Edward Snowden is not a hero

[Galraedia]

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is not only a terrible boyfriend (LEAD STORY!) he's also a little thing called a traitor for leaking classified documents he was paid $200,000 a year to protect. There has been lots of praise bestowed on this "hero" who sacrificed his personal and professional life in the name of government transparency. I get the criticism of PRISM and the value of what he did. I do. What I don't get? Why he felt entitled to make the US a target of international outrage and then seek asylum in China, a nation who would love to extract information from an American with high-level security clearance. Why not just send Korea a fruit basket with our nuke recipes while you're at it, bud? Go big or go home!

Do I like being spied on? Not really. I have nothing to hide, but I understand that's not the point. What I want to know is a) Where was this outrage from conservatives when Bush was illegally breaching the constitution and then forcing retroactive laws that protected him and (here's a complete timeline) b) Where is the outrage when the rights of other citizens are breached every day i.e. profiling? I guess rights violations only matter when you're a rich white guy who wants to surf the Internet for porn in peace.

I just don't believe in total internet freedom to begin with. Apparently Snowden has these stickers all over his laptop about keeping the internet anonymous. Really? So if some bomber and his online Jihad buddies want to plot on their message boards under screen names like DieAmerica, that's cool, because internet?

I think it was Bill Maher who said not long ago that every village has an idiot. The difference is now, the idiots can find each other in large numbers on the internet. Say one of these groups wants to plan a mass shooting - we're just supposed to say, "Yeah! Internet freedom! Research those weapons! Have your privacy, Mr. Scary Social Recluse With An Agenda!"

Read more: http://www.chicagonow.com/high-gloss-and-sauce/2013/06/edward-snowden-is-not-a-hero-06112013/

[railsback]

1. I wouldn't call an American handing over intelligence information to China a 'hero'

I don't believe anyone in their right mind would.

[JoeyT]

2. I thought this article was parody to start with.

Then I thought it might be serious. Then I thought it might be parody again.

It's become impossible to tell.

[fasttense]

3. Oh my, a man who can NOT be bought off

That's what really gets this woman going. He was paid, and paid well, to keep secret what should never had been secret in the first place. He did NOT reveal any info he saw coming through the system of collections. He didn't reveal Pallin's secret lover or a Senator's favorite whore. He merely revealed there was a system of collection that spies on ALL Americans.

He did NOT take an oath to the corporation that hired him. He has NO obligation to keep secret what a corporation is doing to Americans. If you want him to comply with state secrets laws, you are going to have to make him a government official. The last time I looked, contractors and subcontractors do NOT take oaths to protect corporations.

Maybe Snowden thought America and and our Constitution with all its amendments were much more important than a pay check.

But hey if she thinks $200,000 is enough to buy off an American to keep his mouth shut about what is a clear violation of the US Constitution, then maybe she should be a subcontractor for the NSA.

[avebury]

5. Very well put! nt

[blkmusclmachine]

4. Typical personality politics.

Distracted yet?

[DailyGrind51]

6. Snowden revealed nothing that MSM didn't make public in 2006!

Check out this USA TODAY "Q &A" about the NSA surveillance program dated 5/11/2006:

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa-qna_x.htm

The only thing Snowden revealed was how short the attention spans of Americans are, and that IS very alarming, indeed!

[midnight]

7. This journalist needs to listen to Feingold's warning about this spying..

FEINGOLD WARNS OBAMA ON SPYING AGAIN
Two weeks ago, Senator Russ Feingold warned Barack Obama about the White House’s claim of power to spy on Americans without warrants and without other open oversight by the Judicial Branch. Obama sent lawyers from the Department of Justice to defend and expand George W. Bush’s claims that the President has the power to deny justice to citizens who have had their constitutional rights violated by criminal spying programs by the U.S. government. It was even claimed that President Obama does not need to present evidence to support the national security interests in the denial of this justice. All he needs to do, the Department of Justice lawyers said, is to claim that some national security interest exists, without proof.

Now, Senator Feingold is forced to speak out on the subject again, warning President Obama that pressure for more oversight of the Total Information Awareness spy program will increase. In reaction to yesterday’s news that the National Security Agency under President Obama has expanded the use of spying targeted against Americans on US soil without search warrants, Feingold released the following statement:

“Since 2001, I have spent a lot of time in the Intelligence Committee, the Judiciary Committee, and on the floor of the Senate bringing attention to both the possible and actual effects of legislation that has dangerously expanded the power of the executive branch to spy on innocent Americans. Despite these efforts, Congress insisted on enacting several measures including the USA PATRIOT Act, the Protect America Act, and the FISA Amendments Act, embarking on a tragic retreat from the principles that had governed the sensitive area of government surveillance for the previous three decades. Congress must get to work fixing these laws that have eroded the privacy and civil liberties of law-abiding citizens. In addition, the administration should declassify certain aspects of how these authorities have been used so that the American people can better understand their scope and impact.”

There is, as of yet, no legislation in the U.S. Congress seeking to undo the abusive spy state established by the FISA Amendments Act.

http://thatsmycongress.com/index.php/2009/04/16/feingold-warns-obama-on-spying-again/