Posted on 11/27/2013 10:24:35 AM PST by kobald
This week in Washington, Senator Marco Rubio accused a fellow American of treason. Edward Snowden drew the Republican's ire by informing hundreds of millions of innocent people that the NSA is spying on them...
Anyone familiar with the Snowden story will understand why Rubio's comments are misleading. Americans are concerned about their civil liberties because of the accurate information the former Booz Allen Hamilton contractor leaked. He isn't responsible for any conspiracy theories, except in the sense that a conspiracy is "an agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act," and he exposed NSA and GCHQ cooperation on such acts. Finally, Snowden didn't exactly choose Vladimir Putin's Russia. His plan was to pass through en route to a different country, but while he was there, the Obama Administration yanked his passport. As a result of that brilliant strategy, they stranded a man with lots of secrets in Russia rather than, say, Ecuador...
Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, who are much, much better informed about NSA surveillance, insist that "we have yet to see any evidence that the bulk phone records collection program has provided any otherwise unobtainable intelligence," and believe much of what the NSA does is not necessary to protect our security.
One can agree or disagree with Snowden's actions. But it is mighty strange to label as a traitor someone who acted to inform his countrymen and protect their liberties.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
and if the ship needs to be sunk in order to preserve America’s liberty………….then loose lips are good
Agreed, If the government has become tyrannical against it’s citizens, then lose lips are the first step before crap starts hitting the fan, and it has already hit the fan...
Rubio: one more reason he’s dead to me...
I don’t view Snowden as a hero. He did defect to MOSCOW after all.
One interpretation is that Snowden is a traitor who defected to Moscow. Another interpretation is that he is a concerned but naive whistleblower who had to flee to the safety of Moscow.
I’m guessing that the second interpretation is more likely.
I am wondering if the whole wiki-leaks debacle had gone differently if Snowden would have felt safer staying the USA......
There was a lot of questionable crap around Julian Assange, while he is no saint, there were al lot of low shots aimed at him...
Also look at Michael Hastings.... Funny how the people who made his car haven;t issued a recall for the car he was driving being how it seems they seeming explode blowing out the engine for no reason whatsoever....
“He’s dead Jim!”
I agree. Sadly, your post is the first in 14 posts that makes sense.
Though I do think he is correct about one thing...in about 8 weeks the Democrats will be fleeing from Obamacare like extras in a Godzilla movie.
> I agree with him. Snowden is a traitor.
I don’t hink his intent was to be a traitor though. I think he started working for NSA as a subcontractor and started noticing how much more they spied on EVERYONE instead of just enemies and put 2 and 2 together and said wow our own governemnt is monioring EVERTHING. He probably thought he was doing the right thing alerting the American People to deep violations of our 4th amendment rights. Overall he alerted us to the fact that we are monitored 24/7 and that they are storing everything to use be able to sift it if they need to blackmail you later.
It’s pretty obvious now that he gave up information that would cripple our national security to our enemies and they will exploit that no doubt. All in all I think his intentions were good but the enemy dragged out some pretty damaging info just the same.
STRIKE ONE was plenty enough.
As far as I’m concerned...He’s OUTTA THERE!
He’s right. Snowden was a radical leftie who was, in fact, trying to discredit the US. All countries do this, if they have the technology, which even Angela Merkel admitted.
The important thing is what they do with the information.
I see this has turned into the usual “hate Rubio” thread. Sigh.
I have no issue with Snowden revealing that this type of spying was going on by the NSA on U.S. citizens, in fact, I praise him for that.
But I DO MIND if he has exposed our agents and jeopardized our covert operations against our enemies. I’m not sure that that has been demonstrated yet, but I have heard from some I personally know, who are conservative, patriotic, and military vets, who think Snowden is very much a traitor because they claim that he has sabotaged our legitimate covert capabilities.
Have you been following the Brittany Murphy case? She was an actress who died of pnuemonia, supposedly. She was really tight with one of the government whistleblowers, and one morning she is found dead. The same coroner did her was Breitbart’s as well. Now her dad is saying he had an independent test done and it appears she and her deceased husband were poisoned. Dad says the coroner was sent this evidence and ignored it. Coroner is dead of cyanide poisoning and can’t corraborrate anything. I’m thinking Snowden just didn’t want to die.
If you believe Obama's NSA is now primarily concerned with protecting our security then you probably also believe that his IRS is primarily concerned with tax collection.
Bingo.
Rubio is right, Snowden is a traitor. The guy effectively defected to Russia for gosh sakes. And some conservatives here are defending him? Amazing.
STRIKE THREE!You’re OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lot of buzz out there that our intel folks fear that Snowden has in his possession a “doomsday file” that could blow our intel establishment to bits even more effectively than the Church Committee.
Perhaps he is holding it for protection. But it’s hard to believe Vlad Putin lets him stay without sharing.
” I’m not sure that that has been demonstrated yet, but I have heard from some I personally know, who are conservative, patriotic, and military vets, who think Snowden is very much a traitor because they claim that he has sabotaged our legitimate covert capabilities.”
Sad to say this but, if they can, your conservative friends in the government and military need to get out because you cannot serve two masters- those that support liberty and those that support tyranny. Those that do stay in the military should do all they can to subvert the current power structure, a power structure that has clearly usurped the constitution and the rights of individual Americans.
Isn't he in McCain's Gang of Eight, as well ? That's about strike 14 on him.
“Rubio is an ass....”
Your keyboard must have malfunctioned. Four additional letters were left out after “ass.”
Seeing as how Rubio wants to turn over America to Mexican invaders, if Rubio wants to see a traitor he should take a look in the mirror instead of pointing his finger at Snowden.
He’s hardly a naive whistleblower. A whistleblower encounters something inappropriate in the context of doing his job. Snowden sought the employment specifically to snoop.
He positioned himself as “watcher of the watchmen”. Who’s watching him?
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