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Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance
GUARDIAN ^ | Sunday 9 June 2013 14.27 EDT | Glenn Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill and Laura Poitras in Hong Kong

Posted on 06/09/2013 11:41:17 AM PDT by sunmars

The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell.

The Guardian, after several days of interviews, is revealing his identity at his request. From the moment he decided to disclose numerous top-secret documents to the public, he was determined not to opt for the protection of anonymity. "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," he said.

Snowden will go down in history as one of America's most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning. He is responsible for handing over material from one of the world's most secretive organisations – the NSA.

In a note accompanying the first set of documents he provided, he wrote: "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions," but "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant."

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Government
KEYWORDS: 0bamariggingamerica; 4amendment; 4thamendment; benghazi; boozallen; dell; edwardsnowden; fastandfurious; impeachnow; irs; nsa; nsaleak; obamarigging; prism; snowden; threatmatrix; whistleblower
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To: Recovering Ex-hippie

You seem to be quite the bootlicker. It’s sad to see FR infested with the servile rent seekers.


221 posted on 06/09/2013 5:10:19 PM PDT by RugerMini14
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To: RugerMini14

Since you have only been on Freeper since oct 2012...I will still consider you a potential troll, especially since your posts are often nasty and hysterical.

You will see that this guy is no true “patriot”...if he had all the connections (CIA,etc) that he had,and was truly worried about this country he would certainly know who to contact to get the info out, while not jeapordizing the country.

I will take a retired conservative military man’s opinion over a virulent poster!

Perhaps the Viking Kitties need to vet you.


222 posted on 06/09/2013 5:15:49 PM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (Go Galt!)
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To: Gene Eric
oh he blows alright, but not whistles...
223 posted on 06/09/2013 5:26:04 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: RugerMini14

You’re equating someone with a security clearance to that of a concentration camp guard? LOL


224 posted on 06/09/2013 5:28:57 PM PDT by GeorgeWashingtonsGhost
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To: Recovering Ex-hippie

I don’t consider him a hero. Most likely someone who did his Patriotic duty to defend this Country.

As to his temperament and bad military record, maybe any real Patriot would have acted the same. Who knows? How many times have we become angry at some new law or occurrence? If something is wrong, do we go along with it (grin and bear it) or do we react?

We also do not know if he was paid to reveal this info just to put Benghazi back on the back burner. How many distractions have there been so far and how frequently?


225 posted on 06/09/2013 5:29:48 PM PDT by 1_Rain_Drop
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To: abb

as well as both people’s exact locations at the time of each call.


226 posted on 06/09/2013 5:30:27 PM PDT by jurroppi1
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To: RightWingMama

The more I see and read about this Snowden guy, the more I think this whole thing is scripted by Team 0bama, aimed at luring Americans away from IRS, DOJ spying and Benghazi stories, while further eroding America’s superpower status.


227 posted on 06/09/2013 5:31:53 PM PDT by GeorgeWashingtonsGhost
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To: InterceptPoint

“Third party.” Hmm. High probability then that he’s one of the liberal Paulestinians than RONPAUL!!!1!! went after when he decided that he’d have a better shot appealing to the hardcore antiwar hate-America crowd than he did to a more traditional libertarian/conservative constituency.

IOW, don’t paint Snowden as some sort of hero. This makes him sound like not only a liberal, but a hate-America “Bush’s fault” liberal. Not somebody I would expect to see working either at the NSA or at the Company, but I guess all kinds are everywhere.

}:-)4


228 posted on 06/09/2013 5:31:54 PM PDT by Moose4 (SHALL. NOT. BE. INFRINGED.)
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To: Recovering Ex-hippie
Since you have only been on Freeper since oct 2012...I will still consider you a potential troll, especially since your posts are often nasty and hysterical.

Golly, because I support the Constitution over the NSA I'm a troll. Spoken like a good fascist.

229 posted on 06/09/2013 5:42:21 PM PDT by RugerMini14
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To: Typical_Whitey
Obama campaigned against all of this, and Bush paid a huge political price for enacting much of it, but the over-reach of big government with these programs pales in comparison to anything that Bush/Cheney ever could have dreamed of...

Bush put this evil system in place after 9/11, starting the surveillance state in earnest, in effect opening Pandora's Box. Then along come the unscrupulous thugs from Chicago, and they've been like kids in candy store with the new toy Bush handed them, evidently ramping it up into an out of control, unsupervised monstrosity to be used for their own political gain.

230 posted on 06/09/2013 5:46:30 PM PDT by MCH
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To: RugerMini14

If you raise a generation to believe your country is evil - this is what you get.


231 posted on 06/09/2013 5:49:35 PM PDT by edcoil (If you can't change the rules, then ignore them.)
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To: sunmars

I am amused he believed in Obama.


232 posted on 06/09/2013 5:50:12 PM PDT by RginTN
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To: EBH
In public policy debate, perception is just as important as reality. That might explain why liberal activists keep harping this idea of "inevitability." When they can't move the needle of public opinion any farther, the Obamunists try to resign America to the fact that it's only a matter of time until everyone conforms, and that their power is so great that all dissenters will be punished -- or killed -- or "disappeared".

The goal is to make The Hostile Surveillance State seem so omnipresent and unavoidable that people stop fighting it -- turning the illusion of "inevitability" into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Don't help them.

Fight. Encourage and protect the fighters.

That's all I've got to say.

233 posted on 06/09/2013 6:12:14 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("You can obseve a lot just by watchin'." - Yogi Berra)
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To: abb

Ah, yes. I didn’t notice that. Thanks. Interesting development, to say the least.


234 posted on 06/09/2013 6:15:03 PM PDT by keats5 (Not all of us are hypnotized.)
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To: 1_Rain_Drop

You make some good points...Its getting harder to discern what seems so “obvious”.

I just have a hard time figuring out the news “alert’/report after later it comes out as not at all what I had thought it was at first.

He may be a patriot, he may a Manning, or none of those.


235 posted on 06/09/2013 6:17:08 PM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (Go Galt!)
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To: MCH

Good analysis.


236 posted on 06/09/2013 6:18:17 PM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (Go Galt!)
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To: fso301
“None of this adds up in my mind. Unless he has a sizeable inheritance behind him, for how long can a 29 year old expect to remain holed up in a Hong Kong hotel?”

Well lets see... He was making 200K per year living with his girlfriend...she probably wasn't too poor either...I'm thinking he could stay there for quite a while, if that is actually where he is...

237 posted on 06/09/2013 6:19:15 PM PDT by MRadtke (Light a candle or curse the darkness?)
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To: Rusty0604

Yes. I forgot about THAT. Sounds like a lot of things need a second look after these recent reveals. Many of us suspected this all along.


238 posted on 06/09/2013 6:19:54 PM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: edcoil
If you raise a generation to believe your country is evil - this is what you get.

You mean a bunch of "conservatives" who are more interested in supporting the wholesale warrant-less searching of any American citizen the "legal" government desires?

Or are you talking about Snowden? Who seems to love the actual rights guaranteed by the Constitution far more than the supposed conservatives here on FR.

I'm confused because he seems the patriot to me, not the statist ("hey, it's orders") crowd that depressingly seems happy to lick the boots of government powers that be.

239 posted on 06/09/2013 6:25:33 PM PDT by RugerMini14
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To: sunmars

He is currently in Hong Kong. His side of the story is out and spread far and wide which is a bit of protection for him.


240 posted on 06/09/2013 6:28:11 PM PDT by listenhillary (Courts, law enforcement, roads and national defense should be the extent of government)
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