Well now, this is a very interesting development. Have you paid any attention to the story of ex-CIA employee Edw*rd Sn*wden and how he outed Big Brother? In short – he exposed details of a top-secret American program that collects vast streams of phone and Internet data. His claim, in a nut shell, is that he does not want to live in a society where the government can seize your private information and use it as they see fit.
CNN – “The revelations have set off a furious debate in the United States about whether the surveillance program is a disturbing form of government overreach or an important tool for intelligence agencies trying to prevent attacks against the nation.”
Personally, I’m on the fence about this one. I understand the outrage on both sides. I see a need to track these assh*les who mean to do as many people harm as possible, and I’m all for disrupting their means of communication and thwarting their efforts. This method has already shut down some attempts, if we believe what we’re being told. I don’t know that I’m comfortable with the knowledge that the government can peer into my personal stuff at any time without my knowing about it. I also know that I’m not doing anything wrong here that they would find alarming, but where do you draw the line. Where will THEY draw the line.
As for Mr. Sn*wden, some people say he’s a hero for bringing all this to light, at the expense of his own life, probably. He was living the good life in Hawaii with a six figure job. He gave all that up, and left his family!… to get this out to the public because he was so horrified. Some say he’s a traitor and deserves prosecution in the highest court of law. We know there was some real deceitful behavior on his part, yes, but was it for the good of the people? Us? …
What say you?
I'm with you, I really have mixed emotions about the whole thing!
I haven't had a chance to read up on both sides of it and as a Verizon customer I probably should. This did come across my feed this morning:
"With this dramatic reveal of the identity of Greenwald’s source, Edward Snowden, it was also revealed that Snowden has been working with the firm Booz Allen since March. So, this off-hand tweet from Greenwald struck me as particularly odd: “@TheStalwart The reality is that Laura Poitras and I have been working with him since February, long before anyone spoke to Bart Gellman”
If Greenwald has been working with his source since February, a month before Edward Snowden began working for Booz Allen, why is that not included in the Guardian story? That seems like a bit of a sticking point."
I'd be a little less unhappy about him having to give up a well-paying job, if he took the job after he started working with the Guardian reporters, just so he could do the set up.
We'll all see what materializes. Thanks for pointing out the difficulties in making sense of this from both directions.
Vickie
I would say it takes a very strong conviction, or a very large payoff, to do what $nowden did. I'm not up on it enough to have an opinion as to what motivated him, at this point. I do find it all very horrifying, though.
Interesting, don't you think Karen, that no one has uttered the word FELONY in regards to the ILLEGAL information mining done by Verizon, Microsoft,AOL, Apple, Gmail, etc. via PRISM since 2007? Interesting that the shift seems to be *away* from the felony and now on the criminal…er, whistle blower…which is he, do you think?
So…it's okay to commit felonies against We, the People, but not be a whistle blower?
I don't care why Snowden did the whistle blowing. I say Thank YOU and give him the Congressional Medal of Honor…not that'd it meaning anything coming from Obama who said such illegal activity…er, "information mining" was "justified".
I reserve the word "traitor" for those committing illegal activities, not whistle blowing.
I'm on the fenceline currently about this one. On the one hand, I can see how it helps, on the other, how it harms all of us. I'm not doing anything illegal here, either, unless gardening and raising goats is illegal… but it worries me that "the man" feels justified in spying on us.
The part I really don't get is when the president says "no one listens in on your phone conversations". Well, if they don't listen in, how do they know what we the people are up to?
I'm on the fence also. I do believe (and I could be very wrong) that $nowden had the good of the country in mind. Who knows for sure, and I don't do anything illegal either, but I certainly don't want someone listening in or reading my emails – you know, the kind about 'come to Jesus meetings'. LOL
xoxo
I'm bad….cause I say listening to all that news is bad for your health, and certainly for your peace of mind.
Hi, I'm amazed at all of the "on the fencers". I thought as Americans we valued what our founders fought and died for. True, that was long ago, but I ask all of you where would you stand? Would you help in a fight against an oppressive government, would you risk your life to save someone running away from slavery? While its presented as a small invasion, now we know that it is happening to all of us,all the time,and in many ways. And in ways we don't know.My observation after hearing this was they didn't catch the Boston bombers before the bombs went off,and I guess I'd like to know why? Was it not a hard enough target?, or maybe to show us why we need to give up another inch of our freedoms. I guess I don't believe there is a way to be safe and secure. Think of all the events that could be called terrorism today. I'll end my rant with the fact that we have been fighting wars longer now than any in our past, that the creators of those wars have not been brought to justice,that we refuse to let others pick which road to take ie., which religion,which ideal they want to follow. Now, I'll need to watch out for big brother.dl
I too am still debating in my head how I feel except for this fact. If you have a security postion whether in govt or private sector you sign and agree to confidentiality.. This does not mean you stay silent if you discover improprieties that harm people or threaten national security. THERE ARE however proper channels to address this and after exhausting those…. then and only then do you seek public "outing" or leaking of information. I have read no where of his attempt to go through channels first…
His agreement of confidentiality that he abused is punishable by whatever he agreed to upon employment by basic rule of law…
Having a high paying job does not infer that this person is of means, he could be heavy into debt, and would like to receive a book deal or public notoriety because of his "leaks".
Donald Trump has filed bankruptcy repeatedly… 😀
Nor can we assume that he was privy to exactly all the details of the gathering of information. What I have found so far is that none of the initial information is traced to any one's name etc. Only after suspicious activity of numbers TO a known/ or suspected terrorist or organization is further tracking done.
Any of you have a target red card or store "value " card? EVERY time you use it, your purchases are tracked and some can even track all the aisles you visit and what time you are in the store and exit the store….I find that FAR more intrusive and is how they target just the "right coupons" to us..lol
Every second your cell phone is turned on you are trackable…
The current situation with military misconduct toward women soldiers is a case in point. The women were going to authorities and repeatedly being dismissed or threatened after reporting assault and rape…I think that this matter should have come to light far sooner but I understand the intimidation factor to the women. Eventually some women realized that the only way to have justice is to remove the penalty decisions from the military itself to allow justice for the women. That is the process taking place right now..
SS#, phone numbers, computers, i pads…etc We are all "out" there and the info is easy to find. We need to decide what is harmLESS and what is harmFUL.
Dang Karen you keep me up on the soap box a lot hehe
I tend to support whistleblowers. They are called that because they see wrong being done, usually by the government or a corporation, and they risk a great deal to speak out. I don't think it was an easy decision, nor would I want to be fearful of imprisonment or trial, as I'm sure this young man must be.
I agree with the commenter who wondered why the word felony isn't used for anyone else but the whistle blower?
I don't care if someone signs a confidentiality agreement – if, in the end, the wrong is so egregious that being quiet is no longer acceptable, toss the confidentiality agreement. A strong moral choice to speak out is always more important than an 'agreement.'
We long ago passed the big brother warnings of 1984. What seemed unthinkable to me as a high school senior writing a paper on that book, or as an actor cast in a production of 1984, is now accepted. We must speak out. Complacence is the enemy.
He's a hero.
Oh, I wanted to add that the channels one can go through to protest something like this are less available when you work for a contractor. If you work as a government employee there are channels to go through. I learned this in the NY Times today. This guy didn't work for the government – he worked for an independent contractor.