Posted on 05/22/2016 6:35:59 PM PDT by Nachum
By now, almost everyone knows what Edward Snowden did. He leaked top-secret documents revealing that the National Security Agency was spying on hundreds of millions of people across the world, collecting the phone calls and emails of virtually everyone on Earth who used a mobile phone or the internet. When this newspaper began publishing the NSA documents in June 2013, it ignited a fierce political debate that continues to this day about government surveillance, but also about the morality, legality and civic value of whistleblowing. Sign up to the long read email Read more
But if you want to know why Snowden did it, and the way he did it, you have to know the stories of two other men.
The first is Thomas Drake, who blew the whistle on the very same NSA activities 10 years before Snowden did. Drake was a much higher-ranking NSA official than Snowden, and he obeyed US whistleblower laws, raising his concerns through official channels. And he got crushed.
Drake was fired, arrested at dawn by gun-wielding FBI agents, stripped of his security clearance, charged with crimes that could have sent him to prison for the rest of his life, and all but ruined financially and professionally. The only job he could find afterwards was working in an Apple store in suburban Washington, where he remains today. Adding insult to injury, his warnings about the dangers of the NSAs surveillance programme were largely ignored.
The government spent many years trying to break me, and the more I resisted, the nastier they got, Drake told me.
Drakes story has since been told and in fact, it had a profound impact on Snowden, who told an interviewer in 2015 that: Its fair to say that if there hadnt been a Thomas Drake, there wouldnt
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Thought about that a great deal. If we focus our efforts on the seeds planted then, we can possibly reverse the disaster.
But you have to go to the source, and rip them out.
Like repealing the 16th Amendment, for starters...
That's the point. Put in perspective, the things that the people in DC are doing now would have caused a shooting war a long time ago were we in the 18th century.
Guess in the minds of un-elected bureaucrats like Clapper that's all OK. He seems to have nothing but contempt for institutions like elected representation. But until the Congress holds him and the DoJ accountable, they will continue to get away with it.
In the end, it's a massive theft of power. Amazing that the pantywaists in the Congress go along with it.
Well, classification shouldn’t be used to hide criminality, and if the whistleblower laws aren’t working, I would rather the criminality be exposed by whatever means work than hidden forever. The checks and balances within the government are only the first line of defense against tyranny, if they fail, the power rests in the peoples hands to check it themselves.
Perhaps the agencies have the representatives under their thumb? Who better to know all the blackmail about every incoming freshman congressmen than the people who are spying on us all?
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Very interesting and informative article!
I sure hope that Trump has surrounded himself(and family)with the best protection he can buy!
Very interesting read
The Kremlin Admits Snowden is a Russian Agent
https://20committee.com/2016/07/02/the-kremlin-admits-snowden-is-a-russian-agent/
July 2 2016
In the three years since Edward Snowden landed in Moscow, his relationship with his hosts has been a source of much speculation and controversy. The American IT contractor, who worked for the CIA and NSA until he fled Hawaii with more than a million purloined secret files, has not left Russia since he arrived at Sheremetyevo airport on 23 June 2013, on a flight from Hong Kong.
(Snip)
Then there is the messy question of Snowdens ties with the Kremlin. To anybody acquainted with the world of espionage, particularly when it involves Russians, Snowden is a defector and his collaboration with Moscows security agencies is a sure thing as I explained recently.
(Snip)
Now, the Kremlin has settled the issue once and for all by stating that Edward Snowden is indeed their man. In a remarkable interview this week, Franz Klintsevich, a senior Russian security official, explained the case matter-of-factly: Lets be frank. Snowden did share intelligence. This is what security services do. If theres a possibility to get information, they will get it.
With this, Klintsevich simply said what all intelligence professionals already knew that Snowden is a collaborator with the FSB. That he really had no choice in the matter once he set foot in Russia does not change the facts.
Klintsevich is no idle speculator. He is a senator who has served in the State Duma for nearly a decade. More importantly, he is the deputy chair of the senates defense and security committee, which oversees the special services. The 59-year-old Klintsevich thus has access to many state secrets for instance regarding the Snowden case.
(Snip)
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