Snowden: I raised NSA concerns internally over 10 times before going rogue

[MikeK]

He didnt stop there. Hes spilling the beans on how we spy on people around the world. Do you think hes helping us by doing that? Do you think we shouldnt have a spy agency?

Of course we should have a spy agency. But we should not have an agency which has the unconstrained ability to tap our phones and read our emails without warrant or oversight.

This fundamentally unlawful NSA capability began with the Bush Administration and was considered outrageous back then. The fact that so many Americans have become accustomed to the new reality and have quietly accepted it confirms Orwell's construction on how Nineteen Eighty Four came about.

What comes next? Issuing keys to our homes so federal agents can drop in and look around at will -- just to make sure we're all safe?

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

Snowden: I raised NSA concerns internally over 10 times before going rogue

And?

This doesn’t justify violating the law.

Consequently Snowden is a criminal suspect, subject to arrest and prosecution, and appropriately so, where his ‘feelings’ and ‘beliefs’ are irrelevant, and where to disclose classified information was not his decision to make.

 

[J.E.D]

Snowden is a coward. If he were a man of honor he'd face the consequences of his actions instead of running off to Russia. For a man supposedly concerned about govt corruption and overreach, he picked a bad country to hide in. Russia is not known for human rights or having a just system. He's Putin's plaything now. It's sad to see self-proclaimed 'patriots' defend this honor-less criminal.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Of course the NSA has a legitimate reason for the spying, and they use that information to protect Americans.

From who?

 

[Dot Com]

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden said he repeatedly tried to go through official channels to raise concerns about government snooping programs but that his warnings fell on the deaf ears. In testimony to the European Parliament released Friday morning, Snowden wrote that he reported policy or legal issues related to spying programs to more than 10 officials, but as a contractor he had no legal avenue to pursue further whistleblowing.

Asked specifically if he felt like he had exhausted all other avenues before deciding to leak classified information to the public, Snowden responded:

"Yes. I had reported these clearly problematic programs to more than ten distinct officials, none of whom took any action to address them. As an employee of a private company rather than a direct employee of the US government, I was not protected by US whistleblower laws, and I would not have been protected from retaliation and legal sanction for revealing classified information about lawbreaking in accordance with the recommended process."

Snowden: I raised NSA concerns internally over 10 times before going rogue

I guess that's the "proper channels" talking point out the window.

he's a hero in my book

 

[MikeK]

Snowden: I raised NSA concerns internally over 10 times before going rogue

And?

This doesn’t justify violating the law.

Consequently Snowden is a criminal suspect, subject to arrest and prosecution, and appropriately so, where his ‘feelings’ and ‘beliefs’ are irrelevant, and where to disclose classified information was not his decision to make.

Some laws should be and deserve to be broken. The NSA's actions occurred in clear violation of and with brazen contempt for the Fourth Amendment.

Snowden broke the law to expose a much greater crime. If you are aware of any specific harm his actions have brought about, please tell us what it is.

If the NSA needs to monitor a citizen there are procedures to follow. Arbitrarily monitoring every citizen in the U.S., along with those of other friendly nations, is both unlawful and reprehensible.


"One who would trade his liberty for safety deserves neither liberty nor safety." [Benjamin Franklin]

The Constitution is a declaration of the principles of our Liberty. Our government has no right to ignore it.

 

[MikeK]

Snowden is a coward. If he were a man of honor he'd face the consequences of his actions instead of running off to Russia. For a man supposedly concerned about govt corruption and overreach, he picked a bad country to hide in. Russia is not known for human rights or having a just system. He's Putin's plaything now. It's sad to see self-proclaimed 'patriots' defend this honor-less criminal.

Are you kidding? Snowden would be a fool to feed himself to the lions. They would railroad his ass to Guantanamo and sentence him to some federal prison for the rest of his life.

I'm not assuming he has provided Russia or any other nation with any information which is capable of doing anything more than embarrassing the power freaks in our government who thought they had a perfect right to do what they were doing to us. Nor should you make any such assumption. Because if Snowden's revelations were in fact compromising to our national security you may rest assured we'd be hearing about it loud and clear.

So far all we've heard about it how pissed off the federal aristocracy is at Snowden.

 

[DriftingSand]

Snowden: I raised NSA concerns internally over 10 times before going rogue

And?

This doesn’t justify violating the law.

Consequently Snowden is a criminal suspect, subject to arrest and prosecution, and appropriately so, where his ‘feelings’ and ‘beliefs’ are irrelevant, and where to disclose classified information was not his decision to make.

At one time it was "lawful" for soldiers in red coats to break down someone's door without due process. A person would be breaking the "law" if they followed a religious belief that differed from that of the King's belief. A person would be breaking the "law" if they spoke out against a tyrannical government.

As a result, a nation called the United States of America was formed with a set of Laws and a list of rights outlined in a document called the Constitution. This Constitution protected the people of the United States of America from tyrants who would usurp the rights of the people. One of the Amendments to this Constitution was called the 4th Amendment. And here's what it says:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." Fourth Amendment, U.S. Constitution

Fourth Amendment

Snowden simply brought to light the fact that the above Amendment was being blatantly violated by a group of usurpers called the NSA. The NSA -- not Snowden -- breaks the law every time it violates the 4th Amendment. As Americans, we must do everything in our power to protect our rights and the document that protects and defines those rights.

“Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security” ~ Benjamin Franklin

 

[DriftingSand]

Of course the NSA has a legitimate reason for the spying, and they use that information to protect Americans.

From who?

Exactly! Who's going to "protect us" from the Obamacons and Clintonistas and Bush-Brownshirts? Our current De Facto government doesn't represent the sentiments and intent of the founding fathers of this nation -- not in the least. From their perspective, the Constitution is an obstacle that needs to be eliminated. Total power and control is their aim. The only law Snowden broke was the law of good-old-boy silence.

 

[DriftingSand]

Snowden is a coward. If he were a man of honor he'd face the consequences of his actions instead of running off to Russia. For a man supposedly concerned about govt corruption and overreach, he picked a bad country to hide in. Russia is not known for human rights or having a just system. He's Putin's plaything now. It's sad to see self-proclaimed 'patriots' defend this honor-less criminal.

A group of hyenas is encircling a mere cat. The mere cat sounds an alarm which sets all the other mere cats on alert. They all run and hide. From the hyenas' perspective, the loudmouthed mere cat ruined their lunch and they accuse it of high crimes against the national coalition of hyenas. They demand that the mere cat face his accusers (a bunch of hungry hyenas). Would it be wise for the mere cat to emerge from his place of safety to answer for the crime in which he was accused -- that is -- alerting all the other innocent mere cats?

 

[Jarlaxle]

The guy stabbed this country in the back...Talking about spying on Americans by the millions doesn't = outing us to our enemies.

Matthew,

Who are these enemies?

You are drawing conclusions with no supportive evidence. So far all I've seen is evidence that the U.S. Government has become less than that which was intended by the Framers of our Constitution and more like that which is outlined in the prognostic imaginings of George Orwell.

Edward Snowden is a whistleblower -- not a traitor.

Snowden is a hero. See signature...

 

[Jarlaxle]

Snowden is a coward. If he were a man of honor he'd face the consequences of his actions instead of running off to Russia. For a man supposedly concerned about govt corruption and overreach, he picked a bad country to hide in. Russia is not known for human rights or having a just system. He's Putin's plaything now. It's sad to see self-proclaimed 'patriots' defend this honor-less criminal.

Are you kidding? Snowden would be a fool to feed himself to the lions. They would railroad his ass to Guantanamo and sentence him to some federal prison for the rest of his life.

More likely, he would just be quietly killed.

 

[Darkwind]

You dumb ***** don't even know, do you?

IF....

And ONLY IF...

Snowden had released documents that pertained to the NSA spying on Americans, he could be forgiven for being a whistle blower with no place to go.

But he hasn't stopped at documents on the NSA working inside America. Has he?

Do some ******* leg work and take your ******* blinders off.....He has leaked information on processes and abilities AND gathered information on our allies and enemies.

If ever I see the man, I'll kill him. He is a traitor to his nation and to his people.

/end of story.

 

[J.E.D]

Snowden is a coward. If he were a man of honor he'd face the consequences of his actions instead of running off to Russia. For a man supposedly concerned about govt corruption and overreach, he picked a bad country to hide in. Russia is not known for human rights or having a just system. He's Putin's plaything now. It's sad to see self-proclaimed 'patriots' defend this honor-less criminal.

Are you kidding? Snowden would be a fool to feed himself to the lions. They would railroad his ass to Guantanamo and sentence him to some federal prison for the rest of his life.

I'm not assuming he has provided Russia or any other nation with any information which is capable of doing anything more than embarrassing the power freaks in our government who thought they had a perfect right to do what they were doing to us. Nor should you make any such assumption. Because if Snowden's revelations were in fact compromising to our national security you may rest assured we'd be hearing about it loud and clear.

So far all we've heard about it how pissed off the federal aristocracy is at Snowden.

Are YOU kidding? You don't think that Russia has combed through every file on that computer and is planning on taking advantage of the info they get from it? Just because we haven't heard anything doesn't mean that's not the case. You know that Putin is a ruthless power hungry leader right?

 

[Jarlaxle]

You dumb ***** don't even know, do you?

IF....

And ONLY IF...

Snowden had released documents that pertained to the NSA spying on Americans, he could be forgiven for being a whistle blower with no place to go.

But he hasn't stopped at documents on the NSA working inside America. Has he?

Do some ******* leg work and take your ******* blinders off.....He has leaked information on processes and abilities AND gathered information on our allies and enemies.

If ever I see the man, I'll kill him. He is a traitor to his nation and to his people.

/end of story.

You support covert spying on Americans. Noted. How evil.

 

[MikeK]

Are YOU kidding? You don't think that Russia has combed through every file on that computer and is planning on taking advantage of the info they get from it? Just because we haven't heard anything doesn't mean that's not the case. You know that Putin is a ruthless power hungry leader right?

The information Snowden revealed is without question embarrassing to our increasingly authoritarian and intrusive government. But Snowden has repeatedly said he's revealed nothing which might be useful to a hostile entity.

That leaves us with a choice to either believe him or to not believe him. You've chosen to not believe him and to draw negative conclusions. I've made the opposite choice because I respect his intelligence and his intentions, which obviously are in no way self-serving.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

It wouldnt be much of a spy agency if they were forth coming. Tell me, how have Americans been negatively impacted by the NSA?

Would you consider yourself negatively impacted if some peeping tom was watching you in your most private, intimate moments? How about your family? What if some random person intercepted your computer on its way to being delivered to you to install spyware to report back to them on what you're doing, would that negatively impact you?

This is more like a peeping tom who has billions of videos he never actually looks at. Of course the NSA has a legitimate reason for the spying, and they use that information to protect Americans. A peeping tom however has no positive motive for his peeping.

I'm sure the peeping tom can justify his actions as being "legitimate" as well, but that doesn't mean we should believe them. Even if they say they haven't actually looked at the videos.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

He didnt stop there. Hes spilling the beans on how we spy on people around the world. Do you think hes helping us by doing that? Do you think we shouldnt have a spy agency?

Yes, Heaven forbid Angela Merkel know that the U.S. government has been illegally spying on her. She's clearly been working with al-Qaeda. And I'm probably not the right person to ask, because no, I don't think the NSA should exist.

Use some logic for once... if there is nothing to be gained from spying on Angela Merkel, why do you suppose they did it?

I didn't say there was nothing to be gained. Power politics means there's plenty to be gained from doing so. I merely said it was illegal and implied that it had nothing to do with terrorism, which is the claim the NSA makes when anything they've done comes into question. Spying on Merkel has nothing to do with national security, in other words.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

Snowden is a coward. If he were a man of honor he'd face the consequences of his actions instead of running off to Russia. For a man supposedly concerned about govt corruption and overreach, he picked a bad country to hide in. Russia is not known for human rights or having a just system. He's Putin's plaything now. It's sad to see self-proclaimed 'patriots' defend this honor-less criminal.

And it's the U.S. government's fault he's in Russia since they canceled his passport while he was in transit. It's not like he chose to be there. Regardless, this is a straw man. Snowden never claimed that Russia was better on civil liberties or privacy rights than the U.S. government, merely that the U.S. government would go after him for releasing this information and he needed asylum for his own safety. Much like Chen Guangcheng sought asylum in the U.S. embassy despite the fact that the U.S. isn't all that great on civil liberties either.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

Of course the NSA has a legitimate reason for the spying, and they use that information to protect Americans.

From who?

Angela Merkel.