USA Today Names Snowden Tech Person of Year

[mikeymikec]

If he had stopped after informing Americans about our own government spying on us, he might be heralded as a hero. But, divulging how we spy on other countries, whether friends or foes, is treasonous.

So it's bad if your government spies on you (all its citizens) without permission, but it's OK for them to spy on everyone else?

 

[DrPizza]

So it's bad if your government spies on you (all its citizens) without permission, but it's OK for them to spy on everyone else?

Uhh, yeah? That's sort of their job - gather intelligence.

 

[mikeymikec]

Uhh, yeah? That's sort of their job - gather intelligence.

By that rationale it should be OK for them to spy on all of you too.

 

[Genx87]

Hero my ass.

He's a traitor and a hypocrite. I'm not defending the NSA, but undermining the national defense of of the United States is not the correct way to be a whistleblower.

Seriously, fuck Snowden. He's no better that John Anthony Walker.

Undermining national defense my ass. How else should he blow the whistle on this invasion of our privacy by our own govt? Remember that this administration has gone after whistleblowers more than any other administration in history.

 

[werepossum]

NY Times Call on Obama to Offer Snowden a Deal


Seems relevant.
So what do you think?

Was the NSA was running rogue operations such as taping the personal cell phones of Angela Merkel and Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff? Programs that have created and will continue to create significant blow back for American companies such as Boeing and Cisco.

Is it a problem when the US Director of National Intelligence lies to congress?

Or is the problem that Snowden, not the NSA, has damaged National Security?

Though, I do agree with Angela Merkel that the US Intelligence Agencies can't be trusted. As she stated, if they got cleaned out by an amateur like Snowden, why should Germany share any of their intelligence with the US? Clearly, that part of the damage is real.

In a phone call with Obama, Merkel compared the NSA with the Stasi. One thing unsaid was that, unlike the NSA, the secrets gathered by the Stasi remained secret.

Uno

Very well said, sir, and thank you for your service.

Wrong. We expect them to gather intelligence vital to our national security interests. We do not expect them to place phone taps on the leaders of allied nations. We do not expect them to hoover up every bit of metadata on every phone call made. The fact that you believe exposing these criminal behaviors is treasonous only highlights your lack of traditional American values like freedom and privacy.

Spot on.

that´s not true
i am very concerned with what is happening within the usa. either way.
idon´t think you´re falling into a state of "unfreedom", but things aren´t peachy either.
there seems to be rift through american society, deeper than ever since the great derpression. and the players in washington are blocking each other with impudence. on top of that, ever since 9/11 america seems to be spiralling down a path of tightening security all over the place. everybody who doesn´t like that is silenced by branding him/her "unpatriotic"

america is still the global lighthouse for democracy and human rights, but its foundation has got some cracks

nobody can be happy about that, only the enemies of democracy and freedom of speech
i consider myself a friend of america, i´ve been there and i liked it

about edward snowden:
i think he did a good thing, that he spreaded the news, but he should have locked himself up inside the Washinton Post or New York Times when he did
it would have been a great personal risk for him, but what he did, already was
now a large part of the public can never "forgive" him, fleeing to china, then russia looks as treacherous as they come, and the whole whistle blowing part, which i applaude, is sullied in the process, looking treacherous, too

Those are FOBs. Had he taken your advice, he'd be dead or in Gitmo. He perhaps could have gone to Fox News or the Washington Times, but how many of us would have believed him?

I believe Snowden will be largely ignored by history. The allies he pissed off were those traditional Western allies Obama had already pissed off, and except for the UK Bush too had pissed off. And while there may be a dialogue now, absolutely nothing has changed. Nor will it. This is one of the core areas of agreement between the two parties.

 

[BertolomeoDiaz]

FOBs?
forgive my ignorance, native german

i´m just saying, it would have been the honorable thing to do, instead of fleeing into the arms of america´s rivals
he might have tried france, those guys are known to like resisting america´s wishes in such matters, but at least they are still a western democracy that doesn´t "compete" with america for world supremacy, but is part of their greater alliance
(sounds probably easier than it might have been, to reach france)

who knows, what snowden told the chinese and the russians,
(well, that info is obviously as old as the newspaper of yesterday, but still...)
that stigma will stick to him for all time

about the whole issue:
i´m not annoyed or surprised with the nsa spying on my governement, even though it is cunning (and stupid and embarrassing to get caught, so much for snowden being guilty of treason)
it´s what intelligence agencies are supposed to be doing

but this massive gathering of every data traffic there is...
it´s just outright megalomaniac and a big nail in the coffin being built for democracy and freedom

the most disturbing thing i heard on the news was, that yahoo had lost a secret trial about whether they have to cooperate with nsa or not
the disturbing part not being that they lost, but that there was a "secret trial" about such matters or at all

secret courts and trials? that doesn´t sound any democratic or like "checks and balances" in my ears
and that is something that both liberals and conservatives would/should agree on

 

[silverpig]

I'd like to see an interview where he answers the question as to why he released documents on foreign espionage. I have the suspicion that due to the NSA and this government monitoring the emails and phone calls of American reporters and the press he didn't feel he could safely release the information in the US. He then had to release it to foreign media outlets in order to get it published, which means he had to give them something more than just what happens in America to Americans. Nobody in Europe would really care.

I unfortunately think he had to release that information to broker favor to get the information published and to try and get asylum in a country that would protect him from assassination. Which reading some of the statements on public record is something many in government wanted.

That's my theory on why the non-American intelligence got released and why it couldn't simply be kept internal to America.

There's a ton of material. Snowden gave EVERYTHING to Greenwald. Greenwald (and team) is the one releasing it in pieces as he verifies and develops each story. Snowden didn't go through and decide what to release and what not to release.

 

[werepossum]

FOBs?
forgive my ignorance, native german

i´m just saying, it would have been the honorable thing to do, instead of fleeing into the arms of america´s rivals
he might have tried france, those guys are known to like resisting america´s wishes in such matters, but at least they are still a western democracy that doesn´t "compete" with america for world supremacy, but is part of their greater alliance
(sounds probably easier than it might have been, to reach france)

who knows, what snowden told the chinese and the russians,
(well, that info is obviously as old as the newspaper of yesterday, but still...)
that stigma will stick to him for all time

about the whole issue:
i´m not annoyed or surprised with the nsa spying on my governement, even though it is cunning (and stupid and embarrassing to get caught, so much for snowden being guilty of treason)
it´s what intelligence agencies are supposed to be doing

but this massive gathering of every data traffic there is...
it´s just outright megalomaniac and a big nail in the coffin being built for democracy and freedom

the most disturbing thing i heard on the news was, that yahoo had lost a secret trial about whether they have to cooperate with nsa or not
the disturbing part not being that they lost, but that there was a "secret trial" about such matters or at all

secret courts and trials? that doesn´t sound any democratic or like "checks and balances" in my ears
and that is something that both liberals and conservatives would/should agree on

Friend OBama. Play on Friend Of Bill (Clinton) meaning people who get and/or give special consideration.

You make good points, but in France he would be subject to rapid and quiet extradition. Had to be a nation able to resist pressure.

 

[DucatiMonster696]

what is being done about the secrets he revealed? nothing.

Sadly that is up to us (citizen taxpayers) and we've proven to be failures in restraining big government time and time again. Though it doesn't help when both parties are aligned in growing out big government and its intrusive behaviors that overstep their boundaries in as many areas as it possibly can do so in life.

 

[BertolomeoDiaz]

ah, meaning washinton post or nyt wouldn´t have tried to protect snowden from their friend, as they are Friends OBama,
thx for the info

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

He ought to be Times pick of the year.