Posted on 06/15/2013 2:08:07 PM PDT by Lazamataz
Earlier this year, Edward Snowden went to The Guardian, who then published an article on June the 6th that had numerous damning revelations about the National Security Agency.
Edward Snowden broke an oath he had sworn, and revealed that the NSA had committed acts of domestic espionage far beyond anything most people had ever suspected. He revealed that data about the phone calls of millions of Americans, the entire customer base of Verizon, had been collected and stored in perpetiuty. Experts concluded that the same records were likely collected and stored by the NSA, from most or all of the other telephone carriers.
There are no white-hat-wearing good guys in this story.
Edward Snowden violated an oath of secrecy. Some, including the Speaker of the House John Boehner, have called him a traitor. While I cannot go that far, I do consider his actions unacceptable and unethical.
Yet the NSA has systematically violated the privacy of almost every American who use the telephone. These actions are also unacceptable and highly unethical.
And therein lies the moral dilemma. It seems there is no one to root for in this story. On one hand, we have a man who violated his personal integrity and his oath; and on the other, we have an agency who has overstepped the boundaries most Americans find tolerable with regards to privacy.
Few phone calls were listened to, although a small number were. However, much information can be gleaned by a complete record of who a person calls, and how often, and when. This information should never be collected or kept, unless a warrant is issued for a particular person and for a specific law enforcement reason. While a warrant is rumored to have been issued, if it exists, it was done in secret and it is unacceptably broad. It covers all Americans, even the vast majority who are not under suspicion. It amounts to a fishing expedition. It is not how America is supposed to operate.
These actions by the NSA are violations of all of our privacy, on a grand scale, remind us of nothing so much as the East German Stasi -- that secret-police group in the formerly Communist state that kept tabs on the entire population to ferret out the few lovers of freedom and free markets.
Snowden has said a few things about his revelations:
While the actions of Edward Snowden were underhanded and immoral, the actions of our government were even more so -- simply because of the scale and the number of people affected.
There is an underreported aspect to the story of the NSA intercepts: Text messages and electronic text communications are kept in their entirity. This means that if you have sent a password or a credit card via electronic media of nearly any flavor, it now sits in the data centers of the National Security Agency. Furthermore, the ability and the opportunity to abuse this information against political opponents is huge, and this administration has already demonstrated a great propensity to target its political opposition with any tool at their disposal (c.f., the targetting of 'Tea Party' and "Patriotic" 501-c political action organizations).
Congress must rein the NSA in. The President has already said he won't, and the Democrat-controlled Senate cannot be counted on to do the right thing.
5.56mm
I didn't know they were sucking off every bit of information of John Doe, the plumber, and his friend, Ralph, the custodian at the elementary school.
Sure, I figured they had come across me writing prepper articles ‘cause that makes me a suspected domestic terrorist according to Homeland Security and I post on that conservative FR website. Hell, I'm 80, so screw them. But John Doe and Ralph who call their children on their cell phone? No, I did not know absolutely everyone in this nation had every bit of their information sucked into Utah.
Sometimes, on a thread, Laz makes a post of, “I'm so screwed”. He is absolutely right now - we are so screwed.
What exactly is he charged with? I’ve heard a lot of accusations but what “classified” material did he leak? Just because governmental self-preservationist and the punditocrasey have expressed outrage doesn’t mean he disclosed actual classified documents.
Actually, I would argue the opposite. This, and many other heinous actions, have come to light. Observation of the problem is the first step in correcting it. We will need massive civilian participation, of course -- but my editorial is 'doing my little part' in helping to foment that participation.
I'd say we are less screwed today then we were on June the 4th.
The fact that the NSA is doing this, and other related revelations.
Correct; unless of course he is apprehended and charge with Treason -- which is a capital crime.
I am not willing to go so far as calling him a traitor, but he certainly broke his oath (or contract, if you prefer).
It’s like falling down a hole you already knew was there.
You can either scream and flail and bounce about while falling down the hole..
that you already knew was there...
Or tuck and roll and get to the bottom and see what can be done about getting out.
Because the hole is there and we are going into it.
I told my neighbor about this whole spying thing. He doesn’t pay attention. Am I guilty also? As a side notehe didn’t seem surprised.
I'm a contractor, and I did... it went something like...
"I, Tijeras_Slim, pledge allegiance to Hedley Lamarr, and to the evil for which he stands."
Have a bit of information about that. National Security guys say they have traced what he did and suspect or know, I forget which, he used a thumb drive to get the info. out and they know which other info. he got out but they won’t say what that is. So PRISM is not all he has.
If I were Snowden I wouldn’t have trusted a single soul in govt OR the US media. Going to the Brit (left wing) press was probably the only feasible option. If he’d gone to someone in the govt he could have been made ‘disappeared’ without a trace and no one the wiser.
Naw, this guy is the Paul Revere of our generation...
Exactly...The only oath that counts is the one he agreed to, to uphold the Constitution of these here United States of America...
The trick is always figuring out what the most moral course of action is between two immoral choices.
You always have to go back to the most basic principles of right and wrong and either look to natural rights (if you are "small 'l'" libertarian) or the good of the collective (if you are a progressive communist).
If he kept his secrets, just who or what would he be protecting?
If he tells his secrets, who is he protecting?
I didn’t know there was a hole that big. Now, I do. If it stays there, we are still screwed and I doubt it will be closed. People complaining won’t stop it. That is Hussein’s hole and he’s keeping and using it for his Muslim/Communist goal to turn this whole nation Muslim/Communist. I believe that completely. Nothing and nobody will stop Hussein.
If Verizon used someone's metadata to harm that person, in the pre-Obama America a court could find Verizon in violation of privacy and an enormous punitive damages suit confirmed, putting the company into bankruptcy for criminal behavior.
Unless Congress finds what the NSA has done and the regime has exploited to be criminal behavior, it will become the established means of any future oppression by tyrannical regimes.
Rino leaders in the Congress came out swinging in support of their AMKGB and the Dear Reader. I am tired of McStupid and his pals embarrassing me. They are so extreme and out of touch or NSA has a bunch of dirt on them.
“Naw, this guy is the Paul Revere of our generation...”
Is that anything like the frog that actually jumed out of the pot?
Strawman. Traitor or hero? As if those are the only two choices. In any event, anyone who blindly believes everything Snowden has stated is a fool. Same goes for those who blindly believe what the government has stated.
The reality is that 99% of the pundits including the OP don’t have a clue what is true and are trying to pass off speculation as truth. Nonsense.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.