Interview with NSA Whistleblower

[mike92104]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance

[The-Shoveler]

Not saying the guys an Idiot but kind of an expensive price to pay to tell everyone what us paranoid wacko’s would told you years ago,
(i.e.. you are always being recorded, videotaped and all your emails read, soon they will electronically read you mind).

also tracked via the GPS on your smartPhone.

Anyway that’s what paranoid wackos like me believe,
so am I a wacko ? just saying.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=The-Shoveler]

Anyway that’s what paranoid wackos like me believe,
so am I a wacko ? just saying.[/quote]

“Even paranoids have enemies.”

“Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.”

[SK in CV]

[quote=The-Shoveler]Not saying the guys an Idiot but kind of an expensive price to pay to tell everyone what us paranoid wacko’s would told you years ago,
(i.e.. you are always being recorded, videotaped and all your emails read, soon they will electronically read you mind).

also tracked via the GPS on your smartPhone.

Anyway that’s what paranoid wackos like me believe,
so am I a wacko ? just saying.[/quote]

Couple points….

I think calling the guy a whistle blower is a bit of hyperbole. A whistle blower would be someone who exposes illegal activities, or at very least policy violations. Snowden did neither. While I’m wholeheartedly supportive of what he did, everything he exposed is perfectly legal. Therein lies the problem.

The Patriot Act, and all its amendments, extensions, and modifications allows the FISA court to approve and allow this broad authority to require the telecoms to turn over all this meta-data. So congress passed the law. The executive branch continues to exercise its rights under the law, and the judicial branch approved that exercise.

Some of us were screaming about it more than a decade ago (and at every amendment, expansion and extension of that law) because we expected it to happen. Some disregarded those warning, and saw the broad expansion of executive powers as a necessity to fight enemies within our midst. But the fact is, it’s law, so the collection of this data is legal, and the revelations by Snowden are not.

This little rant isn’t directly responsive to the comment quoted……but this little part..

i.e.. you are always being recorded, videotaped and all your emails read, soon they will electronically read you mind…

kinda struck a chord with me. Last night, after arriving home from a long weekend in SD (celebrating the retirement of by brother, after 33 years as a good-for-nothing civil servant cop), the screen on my electronic thermostat controls was blinking “BATTERY LOW”. So I checked the little Honeywell manual that was buried in a drawer and figured out what kind and how to change the batteries. See that? I checked the manual. And then opened up some news site on the intertubes this morning, and up pops an ad. For Honeywell HVAC controls. What-the-F’ity EF EF? How do it know?

[FlyerInHi]

I’m with sk on the legality of it all.

Don’t pass laws to give the president more power then bitch about it.
People who were screaming against thr patriot act warned us before. We didn’t listen.

Maybe snowden can write a book and make a movie after doing a few years of prison.

[XBoxBoy]

[quote=SK in CV]
While I’m wholeheartedly supportive of what he did, everything he exposed is perfectly legal. Therein lies the problem.

The Patriot Act, and all its amendments, extensions, and modifications allows the FISA court to approve and allow this broad authority to require the telecoms to turn over all this meta-data. So congress passed the law. The executive branch continues to exercise its rights under the law, and the judicial branch approved that exercise.

[/quote]

Here’s the part that saddens me. I too think it’s good that he drew attention to this matter, but my cynicism tells me that six months from now all the controversy will have blown over. The government will be moving ahead with even more surveillance programs. Probably Snowden will be extradited back to the USA and sitting in a prison. What a way to waste away your future. Young naive idealism runs smack into reality with horrible end result. Really sad.

The irony of this though is I have a lot of respect for his willingness to fight for what he felt was right and important. Just sad for him because he’s gonna lose this battle and it’s gonna be all for naught.

[all]

[quote=XBoxBoy]
Here’s the part that saddens me. I too think it’s good that he drew attention to this matter, but my cynicism tells me that six months from now all the controversy will have blown over. [/quote]

There is no controversy, just like there was no controversy around Manning. Majority says the war on terror should include unlimited surveillance. No politician will be voted out because of this (and arguing against would be used by your opponents to take you down when the next attack happens because you “don’t want to protect our children”).

Ellsberg succeeded because the upside for the people was tangible. Snowden is not that lucky.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=SK in CV]I checked the manual. And then opened up some news site on the intertubes this morning, and up pops an ad. For Honeywell HVAC controls. What-the-F’ity EF EF? How do it know?[/quote]

SK: You need to turn this to your advantage, my friend. Patiently explain to your wife that all those Swedish porn popups are a result of your purchasing that Scandinavian artisanal reindeer’s milk cheese at Whole Foods.

[SD Realtor]

Well I tried that Allan and it didn’t work. She still took a sledghammer to my laptop.

**********************************************

I am torn by all this stuff. First off, it is not partisan at all. Let me get that out of the way. This has been going on a long time. Second off, there have been an astounding number of terror plots that have been planned and thwarted. Like it or not, I believe that in at least some of those thwarted plots, these measures helped to capture the guilty party.

I have nothing to hide and while I don’t like it… I do believe there are people in this world that want to see my country destroyed and are actively planning to kill citizens so if this helps stop them… so be it…

Now, having the IRS audit me because I am a raving conservative…or publish my name because I am a donor to conservative causes…

I have a big problem with that.

[CDMA ENG]

I was listen to this story on KNPR today… This guy didnt graduate from high school… Didnt graduate from college… and yet he had all these fancy titles and security clearances… WTF was our goverment thinking when they selected this guy to work on intel…

You don’t want your story leaked? You don’t hire knuckleheads like this one…

This guy’s story doesn’t quite fit and I do not think his motives are altrustic…

Ughhh another wikileak… with the same mode of characters as the last time.

CE

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=SD Realtor]Well I tried that Allan and it didn’t work. She still took a sledghammer to my laptop.

**********************************************

[/quote]

SDR: Your wife, unlike SK’s wife, probably finds it hard to believe you’re in Whole Foods at all, let alone buying artisanal reindeer’s milk cheese from Scandinavia.

I picture SK in a smoking jacket, puffing on a fine Cuban cigar, whilst cradling a brandy snifter, all the while shaking his head at our mendacity.

That’s the kinda guy buying artisanal cheese!

[Jazzman]

Hong Kong is an interesting choice to hide. Iceland may be safer, but is probably as pro US as Sweden. If some dirt is dug up on him, we should worry. Internet idealists are a little naive, as you can never have true privacy on a global communications network. Maybe this will give rise to a new technology.

[SK in CV]

[quote=Allan from Fallbrook][quote=SD Realtor]Well I tried that Allan and it didn’t work. She still took a sledghammer to my laptop.

**********************************************

[/quote]

SDR: Your wife, unlike SK’s wife, probably finds it hard to believe you’re in Whole Foods at all, let alone buying artisanal reindeer’s milk cheese from Scandinavia.

I picture SK in a smoking jacket, puffing on a fine Cuban cigar, whilst cradling a brandy snifter, all the while shaking his head at our mendacity.

That’s the kinda guy buying artisanal cheese![/quote]

yeah, that would be me. Now anyway. Since my very dear now ex-wife is no longer in my life. Except the smoking jacket is more like shorts, flip-flops and a t-shirt. The Cuban cigar is more like a vaporizer. I do drink single malt from a brandy snifter though.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=SK in CV]I do drink single malt from a brandy snifter though.[/quote]

Tell me you’re throwing some ice cubes and Diet Dr. Pepper in with that shit!

[ocrenter]

[quote=Jazzman]Hong Kong is an interesting choice to hide. Iceland may be safer, but is probably as pro US as Sweden. If some dirt is dug up on him, we should worry. Internet idealists are a little naive, as you can never have true privacy on a global communications network. Maybe this will give rise to a new technology.[/quote]

Agree, I was thinking the same about HK. His explanation about picking HK also seems quite odd. He sad something along the line of people of HK can protest. So what? They can’t even vote for the entire legislature let alone the chief exec. And to have the illusion that the HK government is independent of Beijing and does not answer to the CCP? That is quite silly and naive.

SO he either picked HK so he can defect to China, the US’s chief rival, or he is just way over his head.

[Author]

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