Snowden:I already won.

[missmuffet]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/24/us/edward-snowden-interview/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

His mission is 'already accomplished'

"For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission's already accomplished. I already won," Snowden told The Washington Post's Barton Gellman in Moscow. "As soon as the journalists were able to work, everything that I had been trying to do was validated. Because, remember, I didn't want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself."

Snowden left his job in Hawaii with the NSA contract firm Booz Allen Hamilton and fled to Hong Kong in May, taking with him a hoard of secret information about intelligence programs. He shared the files with Gellman and journalists from The Guardian, a British newspaper.

The ensuing articles about how the NSA hoovers up vast amounts of phone and Internet data about American citizens sparked an uproar, with Snowden described as a hero by some and a traitor by others. Many more articles about other controversial aspects of U.S. surveillance have followed, and Snowden has said there's plenty more information still to be revealed.

His actions have had clear consequences.

A review of NSA surveillance practices ordered by the White House has recommended changes to the program, including greater judicial oversight and more public transparency in the collection of data. Key American allies, like Germany and Brazil, have publicly condemned U.S. surveillance of their leaders.

"All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say in how they are governed," Snowden said. "That is a milestone we left a long time ago. Right now, all we are looking at are stretch goals."

Gellman told CNN that his impression was not that Snowden was gloating, but that his goal to strip some of the secrecy off the NSA's activities had been achieved.

[Guest AFlameOfFire]

Hey thanks so much for posting it that way, that is so helpful bopeep

[missmuffet]

Hey thanks so much for posting it that way, that is so helpful bopeep

You are welcome.And....Merry Christmas

[Guest AFlameOfFire]

Merry Christmas to you too sis!

[homebild]

During the VietNam war, private citizen Jane Fonda traveled to North VietNam, to protest US military involvement in SouthEast Asia.

 

As a US citizen, Fonda had a right GUARANTEED and PROTECTED by the US Constitution, to protest against, disagree with, actively challenge, campaign against, and do whatever it took within LEGAL means to expose what she felt were wrongs done by the US in its prosecuting of the war against communism in VietNam, Laos and Cambodia.

 

Did Fonda have the legally protected RIGHT of free speech to go to North VietNam, collaborate with our enemies, and serve as a propaganda tool against US Interests?

 

Few today would think so, and many (if not most) US citizens consider Jane Fonda a TRAITOR to this day because of her wartime actions.

 

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While I, too, protested US involvement in VietNam, and was prepared as a teen to renounce my US citizenship and emigrate to Canada rather than serve against my conscience and will in a war I considered 'unjust'...and short of that...was prepared to go to jail rather than be drafted and be forced to serve... 

 

Even I considered Fonda's actions then well 'beyond the pale'...'over the top'....and too scandalous to be within the rights of 'normal' objection...and I still do today.

 

WHY? Because there is a LIMIT to our protections under the Constitution...and a limit of what we individuals can say or do no matter how much we believe what we are doing is 'right'.

 

Ultimately, our freedom of speech and dissent ENDS when our right to speak and dissent jeopardizes the lives of our fellow citizens.

 

Free speech CANNOT BE CLAIMED, while aiding and abetting our national enemies in times of war, while giving national secrets to our enemies who use that information to kill our fellows and do harm against our nation.

 

 

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It is my opinion that Jane Fonda betrayed her country by her actions in North VietNam, and should have been punished as a traitor for them.

 

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It is also my opinion that Edward Snowdon is likewise a traitor to his fellow countrymen and US security and his actions inexcusable.

 

Edward Snowden is the "Hanoi Jane" of his time.

 

And in fact, WORSE.

 

__________________

 

Did Snowdon have LEGAL means by which he could have PROTESTED against what he saw as NSA 'over-reach'? ABSOLUTELY.

 

Did Snowdon have LEGAL means to STOP his own involvement in programs he felt violated his own conscience? ABSOLUTELY.

 

Did Snowden have the right to take US secrets and divulge them to our enemies? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

 

IS Snowden protecting US citizen's interests by seeking refuge in and collaborating with US enemies? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

 

Do these facts JUSTIFY the US in its surveillance of its own citizens? Surveillance of World leaders?

 

MAYBE YES, MAYBE NO....and whether right or wrong remains to be seen...

 

 

 

But Snowdon acted ILLEGALLY as his own JUDGE and JURY...giving the US no CHANCE to defend itself under the same LAWS and RULES he claims!.

 

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Whether you agree with the actions of Congress during the Bush and Obama Administrations which empowered the NSA to expand surveillance on behalf of US National Security has NOTHING to do with the actions by Edward Snowdon who betrayed his oath to protect you and I.

 

The NSA has been doing its job for longer than Edward Snowdon has been alive...and far greater minds...far more sober minds...have deemed the actions of this agency CRUCIAL to the protection of US citizens worldwide.

 

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Has the US Government...It's President...It's Congress...It's Courts violated the rights of it's citizens during times of perceived national crisis?

 

Absolutely, and embarrassingly so.

 

Japanese Americans lost Civil Rights in WWII in the name of 'national security' and in violation of their Constitutional rights.

 

Did the loss of THEIR rights permit them or other American citizens to divulge war secrets and aide and abet the enemy as a form of PROTEST?

 

NO, OF COURSE NOT!

 

TWO WRONGS DON'T MAKE A RIGHT!

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Edward Snowdon is a Criminal and a Traitor.

 

There is NOTHING within his actions that is even remotely redeemable.

 

There may also be little in the US Government's actions in domestic and foreign surveillance that may also be redeemable....but THAT is one to be conducted within our own LEGAL SYSTEM....one to be determined amongst our own LEGAL CITIZENS...not certainly not by our enemies or even our foreign friends

 

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No amnesty for Snowdon....

Find him...

Arrest him...

Prosecute him...

Bring him to the US for US Justice... or let the NSA and US special forces use all their power to find him and take him out...just as they did Bin Laden... for the TRAITOR and SOCIOPATH and ENEMY of the US he has professed himself to be.

 

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