Posted on 12/25/2013 2:46:41 PM PST by Third Person
As we reported on Tuesday, NSA leaker Edward Snowden will deliver Channel 4 UK’s “Alternative Christmas Message,” the network’s annual response to the Queen’s address. They aired on Christmas Day at 4:15 p.m. local time in England.
Snowden’s remarks were filmed by Glenn Greenwald‘s film collaborator Laura Poitras, from an undisclosed location in Russia.
Full remarks transcribed below, followed by the video:
Hi and Merry Christmas. I’m honored to have a chance to speak with you and your family this year.
Recently we learned that our governments, working in concert, have created a system of worldwide system of mass surveillance watching everything we do. Great Britain’s George Orwell warned us of the danger of this kind of information.
The types of collection in the book -– microphones and video cameras, TVs that watch us –- are nothing compared to what we have available today. We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go. Think about what this means for the privacy of the average person.
A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all. They’ll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves an unrecorded, unanalyzed thought. And that’s a problem because privacy matters; privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be.
The conversation occurring today will determine the amount of trust we can place both in the technology that surrounds us and the government that regulates it. Together we can find a better balance, end mass surveillance, and remind the government that if it really wants to know how we feel, asking is always cheaper than spying.
For everyone out there listening, thank you and Merry Christmas.
If this guy hadn’t spoken up, would we ever know we were all being recorded?? Personally, I think it is a long term Dem deep mining plan and when they say “It’s gone”...it won’t really be gone...
Are you suggesting we should have already known about it, so it’s OK for government to spy on and monitor law abiding people?
If not, what are you saying?
I — for one — am glad he exposed this information. It’s by making many people aware of it, that will enable things to get changed.
“I think it is a long term Dem deep mining plan and when they say “It’s gone”...it won’t really be gone...”
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Yes, comrade. It is the duty of dear leader to know what we are thinking and doing at all times.
Snowden is a traitor.
Snowden is a traitor to the traitors!
Well ... from what I’m seeing of this situation, it would appear that the government is the traitor.
So, what you are saying is that every government employee and every member of the military can examine each job function, each order, and each operation, and if they deem it improper, spill the beans to our enemies? Then they will be excused because they were patriots? And, were it not for Snowden’s treason, and his betrayal of our secrets to our enemies, we would never have known what was going on?
To keep the government operating as it should and in line with our Constitution — every single government worker and/or employee should “spill the beans” whenever and wherever the government steps out of line on any matter. That’s the only way we’ll keep our government “honest”.
What Snowden “is” is of vital importance to people who can only deal with who is or isn’t and are it seems incapable of dealing with ideas alone. You meet them on this forum they are the ones who tell you what you ARE (or AREN’T), sometimes going to great lengths to amateurishly psychologize, that is if they don’t attack or insult you using the oldest cliches, all because that’s how they measure the world. What Snowden is, is then unimportant, what’t important is what our government is, what it has become, and what ideas it follows. Snowden seems to understand it, but that’s almost beside the point in view of the malfeasance and the intellectual corruption that he’s exposed.
C’mon folks-—try to keep up. The NSA has been building its capability for over four decades. That dish farm out in the hills of West VA has never been a secret. And they have regularly published articles on their capability. They’ve been in cahoots with the phone companies from the gitgo and they’ve worked with the ISP’s from the start also. The “air waves” have been accessible to anyone with a big ear from the days of Marconi. If you want to remain “private” then keep your land line and mail your chinese electronics back to the guy who convinced you that you needed it. You should be asking who the bleep gave a punk like Snowden access to anything important? It’s possible to run a secure, hi-tech system of any sort, but not if “the company” has a penchant for hiring un-reliable dirt bagz and doesn’t police itself to keep them weeded out. Aaaannnnddd maybe we need an attorney general with the nerve to prosecute his own crooked friends.
Snowden is a traitor to the traitors!
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POst of the Day.
I am thankful for Snowdon
So, what you are saying is that every government employee and every member of the military can examine each job function, each order, and each operation, and if they deem it improper, spill the beans to our enemies? Then they will be excused because they were patriots? And, were it not for Snowden’s treason, and his betrayal of our secrets to our enemies, we would never have known what was going on?
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Yes.
You have well thought out opinion of Snowden. Kudos to you, even if we don’t agree. Now, what is the source of information about Snowden that you used to form your opinion? The media that “never lie”, by any chance?
The government wanted Snowden to spill the beans. In fact, sometimes I think he’s still on the payroll. The government is warning us about just how much power they have.
“Don’t think about trying to do something. We’re watching and listening.”
You sound like an anarchist.
I just read the Wikipaedia writup on Edward Snowden. He truly is an interesting guy, and a brilliant guy.
The article just confirmed my opinion of Snowden. I just do not see why he had to release all the damaging information on the US. All countries have espionage services. What gives him the right to damage the US? Is this the self loathing liberal mindset? He could have resigned his high paying job and opposed the spying by legal legitimate means. Why didn’t he take on the KGB or the Chinese espionage services, since he is so brilliant?
The man is a traitor. What is there about him that is admirable? He is in the same category as John Walker or Jonathan Pollard.
>> I just do not see why he had to release all the damaging information on the US.
Because he’s a tool as are his supporters.
NSA is the weapon. Congress pulls the trigger. Snowden is the gun grabber.
Let me know when the ingenious insider leaks information concerning the betrayal of representation.
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