AND he only did so after the “proper channel” for whistle blowing, his internal superiors, told him to shut the fuck up.
I feel this always needs to be said. The United States has a lot of slogans and posters about integrity and ethics for a nation that has neither in practice.
It’s all about making us ‘feel good inside’ for saying things. But doing them? Naw, that’s too hard. Not in my backyard, no, can’t do that. Typical America.
Thanks for reiterating this and posting a source. Every time I see an article on Snowden year over year, someone brings up the tired old “argument” that because he is now trapped in Russia, that somehow makes everything he did “wrong”, and invalidates everything he exposed the government for doing. The media campaign against him was apparently quite effective, and these soundbites are ever ready to jump out of people’s mouths without any research or critical thinking.
“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.” ― Anatole France
It very much is, if the offense is egregious. And the NSA spying on everyone and their employees trading nudes the NSA collected very much is egregious. And to make it sound like he just dumped the raw leaks does not make your argument seem more credible.
Except it’s exactly what David Grusch did, with no proof, and yet we have multiple oversight hearings and amendments to the defense authorization, and he made international news
The UFO guy? Really? You think the government is a little less concerned when they don’t have much to cover up? You can’t seriously compare the USA admits to not being able to identify everything in the sky to it spending billions illegally and unconstitutionally spying on literally every citizen
What about it was illegal? Rights were violated? Genuinely send me an article I’ve not cared about that whole situation since hearing him talk about Mussolini and seeing the videos that were released
I think we can all agree that Greenwald is an idiot.
IMO Snowden probably chose him because a. he wrote for The Guardian, b. he was publically critical of the Iraq war and c. he is politically on the right.
The security breach was the NSA letting anyone fiddle with the data. They should be thankful Snowden leaked them instead of a foreign intelligence service listening in for years unnoticed.
…Leaked to a reputable member of the fourth estate to decide what was safe to report. Do you disagree with the founders of the United States about the importance of the fourth estate’s role in keeping leadership honest?
The only other steps short of that would have been to either quit and shut the fuck up or continue participating and shut the fuck up.
Sounds like you just wanted him to shut the fuck up about your freedoms being eroded by the government that’s supposed to protect them.
I don’t believe willful ignorance is a defensible position, ever.
Wasnt a choice for Snowden. He wanted to go to South America, they trapped him in Russia. Now he has to wave and smile to whatever happens there politically.
He didn’t sell anything. After trying to raise internal concerns about his work, he leaked classified information to The Washington Post and The Guardian.
Then the DoJ cancelled his passport due to “espionage” and he got stuck in Russia, where he still lives today.
where is your retort for the other points of yours that were dismantled above?
It’s very clear that you will believe whatever is most convenient for you to believe.
Snowden is an American hero, and the war criminals he exposed faced no repurcussions
There are exactly 0 instances where the information he released got our service members killed, despite what the media tries to suggest. You better believe our Government would be jumping at the chance to show the people how ‘whistleblowing BAD’
If reality offends you, you may be living outside of it
So how do you propose an ethical person expose corruption to the people of this country when the people in power that he would normally report it to are part of the corruption? The constitutional violations were approved, in secret, all the way up to the President of the United States of America. Or are you of the belief that anything is patriotic & acceptable if you’re in charge and you give it a catchy name like The Patriot Act?
You’re not supposed to speak up about real things. Just roleplay dumb shit like the alien WAP being talked about in court with zero evidence of course.
Unrelated question, but ever since Snowden became a citizen of the Russian Federation, could be be drafted during a round of conscription? Or would they use him for cyberwarfare?
I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want to fight Ukrainians.
Oh and make an out of the country exit plan ASAP before the country brands you as a traitor.
I still feel like Snowden is not a traitor. Especially where today, we have a political party that actively endorses and behaves in traitorous behavior towards the country in which they’re to serve. Ironic.
Of course he’s not a traitor. He exposed politicians who were actively violating the constitution. Those politicians are the traitors, traitors to American ideals and laws. At the very least, they’re criminals.
Snowden deserved Obamas pardon a lot more than Manning. I get the sense that Manning leaked stuff for the sake of leaking stuff, while Snowden uncovered a vast domestic and unconstitutional espionage program to which the general public was unaware.
NSA being an angry little child with a napkin aside, I believe there was a legal hurdle to Snowden being pardoned: You need to be tried & sentenced before a presidential pardon can be applied, as far as I understood.
Snowden is a textbook example of why organizations should not be allowed to police themselves or control the avenues of reporting misconduct.
There should be a memorial to him in DC. Ruined his life to tell the people what their elected officials are doing with all of the power we grant them.
But no, to save face, ego, etc we drove him into the willing arms of Putin to be able to use as a propaganda tool so he wouldn’t be killed for daring to speak truth to power.
Support for prosecuting him did untold damage to my opinion of Obama.
Not like that! Do it how we meant to say but couldn’t quite bring ourselves to say publicly. The way that protects the military industrial complex and the corporations and the lobbyists and the government officials from any charge of mendacious greed.
My favourite moment of that era was when Obama told us he was just about to drop dime on all the spying and Snowden beat him to it. Dang it Snowden, now I gotta eat shit on live TV. The American state simply cannot be trusted whatsoever.
Not even an impossible task. We just need a President that actually loves what America professes to aspire to. It’s what the Presidential pardon is for.
There’s no chance he’ll be allowed back in the US after, understandably, becoming a piece of the Russian propaganda pie. He’s basically trapped in Russia. On the bright side, it’s a gilded cage where he resides with his family.
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