bonnie Raines, Robert Williamson, William C. Davidon (recruiter and informal leader), Judi Feingold — Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI
John Raines: “…the results obtained along with the FBI documents pertaining to them will be sent to people in public life who have demonstrated the integrity, courage and commitment to democratic values which are necessary to effectively challenge the repressive policies of the FBI.”
Ed, you are a grandiose and delusional narcissist. You have done more harm than good by leaking our secrets to our enemies. You are now in cahoots with Putin, Assange, and the idiots without a country who support authoritarian regimes (Ecuador, Venezuela, Brasil PT, etc). You are naive and clueless. You deserve to rot in Russia under 24/7 surveillance.
Ed You deserve the Country you have inherited. Having unsecured servers in your bathroom is not treason though is it? At least Snowden gave Americans the Info not Enemy Host countries.
“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Committee
I think what you have done edward snowden was a courageous maneuver which deserves the highest accolade known to man, every whist blower has a heart and desire to announce to the public the wrong doing of the government, and as the saying goes “If you see something say something”.
This statement clearly resonates with all whistle blowers, and in order to protect whislte blowers such as Edward Snowden there should be job prospects, areas of improvement that Mr Snowden has discovered to not only benefit the population that he was serving at the time but more importantly to liaise and work alongside the organisation that has made him redundant, by doing this it would bring more transparency a greater understanding of how to interact and conduct business under the duress laws that govern that particular state as well as the ethos of the organisation.
In conclusion to the above, nevertheless Mr Snowden and other whistle blowers have not outlined anything the government have already been doing, the only issue they have seemed to highlight was that they were practicing there methodology without due care and were not conducting business under the correct practices. So one would say there needs to be more scrutiny and oversight and checks and balances and possibly implementing a department similar to the fiser court that has an eagle view over the activities that are being played out.
Kind Regards
William Hay
Great article!
We, the future hunted, are voluntarily carrying our own tracking devices courtesy of Verizon, ATT, Sprint, etc.
We tell them our entire network of family and friends through Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
We voluntarily join DNA database networks like Ancestry.com.
We let them know what our interests and passions are through Google, Bing, etc.
They know our income and spending habits.
They control our healthcare and medications.
They own our water supplies.
They control our communication.
They control our information through their willing minions at the news networks.
When they decide that any particular group of us needs to be rounded up for their purposes, it won’t take them long to find us.
Every goal…every line item… of their agenda is being played out in front of us. (See: http://www.rense.com/general16/georgiaguidestones.htm)
The fix is in.
I used to wonder why 300 million people in the old USSR wouldn’t rise up and overpower their repressive leadership of less than 1 million people; or why thousands of Jews wouldn’t overpower the 30 guards armed with sub-machine guns; or why 200 people could be held at bay by a guy with a 9mm handgun with less than 15 rounds. The answer is: there aren’t 15 patriots willing to take a bullet for the other 200.
Edward Snowden has shown his willingness to “take the bullet” for the rest of us. And while some may think of him as a traitor and others as a patriot, the fact remains that he fearlessly stood up for what he thought was right.
Kudos, Edward.
Exactly! Snowden exuded a courage that 99% of us will never know. He may be a “traitor” to his government, but he is a hero to the American citizens. The people who cannot see that are brainwashed by their government to only see what they program them to see. They are incapable of thinking for themselves. They are taught to accept everything and question nothing. I question everything. That seed was planted by my father at a very young age. In school, when I would learn about the “history” that our government deemed favorable to their agenda, he would tell me the real history and why it was changed in our text books. My grandfather did the same for him. Like how there were eight presidents before Washington and how Columbus did not discover America and the atrocities that he and his band of savages committed against the natives. Our government is full of corruption of the worst kind. They ban cures and push poisons that make you more sick. They spend trillions in unnecessary wars instead of eradicating hunger and poverty. I cannot think of a single thing that our government has done in recent decades that has benefitted humanity. If anything, their actions and inactions have endangered humanity.
I hope I live long enough to have you back in the US…hopefully the next President will agree. God Bless
Well.. I want you back in the USA freely. We need more of you guys to help us lead against the ever approaching socialist and communist non tolerant of everyone but themselves crowd. I agree with what you did. They are treating us as subjects and not citizens. Our USA government no longer cares about its citizens not that i need them babysitting me.. don’t get me wrong.. i need them to promote growth, keep us safe from foreign invaders.. not spying on us.
I can’t speak for Snowden.
But your tirade against “socialist and communist non tolerant” is pure bullshit.
There’s nothing either socialist or communist about any part of the National Security State. It borders on fascism, a far-Right philosophy.
Maybe you’re just politically ignorant.
Until these actions are punished by death nothing will be done. Nothing will change.
No more lies, excuses, rationalizations,or justifications, the public needs to hold these officials to account to the fullest extent of the law under Title 18 sec. 241 & 242 (Google it), so any future traitors will know there will be consequences to such behavior.
Unaccountable power is absolute power, & is absolutely corrupt !
The real problem is as the artcle insinuates the courts are just as corrupt. If judges don’t uphold the law or the constitution there is no accountability. Federal courts have no power without the Governments backing and will no longer hold the hand that feeds and protects them accountable to the laws of this nation. Congress is corrupted too and will not hold the judicial branch accountable either. Were at the point Jefferson spoke of. “The tree of liberty must from time to time be refreshed with the blood of tyrants and patriots” blueridgesprings.wordpress.com my whistleblower blog.
Is it possible that some of the leakers not only had help from the inside, so they could collect vast amounts of documents and know where to get them? Isn’t it also possible that the leaks were allowed to happen intentionally? Surely, the NSA watches the spies more than the rest of us, including with internal intrusion detection and other lesser known techniques.
Daniel Ellsberg to Edward Snowden: “I’ve been waiting 40 years for someone like you.”
We can’t wait another 40 years. Those who know must “tell.”
Excellent essay – thank you, Mr. Snowden. Your courage is an inspiration, and the sacrifices that you have made for our greater good is very, very much appreciated.
thank you so much for the truth edward snowden!…
thank you edward snowden for showing us facts…
that intelligence and terrorism work not as they say…
that officials still lie trying to keep fabrications intact…
even if faced with the truth they persist in duped ways!…
they lodge unaccountable policies as a snag for bad guys…
we must lose basic freedoms so terrorists can’t prevail…
but the evidence actually indicates it to be otherwise…
that draining our liberties won’t help see foes fail!…
private firms track our own computers and phones…
using surveillance that’s ready to maneuver our data…
being innocent today could look suspicious tomorrow…
or as unreliable as our rulers’ feigned words on a platter!…
oaths of office break silently disregarding our constitution…
to uphold and defend it succumbs to deceptive security…
behind vacated laws hide lawless order distributions…
as democracy’s deterioration welcomes obscurity!…
our democracy needs the truth!… thank you!…
Edward, Your portrait hangs on my office wall along side of Edward Said’s and Noam Chomsky to remind me every day of what it means to be an authentic citizen in democracy. Thank you, Thank you!
I’m sorry, Mr. Snowden, but I don’t believe you’re really on our side. You gave the media a huge amount of information about NSA spying, mostly on metadata, sure. But I have not heard one thing there about the use of antivirus software to spot and report the signatures of files on people’s home PCs. Even though many of the companies that Barrett Brown’s ProjectPM was tracking have antivirus software as core competencies. Even though the terms and conditions of the antivirus software practically advertise that they’re doing this. Even though we all know that free, constantly updated antivirus software without so much as an ad on your desktop is waaaay too good to be true. Just as, back in the 1990s/2000s before the days of ransomware and online banking, the constant barrage of attacks on our computers seemed far too persistent to be explained by simple mischief.
Mr. Snowden, I believe that what you have done is to release data about a lot of things that people knew were going on, but didn’t have proof about. I believe the NSA had a problem that it wanted to see its data used in prosecutions, but they could not simply go out and say “hahha, we’ve been spying on you, now we’re gonna use it in court!” They had to keep up the pretense that they were keeping their programs a secret – yet they needed to make them public. It may be up to the defense attorneys to make the first precedents here; the prosecutors can wait, or resort to parallel construction. The data isn’t going anywhere.
So Mr. Snowden, as much as I appreciated some of the random PowerPoint slides, I don’t believe you’re really on our side. I think you’re a triple agent – once for them, once for “the people”, and once again for them. I think that when you debated Zakaria, you used an argument you know can collapse – the claim that it is impossible to have secure encryption with a backdoor. Any idiot can see that with traditional “key escrow”, the government could demand a copy of your key, keep it in a safe, and not make the code less secure. The real reason to oppose Zakaria is that two people should have the right to have a conversation without Big Brother listening in, and even to have a conversation in a language that Big Brother doesn’t know. I think your help is not help, but just a trap.
One of the most dangerous aspects of the huge “leak” you provided is that now people think we know everything. After all, so much was revealed! But we know nothing! We know nothing about insider trading based on surveillance data, and how much that feeds the spies’ black budgets. We know nothing about smart dust. We know nothing about terahertz scanning through buildings or to read DNA sequence or used, at higher power, as a weapon to alter chromatin structure. We know nothing about how the U.S. manages to keep people from smuggling in surreptitious nuclear weapons – yet we know they must. We know nothing about a million things that are going on. Yet we have been lulled into thinking we know all, and so we think these things don’t exist.
If my broadside is wrong, then I apologize, because the ordinary narrative of your story is a heroic one. But I have to say things how I see them.
With Re:
“Mr. Snowden, I believe that what you have done is to release data about a lot of things that people knew were going on, but didn’t have proof about. I believe the NSA had a problem that it wanted to see its data used in prosecutions, but they could not simply go out and say “hahha, we’ve been spying on you, now we’re gonna use it in court!” They had to keep up the pretense that they were keeping their programs a secret – yet they needed to make them public. It may be up to the defense attorneys to make the first precedents here; the prosecutors can wait, or resort to parallel construction. The data isn’t going anywhere.”
If we have failed — to protest, to speak out, to act — and our journalists have failed to make us want to or pursued things more doggishly, not released more — whether mistakenly, in good faith, on purpose, via poor or good strategy or what have you — that is OUR OWN faults. NOT Mr. Snowden’s. Even that aside, I’d say even if our journalists WANTED to do more, the odds are massively stacked against them — just as they are massively stacked against us to act on it. Even if things were handled by all of us perfectly, everything the world has been showing us demonstrates that anything can be framed any way those in power want them to be framed in order to get what is desired from things. It goes far beyond ‘lemonade out of lemons’. Like all war strategists, countries obsessed with war and strategy will use every trick in the book to manipulate outcomes to make what should be positive changes negative ones, and turn what should be a means to protest into a stultifying method of preventing protest.
The rule of thumb is still: no matter what we think we know, it’s worse — and no matter what we think we see, things are already far more progressed than we believe. By the time we have any data in our hands, they’ve already moved on and perfected or tossed the previous things. This is no doubt one reason the classification system even exists as it does in its current state: by the time things are declassified we can’t do much about them and even if we could a lot of the time we either don’t know about it or we no longer care. What our parents cared about we laugh off. And with the acceleration of technology those classification timelines aren’t even relevant anymore — they’re relics of a time when it took that long. Now it might take a year or 5 (or 10, tops).
So I think you’re placing the onus on the wrong people by pointing the finger at Snowden, or the people pointing the finger at the journalists and other individuals who have had at least some access to the cache of files in question (and I don’t mean solely Glenn Greenwald), although I believe, personally, they handled things incorrectly at times and in some cases even mislead the public or skirted their duties by refusing to report on things at all.
We should be pointing the fingers at our lawmakers, at the shadow state that exists, at the employees who are willing to violate constitutional rights as their *job* even if/when they KNOW it is wrong, illegal, and violates their oaths they made to their country’s (and the world’s, because I’m tired of people just caring about “Americans rights”) most sacred beliefs. And at ourselves for not doing more to change things, speaking out more, demonstrating in public more, and not doing more than arguing about stuff online where comments aren’t really worth much.
Yes, there are a variety of targets for finger-pointing. Nonetheless, my feeling is that the sort of change described here: https://www.reddit.com/r/law/comments/4a0o0a/surprise_nsa_data_will_soon_routinely_be_used_for/?ref=readnext_3 is far more important than the supposed groundswell of privacy activism that has not held back many laws since Snowden’s disclosures. The NSA would not be sharing its PRISM data if that data were secret — that was their problem, which Snowden solved for them. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you wish, but once you know somebody is a spy, I don’t think you have to be a raving loony to ask whose side he’s really on.
I disagree with most of your conclusions, especially with regards to Snowden, but that doesn’t mean I disagree with some of your statements with regards to how things are playing out (which you will see, if you look at the other comments I’ve posted here today — especially the thread between Mona and myself regarding the FBI).
But as I stated, Snowden didn’t “solve that problem” for them. We the People failed in our civic responsibilities (where that includes some of the journalists and most of the populace that didn’t do more and make a big fuss about it happening and calling people to task for the abuses instead of allowing them to codify it. We DO (or did, but still might) have SOME SAY in how our laws are managed (I choose that word deliberately) but we also have to stay on top of it; their goals are generally to make us forget and to twist the bad into something useful. For instance while I generally don’t believe in a massive 9/11 conspiracy, I think it’s safe to say that they made quite a lot of use out of the tragedy by pushing through Patriot Act after it didn’t go through *before* 9/11 (if I recall correctly there was even an article about this last year on this site)… Similarly while they probably didn’t “choose” for Snowden’s documents to be released, that’s not to say they couldn’t “manage” the situation to turn it into a benefit for them — but that only works if We The People fail and permit it to happen. Generally speaking that means we need people every bit as whip-smart and manipulative and ‘crafty’ with words with enough power to balance the equation. And that… often takes a whistleblower. Ironically, perhaps.
Out of curiosity, do you believe things would have gone any differently — or specifically any *better* — if Edward Snowden hadn’t permitted for his name and story to be published (early on or not)? As I said, we disagree on a lot of things, but I cannot under any circumstances believe that we’d have had a better shot if he hadn’t come forward.
WE have failed, Wnt — individually and en masse. He’s one man, with the help of a few people and limited resources, who has been doing the best he can to make a difference in the world while under intense and constant surveillance (no less). It’s up to ALL of us to make differences, every day. No man is an island, and so forth. Do you believe *you* could possibly do better? If you do, let me know… I’m sure we can find someone to leak *you* data that puts your life and livelihood in jeopardy. I doubt anybody could possibly handle it all THAT much better. I think you’re forgetting that while this is how things maybe ARE turning out, WE had EVERY opportunity to make that not the case. Maybe you’re misdirecting your anger and frustration because it’s depressing to consider, instead, how powerless we are to get our fellow man/et al to think and act.
I personally want to see a better world, but we are still beholden to people who are NOT willing to think — or in many cases not capable of it. That, unfortunately, is one of the biggest dangers of populist vote, is it not? Everyone gets a ‘say’ regardless of how informed or how much thought they are capable and willing to put into things they are/are willing to be. And it’s rarely as an ‘individual’.
Incidentally if you think you always know what side a spy is on, or believe they don’t occasionally have crises of conscience or change sides or even sometimes *lack* sides… then maybe you need to shift your definition of ‘spy’. One isn’t *necessarily* an ‘agency man for life’ regardless of the fact that some people are, and regardless of what particular agency that may happen to be.
* Re: spies: One need merely to look at history and the literature on the subject, not be a ‘spy’ or have access to classified data. Even if you dismiss some of what you read out of turn due to their sources, historical examples are well-documented and exist as proof going back for millennia.
Wnt uses the word “We” & tells us what “people” think.
Wnt is comfortable accusing total strangers of being “triple agents” without any evidence whatsoever to support the accusation, because Wnt has thought this through very carefully.
So Mr. Snowden, as much as I appreciated some of the random PowerPoint slides, I don’t believe you’re really on our side. I think you’re a triple agent
Yes, you are a crank who, for whatever reason, has decided to litter The Intercept with your crankery.
That is most unfortunate. Do they not permit comments over at Infowars or Prison Planet? Those would be your natural home.
This should have been blockquoted as I was quoting the crank: “So Mr. Snowden, as much as I appreciated some of the random PowerPoint slides, I don’t believe you’re really on our side. I think you’re a triple agent”
Lies, Mona, you’re a triple agent too. We’re on to you now! ;)
Yah, so I’m a crank. Is that supposed to be a surprise? The respectable, responsible people are working at the NSA or Microsoft or Goldman Sachs, all doing more or less the same thing. Here, nobody is guiding this ship. Like Milton’s Belial, I go where my thoughts take me … better or worse.
I’m not an Alex Jones fan … oddly, Infowars always seemed contemptibly silly, yet PrisonPlanet seems to have the right attitude a lot of the time. I wonder what the story is behind the two sites.
Daniel Ellsberg: “Yet typically in the national security field (and to a striking degree even in corporate and private associations without a formal apparatus of secrecy) even the “weakest links” do not break. No one tells.”
Secrecy and National Security Whistleblowing
by Daniel Ellsberg on January 8, 2013
http://www.ellsberg.net/archive/secrecy-national-security-whistleblowing
“Thus, a readiness and ability to keep secrets reliably is a prerequisite for these highly prestigious and powerful positions in our political system. But in this area as throughout human endeavor, it is a fundamental truth that wrongful secret-keeping is the most widespread form of complicity in wrong-doing. It involves many more people both within and outside an organization that is acting wrongfully than those who give wrongful orders or who directly implement them, though it includes these.
Since wrong-doing virtually always requires both secrecy and lies, and further secrets and lies to protect the secrets and lies, the wrongful operation-especially in a regime that approaches democracy–is commonly highly vulnerable to a breach of secrecy by any one of the many who share the secret. Yet typically in the national security field (and to a striking degree even in corporate and private associations without a formal apparatus of secrecy) even the “weakest links” do not break. No one tells.”
“No one tells.” Thanks for “telling,” Mr. Snowden. Now, it’s time for more people to come forward. America is keeping some secrets that must be told.
Edward Snowden here articulates the principle of kairos as well as anyone ever has:
“I would not encourage individuals to reveal information, even about wrongdoing, if they do not believe they can be effective in doing so, because the right moment can be as rare as the will to act. This is simply a pragmatic, strategic consideration. Whistleblowers are outliers of probability, and if they are to be effective as a political force, it’s critical that they maximize the amount of public good produced from scarce seed.”
To teachers of composition everywhere: Seldom is a historically significant or politically significant figure so explicit and coherent about her or his rhetorical strategy. So THIS is a great essay to use in your teaching.
But it won’t show up in your textbook, not even in the next edition. The quota of reprinted New York Times columns must be reached by every comp textbook. The last comp textbook I taught from contained two columns by David Brooks. It is very important that these people be paid once more by a captive audience of freshmen.
FWIW I believe Edward Snowden’s humbleness and practicality/pragmatism are some of the things that makes him so admirable as well. I tend to believe that people who just ‘leak’ often do so for more selfish reasons; whistleblowers who have the *freedoms* of people in mind are to be lauded and appreciated. How do we live in a world where we claim to stand for ‘freedom’ while making it anathema to put our biggest heroes in our own history books and refuse to stand up for them — and for the freedoms they are trying to get back (or protect)? What can we do about it? One issue I think we as a society face is that there are some wonderfully written pieces now but so many of them get drowned out by the sheer quantity of people talking. Which isn’t to say that people shouldn’t all have freedom of expression. But I prefer to read people who walk their talk. Mr. Snowden absolutely exemplifies this principle. Our children (and our childrens’ children) should aspire to care so much about their countries (and their world) — and that has to start with us (and how we teach them to think).
To be clear, I think his most heroic act wasn’t the whistleblowing, but facing the cognitive dissonance he felt head-on and acknowledging that things were WRONG. If more people in the IC did this (and the ‘defense’ contracting world) then we’d all be far better off. It’s his conscience and consciousness of the issues I applaud. More people can be ‘heroes’ without ever giving a single classified document to anybody by simply walking out of things they consider unconstitutional and unethical (and *wrong*) and/or never agreeing to it in the first place. That goes especially for people in the tech fields who create the technology to enable the automation and removal of ‘judgment’ from the equation — or allow the abuse of it.
So well stated!
n a smaller scale: should we be able to read hacked and leaked documents regarding the Brazilian Car wash investigation? The judge Moro was very much for openness when he made public the phone conversation between
On a smaller scale: should we be able to read hacked and leaked documents regarding the Brazilian Car wash investigation? The judge Moro was very much for openness when he made public the phone conversation between Dilma and Lula. Perhaps there is more the public should know.
Looks like you’re more than one person, huh?
It’s already being investigated and rummaged through by the appropriate authorities. More importantly, it’s not impinging upon your freedoms or rights, that I am aware of. In my estimation this is one of the things that separates ‘leaking’ from ‘whistleblowing': Usually people who whistleblow are trying to GET those investigations and bring problems to light, whereas ‘leaking’ can be irresponsible and impinge on privacy and freedom instead of encourage both (note can, not is; I’m sure it varies from case to case).
Is the Brazilian Car Wash investigation seriously affecting you? Heck is it causing actual and irreparable harm to you? Were you a contractor that might have gotten a bid if it weren’t for the corruption that allegedly occurred? If so, maybe you, personally, should get to see the documents and file a civil suit once the investigation is complete. But I’m pretty sure that doesn’t call for a whistleblower, and I’m pretty sure not all corruption cases affect most people, just like most (but not all) tax avoidance doesn’t affect most people. But those are just my opinions.
Case in point: large companies (and some very wealthy individuals who made their money through those large companies) in my estimation probably occasionally deserve the whistleblowing treatment, especially if they’re lying about it and abusing the spirit of the law (see stuff like http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/google-facebook-amazon-ebay-apple-7251746 )… but IMHO your average individual probably doesn’t even if he’s trying to skirt the law a bit in the country he/she resides in, or just doesn’t know much better. In my opinion a lot of it has to do with scale. I often feel bad for people who wind up getting prosecuted for tax evasion because a relative in a foreign country left property to them and they either knowingly or unknowingly didn’t pay an estate tax on it, for instance. And for people who aren’t wealthy who work overseas who, were they citizens of pretty much any other country in the world other than the US, wouldn’t owe taxes to the US and the country they’re residing in, both, if they’re US citizens.
Killing people and covering it up (various corporate whistleblowers who’ve blown the whistle on bad science, pollution, contamination, carcinogens) or lying about it (drone program, kill lists)? Destroying lives (COINTELPRO, provocateurs, infiltration of civil liberties groups, destruction of journalists for trying to bring truths to light)? Grossly overstepping the law and manifestly, on a large scale and without mercy, violating civil rights, liberties and the Constitution (as in Snowden’s case and some others)? Whistleblow. But as I said, JMHO.
Thanks. No, I’m an individual. I am not specific effected as an individual by car wash, but I don’t like the so called independent judge taking site for one group of criminal politicians, like Cuhna and a deputy who sympatise with militairy coups and torture. I understand the need for a wissle blower from insite the organisation of that particular judge. I understand your arguments.
Change your username and post the same thing again, again.
Bravo to you, Edward, you wrote a great essay on the surveillance state which has engineered what could be termed a technological coup d’etat against all us citizens that has clearly subverted our Constitution. I served as a medical corpsman in Vietnam, and I admired Daniel Ellsberg’s leaking of The Pentagon Papers to The New York Times. Like him, you are a true patriot. When the news first broke about what you did, I felt proud to be an American citizen. And I haven’t felt that way in a long time.
This was a great article.
Ed Snowden made the point in a recent video shown on The Intercept “…that it is all turned upside down as privacy is the right of the private citizen not the right of ‘public’ officials”, of which we need to know that they are serving us not serving us up like on a menu.
He makes the point here how whistleblowers have to come to terms with their oath relating to the Constitution verses their choice to do nothing when they are clearly violating it in what work and activities they are participating in.
What would also be great is that if we did not just have to depend on whistleblowers to protect our Constitution. Would it not be great if our elected political non-leaders took a stab at it?
Would it not be more of what the Founding Fathers hoped for if our political leaders were not: corrupt throughout all three branches of our federal and state governments, placed in office by their egotistical campaign funders, sycophants to their scallywags of corporate personhood idolization, enforcers of their army of lobbyists commands, neutral enablers that cling on to a status quo of oppression, servants to the false god of compromise that offers exponential riches to the elite and mere crumbs to the masses, and most disgustingly week betrayers of mankind that live the rationalization “We were elected to be here, but this is how it is what else can we do but go along”?
“Would it not be great if our elected political non-leaders took a stab at it?”
Yes. How is it that laws (or even internal policies, etc.) get drafted then passed as Constitutional? Simple: they’re violating their oaths. That is why or how, as Snowden writes above, “We have become reliant upon what was intended to be the limitation of last resort: the courts.” They just pass them and wait for them to be challenged – which takes money and time, a good power control strategy.
Now, how to solve this?
• armed revolt?
• well, lets see what happens after this election, ad infinitum?
• peaceably dissolving the union, because that parchment compact has failed?
“• peaceably dissolving the union, because that parchment compact has failed?”
The way the USSR was dissolved, only without involving another nationstate’s political, economic and social apparatuses?
Mr. Snowden. Thank you for your courage. You are an American Hero.
Thank you for your service. We need more whistle blowers!
Nice.
“Our politicians are more fearful of the politics of terrorism — of the charge that they do not take terrorism seriously — than they are of the crime itself.”
But, I doubt that. Barack Obama, is he afraid of not taking Islamic terrorism seriously? In spymasters CIA in the crosshairs – they don’t seem to be too afraid of the politics, except Gen. Hayden… he appears to be. He also, now, appears to be afraid of the politics of torture. When they all (U.S. politicians and bureaucrats) have a reputation of lying it’s hard to know when they are genuinely telling the truth.
I appreciate the combination of dark realism and the glimmer of hope.
“At the heart of this evolution is that whistleblowing is a radicalizing event — and by “radical” I don’t mean “extreme”; I mean it in the traditional sense of radix, the root of the issue.”
Hang in there.
The problem is far greater than people care to realize.When they are not only spying and intercepting,but framing and killing,planting and targeting innocent citizens,and there is such small platform to get the truth out-if any,for some,its the type of disgust and fear that people will never possibly know unless they have witnesses it first hand.The reality is the land of the free no longer exists yet many people don’t have a clue…
Did not read the article, yet.
Thank you for what you did; I believe you did a great service for liberty and freedom, for the U.S. Constitution. It was brave.
I hope Snowden realizes 9/11 was a Con Job…
Surely, he’s read what former NSA officers Thomas Drake, William Binney [et al.] have to say about 9/11 and the NSA…
——————
“The sadder reality, Mr. President, is that NSA itself had enough information to prevent 9/11, but chose to sit on it rather than share it with the FBI or CIA. We know; we were there. We were witness to the many bureaucratic indignities that made NSA at least as culpable for pre-9/11 failures as are other U.S. intelligence agencies…
…“My first day on the job at NSA was 9/11. I was immediately charged as the lead NSA executive to find and deploy the best technology at NSA for the fight against terrorism….
…“That’s where I found the pre- and post-9/11 intelligence from NSA monitoring of some of the hijackers as they planned the attacks of 9/11 had not been shared outside NSA. This includes critical pre-9/11 intelligence on al-Qaeda, even though it had been worked on by NSA analysts. I learned, for example, that in early 2001 NSA had produced a critical long-term analytic report unraveling the entire heart of al-Qaeda and associated movements. That report also was not disseminated outside of NSA.
“Make no mistake. That data and the analytic report could have, should have prevented 9/11…
…“In short, when confronted with the prospect of fessing up, NSA chose instead to obstruct the 9/11 congressional investigation, play dumb, and keep the truth buried, including the fact that it knew about all inbound and outbound calls to the safe house switchboard in Yemen. NSA’s senior leaders took me off the task because they realized – belatedly, for some reason – that I would not take part in covering up the truth about how much NSA knew but did not share.
“When the 9/11 Commission hearings began, Director Hayden chortled at executive staff meetings over the fact that the FBI and CIA were feeling the heat for not having prevented 9/11. This was particularly difficult for me to sit through, for I was aware that NSA had been able to cover up its own culpability by keeping investigators, committees, and commissions away from the truth.”
Full Letter: http://consortiumnews.com/2014/01/07/nsa-insiders-reveal-what-went-wrong/
—————
…or perhaps Snowden needs a good chat with Sibel Edmonds or James Corbett???
…or perhaps Snowden needs a good chat with Sibel Edmonds
Sibel Edmonds showed herself to be a pathetic crank month after month post ‘Snowden’ as can be proven by this childish, freakish rant of a post from her own blog:
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2013/12/15/mr-snowden-its-time-to-come-out-and-take-a-stand-publicly-as-to-your-intentions/
i would really like to hear his perception of that one.
And building 7.
The group that brought down building 7 — surely the most anti-climactic building collapse in history — were totally incompetent but insisted on the action….even though everyone else warned them that nobody would care particularly once the much taller twin towers were on fire. But no, they were into numerology, and were trying to “roll a 7″.
For more information, study the oil prints in the seventh parking spot from the northeast edge of the lot surrounding the Burger King in Columbus (operation columbus) OH (code word “oh!”) at 3330 Indianola Avenue (code word Indian Cola). You have exactly 37 minutes before the sprayers arrive.
(the reason it’s at that Burger KING (codeword authority) is because this neighborhood is called Clintonville. You know what that means). It took me a few minutes to add this so you now only have 31 minutes.
You’ve so clearly missed your calling as a numerologist.
Was that you? Just now I let the phone ring seven times and then picked up — but whoever called hung up and didn’t leave a message.
Anyway, call me back, I really want that numerology job.
Sent you a psychic telegram. I don’t want it being intercepted. Hope you understand. I’m thinking of a number between 5 and 9,728,374,636^2.
vic makes a lot of sense anywhere else.
maybe needs a re-read.
“The group that brought down building 7 ”
According to the NIST, a single column failed and then the whole thing fell down. I understand Jews were responsible for the Reichstag fire, too.
Funny you should bring that up. One interesting difference between building 7 and the Reichstag fire is that people actually noticed the Reichstag fire.
I’m curious what you think the….er…..point of or……motive for…………… bringing down building 7 was.
Oooh, oooh, wait Regis, here’s my final answer:
The whole point of 9/11 was a giant distraction so that “they” could bring down building 7 without anyone caring.
Did I win? Did I win?
“people actually noticed the Reichstag fire.”
And people noticed the 6 second collapse of WTC7. My point is that the Reichstag fire was a false-flag attack.
You prattle on that there is no possible motive for the collapse of building 7 so the collapse has to be expected. Fucking. Stupid.
You are incapable of providing meaningful insight and instead choose the role of stooge. You should be embarrassed.
hint: “out of sight, out of mind”.
and, who visited the NSA, almost on a daily basis, prior to 11Sep01? Our buddy, Cheney.
Snowden’s time was much later than that, but I’d like to believe he subscribes to Hanlon’s Razor: never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
It’s tempting to subscribe to the theory that officials purposefully avoided revealing 9/11 plans in order to let the attack happen and justify all kinds of military/surveillance evils, but the truth is likely to be far more boring. The odds are that the agencies simply weren’t coordinated or competent enough to share valuable intel in time. It’s easier to imagine a conspiracy than to accept that organizational failures led to the deaths of thousands of people.
Not that there isn’t evidence of malice here… it’s just that it’s more about an attempt to cover up incompetency.
a series of blunders?
How did bldg 7 get wired and fired within the timeframe of TT collapses and be dismissed as it’s own earthquake?
the notion that “officials purposefully avoided revealing 9/11 plans” might have some truth to it. The shocked look on prezzy bush face – – Perhaps the shocklook was a “in wasnt supposed to happen like that” look.
What if building 7 was wired much before (as it had to be) and that there was a plan to hit that area but the higher ups were informed is was only going to be building 7?
Unlike 1929 when the people of the US had few assets, the econ crash was not about unemployment and hunger….. that was collateral damage. The real crash was about the inability of wallstreet to raise prices. One doesnt sell in the face of rising prices that can be matched with buyers.
And the war was the equivalent of a bankruptcy reorganisation to get the print-to-loan operation kicked off. And the overproduction and momentum following the war was merely collateral benefit.
This should be the caption under a cartoon showing sheep in a flock, whispering to each other, while a couple shepherds rest under a nearby tree.
However, on a positive note, change is inevitable. I believe Trump vs Clinton will offer a clear choice between a candidate who will massively expand the powers of the surveillance state and a candidate who will give the NSA everything it asks for.
if only you knew…
your suspense is killin’ me..
Ya know, if I were on their ‘hit list’ (moi!), I’d say it’s a pity we can’t find both in a single candidate. Nobody could ever hope to live up to Bush Jr and Obama in this regard, perhaps. They’ve truly shone in their roles as the mouthpieces of the rulers of the ‘free world’ after all. If I were them, I’d probably be intimidated, too.
I think what we really need is not only a president and shadow state willing to violate privacy and geographical definitions and the Constitution, but one that has no compunctions of admitting so publicly. It’s time we redefine ‘transparency’ now that we have no means to fight back, the way I figure it.
The ghosts in my machines get angry when I say such things because they don’t understand their freedoms are violated too, I reckon. But I’m sure they’re just doing their jobs. It’s hard to get too angry. We need these people to get us to a place where we can find candidates who will give the NSA everything *without* having to ask for it (or even be blackmailed into it, though of course, perish the thought?).
We should all want the right to call tyranny what it is… and see it punished. What a world!
As the old saying goes, the optimist believes we live in the best of all possible worlds, the pessimist fears this is true.
‘ between a candidate who will massively expand the powers of the surveillance state and a candidate who will give the NSA everything it asks for’
????
There the same thing, no?
Maybe, between a candidate who will give NSA everything it asks for and a candidate who will negotiate?
The choices you’d like to have are not necessarily the choices you are given.
If you’re given choices, you’re probably luckier than some people…?
Your confusion (“????”) seems to be of your own design. The point is that the choice is a distinction without a difference.
As Usual,
EA
Both elements of your satirical levity, excellently conveyed as usual, may have been better served by prefacing it by quoting Mr. Snowden’s entire closing thought.
However Benito, it is pleasing to note that you were the first to post a reply to this excellent article by Edward Snowden.
“The public good before private advantage.” TP
As Usual,
EA
“I believe Trump vs Clinton will offer a clear choice between a candidate who will massively expand the powers of the surveillance state and a candidate who will give the NSA everything it asks for.”
At last! A choice we can believe in.