I wish that all these treasonous SOBs who think it makes a difference whether they "support" NSA spying would get the hell out of our country, move toGermany, put the wall back up, and make sure they are on the east side of it. Nice and safe. I wonder why people died trying to cross over? CBS made the story all about who leaked the story. They will need half of America to spy on the other half. Might as well investigate the phone book.
Trust the government agent, be suspicious of your neighbor. Your neighbor is your enemy, state security agents are your friends. "See something - say something". Welcome to The reincarnation of East Germany.
Trust the government agent, be suspicious of your neighbor. Your neighbor is your enemy, state security agents are your friends. "See something - say something". Welcome to The reincarnation of East Germany.
Remember Cicero that it was a government agent that set this off.
His name is Edward Snowden. He is a hero, he is a patriot, he has some serious balls, and he's calling Obama out.
The whistleblower who leaked information on the National Security Agency’s secret phone and internet surveillance programs revealed himself in an interview with the Guardian published Sunday. "I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things,” said Edward Snowden, a 29 year old Booz Allen Hamilton infrastructure analyst for the NSA, who said he leaked the information because he personally objected to the agency’s intelligence practices.
“I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under," he added.
According to the interview conducted in Hong Kong with the Guardian, Snowden previously served in a number of roles in the intelligence community, including as a former technical assistant with the Central Intelligence Agency and with numerous outside contractors.
The Guardian said that Snowden had requested that his identity be revealed.
"The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting," Snowden said. "If I wanted to see your emails or your wife's phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards,” he added.
In the interview, Snowden defended his actions, saying that it would be hypocritical for the United States government to label him a criminal for leaking the information on the intelligence gathering program.
"We have seen enough criminality on the part of government. It is hypocritical to make this allegation against me," Snowden said. "They have narrowed the public sphere of influence."
Snowden's decision to reveal himself comes as the administration on Saturday said that it would search for the source of the leaks and bring criminal charges.
Before Snowden revealed himself, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) earlier Sunday called the disclosures “dangerous” and said they could cost American lives. Rogers and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said they would support efforts to prosecute the whistleblower.
Snowden added that he does not expect to come back to the United States again without being arrested.
"I could not do this without accepting the risk of prison," Snowden said. "You can't come up against the world's most powerful intelligence agencies and not accept the risk. If they want to get you, over time they will."
President Obama, counterterrorism officials, and both Feinstein and Rogers have defended the NSA programs as necessary for national security. But many civil libertarians said the programs went too far, by tracking data from Americans not suspected of wrongdoing.
Snowden said that Obama was defending an "unjustifiable" program in comments the president made Thursday.
"My immediate reaction was he was having difficulty in defending it himself," Snowden. "He was trying to defend the unjustifiable and he knew it."
Snowden said he had known about the surveillance program since before Obama was first elected to the presidency.
"A lot of people in 2008 voted for Obama," Snowden said. "I did not vote for him. I voted for a third party. But I believed in Obama's promises. I was going to disclose it [but waited because of his election]. He continued with the policies of his predecessor."
"Approval ratings go up and down for various reasons... An example is the high post 911 support for GWB even though he could be said to be responsible for the event." --- Box A Rox '9/11 Truther'
Melania is a bimbo... she is there to look at, not to listen to. --- Box A Rox and his 'War on Women'
Remember Cicero that it was a government agent that set this off.
His name is Edward Snowden. He is a hero, he is a patriot, he has some serious balls, and he's calling Obama out.
Things just got real....
Yeah, that government agent will never see the United States again, and if he does, it will be inside a prison cell, or 6 feet under ground.
He knows what our authoritarian government will do to anybody that blows the whistle and alerts the sheep to their authoritarian masters.
Sad thing is, probably 50% of America is still on the nod, and STILL are not even aware of what is going on. There are 25% like Box, and sombody, who openly support the data mining program. Then there are the other 25%(like myself, L4L, BT, Grahmbonnet,Senders,and I'm sure others) that didnt need this spy scandle to wake them up to the authoritarian country we live in. It's been "real" for a few years now.
Lets remember, the Senate intelligence committee was well aware of this spying. The committee is made up of both dems and reps. This isn't party specific, this makes completely obvious that what is in Washington is an oligarchy. This is just more damage to the legitimacy of the federal government and our fraudulent democracy.
According to "official sources"... There is nothing illegal in the data being gathered. When you sign up for a phone, you agree that much of the data is not private (Numbers to and from your phone).
Congress is well aware of this issue and has the obligation to monitor the system. This information has been made public at least 2 years ago when Democrat Senator Mark Udall brought the information to the Senate floor.
There is no legal impediment to collecting phone numbers called or answered. If that information brings an actual security question, then a judge needs to sign off on tapping the actual phone conversations.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Yup. The guy gave up a $200,000 a year job, and his house in Hawaii as well.
Quoted Text
Snowden said he decided to leave his family, girlfriend and a comfortable, $200,000-a-year salary behind, and flew to Hong Kong on May 20. He said he chose China because "they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent." The newspaper said it revealed Snowden's identity at his request, but that he is concerned it will become a distraction. "I don't want public attention because I don't want the story to be about me," Snowden said. "I want it to be about what the U.S. government is doing." But he said he realizes that the government will come after him the same way they did with Bradley Manning, the former U.S. soldier who is currently on trial accused of providing thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks. "All my options are bad," Snowden said. "I could be rendered by the CIA. I could have people come after me. Or any of the third-party partners." "I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things," Snowden said. "I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under ... I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, Internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building."
Yeah, that government agent will never see the United States again, and if he does, it will be inside a prison cell, or 6 feet under ground.
He knows what our authoritarian government will do to anybody that blows the whistle and alerts the sheep to their authoritarian masters.
Sad thing is, probably 50% of America is still on the nod, and STILL are not even aware of what is going on. There are 25% like Box, and sombody, who openly support the data mining program. Then there are the other 25%(like myself, L4L, BT, Grahmbonnet,Senders,and I'm sure others) that didnt need this spy scandle to wake them up to the authoritarian country we live in. It's been "real" for a few years now.
Lets remember, the Senate intelligence committee was well aware of this spying. The committee is made up of both dems and reps. This isn't party specific, this makes completely obvious that what is in Washington is an oligarchy. This is just more damage to the legitimacy of the federal government and our fraudulent democracy.
excuse me- was the government doing something illegal ? they had warrants and court approval to make all of the requests that they did. This pseudo whistle blowers Karma is probably pretty jacked right now,and i wouldn't want to be him and he did me no favors. - he isnt even a real whistle blower ( report something illegal .)
excuse me- was the government doing something illegal ? they had warrants and court approval to make all of the requests that they did. This pseudo whistle blowers Karma is probably pretty jacked right now,and i wouldn't want to be him and he did me no favors. - he isnt even a real whistle blower ( report something illegal .)
When you live in a banana republic, "legal" is the tool of the authoritarian. There are no more checks and balances, the oligarchy controls all branches of the federal government. The Constitution and particularly the 4th Amendment has been obliterated. When all branches of government agree to ignore the 4th Amendment there are no limits on what the government can consider "legal". The political parties own the judges, own the legislators, and own the president. The only people left to stand in the way of this authoritarian government are the people.
And let's remember, for all you that say "if you don't like America, leave the country", we are finding out that it doesn't matter, the US can track your communications ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
God bless the USA!!! FREEDOM!
My ancestor died in wars in Europe and Asia so their government can track and store the communications of their kids and grand kids. Boy would they be proud.
I think the solders buried at Normandy just resurrected from their graves and are planning an invasion onto the US mainland to liberate THIS Country.
excuse me- was the government doing something illegal ? they had warrants and court approval to make all of the requests that they did.
They did?
So what your saying is you have access to the super secret FISA court that nobody is allowed to attend?
Could you tell me how many requests were denied?
"Approval ratings go up and down for various reasons... An example is the high post 911 support for GWB even though he could be said to be responsible for the event." --- Box A Rox '9/11 Truther'
Melania is a bimbo... she is there to look at, not to listen to. --- Box A Rox and his 'War on Women'
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Technology giants struggle to maintain credibility over NSA Prism surveillance Strongly-worded denials issued by Apple, Facebook and Google about their co-operation are followed by further revelations
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 9 June 2013 15.37 EDT
Apple, along with Facebook and Google, have issued strongly-worded denials that they knowingly participated in Prism.
Technology giants battled to maintain their credibility on privacy issues over the weekend as further details emerged of their co-operation with US spy agencies.
Apple, Facebook and Google issued strongly-worded denials that they had knowingly participated in Prism, a top-secret system at the National Security Agency that collects emails, documents, photos and other material for agents to review.
All said that they did not allow the government direct access to their systems and had never heard of the Prism programme. Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, called press reports about Prism "outrageous".
But after the publication by the Guardian of another slide from a top-secret NSA presentation and reports in the Washington Post and the New York Times, it was becoming clear that some major technology companies have, at the very least, taken steps to make it easier for intelligence agencies to access the information they want.
Tech companies are legally required to share information under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa). Those requests have to be made via a Fisa court and almost none are rejected. The companies are not obliged to make the process easier for the NSA. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/09/technology-giants-nsa-prism-surveillance
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
excuse me- was the government doing something illegal ? they had warrants and court approval to make all of the requests that they did.
They had warrants to collect communications of millions of Americans and store those communications in a data base indefinitely? That's an amazingly broad warrant.
Just an fyi to the necon's out there, Bush, McCain and Romney would all be doing the same thing. Blame Obama all you want, it's the two=1 party system that is taking away these rights. Dem's and Rep's are all the same.... Wake up