Snowden Is No Traitor. What He EXPOSED Is What's TREASON.
In the United States, the government is supposed to answer to We the People.
Now We the People are suspects of the Government, treated as if we are some kind of Top Secret "Persons of Interest" or federal fugitives in a never-ending nationwide manhunt.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Earlier this year, February 26, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed an ACLU lawsuit, deciding that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue since they could not show that they were specifically targeted. You see, that information is secret.
The Verizon warrant gives legal standing to all Verizon customers, since it can now be shown that they are being targeted.
Snowden published this document!
Hopefully he will be arrested soon and face trial on the three felony charges.
People that STEAL classified government documents in order to bring harm to Our Country should not be cheered.
On the other hand there is NO evidence that the NSA did anything illegal under current law.
There are two separate issues here.
Yes, Snowden should be arrested and stand trial.
I was looking for it earlier and couldn't find it.
I hope you wrote it with the intention that others reproduce and use it...because I intend to.
“The Damage to Our Intelligence is Gut-Wrenching to See”
Why the Ruling Class is So Upset About Edward Snowden
by GARY LEUPP
CounterPunch June 26, 2013
EXCERPT...
It all, in my humble opinion, boils down to this. The entirety of the ruling elite and the journalistic establishment are keen on defending the programs Snowden has exposed; keen on punishing him for his whistle-blowing; determined to vilify him as a punk, narcissist, egoist, attention-hungry ne’er-do-well (anything but a thoughtful man who made a moral choice that has enlightened people about the character of the U.S. government); feverishly working on damage control while anticipating more damning revelations; and determined to get those four laptops with their incriminating content back into the bosom of the national security state.
What sort of state is it, that says to its own people, we can invade a country based on lies, kill a million people, hold nobody accountable but hey, when one of us does something so abominable as to reveal that the state spies constantly on the people of the world, we have to have a “manhunt” for him and punish him for treason?
The Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, has the audacity to tell NBC News, “It is literally gut-wrenching to see” Snowden’s revelations… because of the “damage” they do to “our intelligence capabilities”! As though there were really an “our” or “us” at this point. As though we were a nation united, including the mindful watchers and the grateful watched.
[font color="green"]No, there are us, and there are them. The tiny power elite that controls the mainstream press and cable channels, the corporations that dutifully hand over meta-data to the state (and then deny doing so to allay consumer outrage), the twin political parties, are sick to their stomachs that they’ve been so exposed.[/font color]
CONTINUED...
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/06/26/why-the-ruling-class-is-so-upset-about-edward-snowden/
Lots of great contributions on the original DU thread.
Like I wrote way up on this thread, PSPS, it seems like a long time ago, but I remember when my Party, the Democratic Party, stood up for the rights of the working people and poor and democracy and civil rights in general. One day, all too soon I fear, we may remember Freedom of Speech and of the Press, and right to be secure in our persons and papers, with the same sense of nostalgia and dread.
Right, Left, Forward, Regressive. Anyone who cares about what this nation stands for should be incensed and doing all they can to stop secret government.
Here's an example of an important story from just eight years ago that has fallen down the Memory Hole, followed by a ton of steaming hot concrete to make sure it doesn't come out:
Know your BFEE: The Secret Government
Posted by Octafish in General Discussion (Through 2005)
Mon Oct 10th 2005, 06:34 PM
Ever wonder who put the “Mock” in Democracy? If you’re like me, you know it was the Bush Family Evil Empire.
The Bush family names leaves a stain of treachery that goes back to busting the old Weimar Republic and building NAZI Germany through the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on through Vietnam, Watergate, October Surprise, Iran-Contra, arming Iraq and Saddam, BCCI, Inslaw-PROMIS, Selection 2000, ENRON Energy Policy, 9-11, Illegal Iraq Invasion, Plame NOC-outing, e-Selection 2004 and all the rest of their various treasons of the present day.
Of course, I submit the Bushes don’t act alone. They are the dirty tip of the rotten spear for a Secret Government who oppose democracy, rule of law and the United States Constitution. Don’t take my word for it. Let’s look at the record.
Exhibit A:
When 9-11 happened, Sneering Dick Cheney, Smirking Duhbya Bush, Trent Lott and the rest of the GOP leadership got ushered to safety where they could continue governing, no matter what. The problem was, they left out the Democrats.
'Shadow Government' News To Congress
Dem Leaders Say They Weren’t Told; GOP Staffers Not Sure
White House Casts Light On 'Shadow'
WASHINGTON, March 5, 2002 (CBS)
Quote: “This is not the kind of thing you tell 10, 50 or 100 senators. If you do, you might as well tell the world." Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.
(CBS) After lawmakers complained that they were kept in the dark, White House officials on Tuesday briefed top members of Congress about the "shadow government" that President Bush set up outside Washington as a safeguard against terrorism.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said two top Bush aides briefed Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D. on Tuesday, and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., "had been previously informed."
But House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., was not part of Tuesday's session. His spokesman Erik Smith said Gephardt did not know about the meeting until it ended. He said he did not know why Gephardt was not invited.
"We're disappointed, we don't understand why they would choose not to invite Mr. Gephardt," Smith said.
Fleischer told reporters that Gephardt's absence was "a scheduling matter," but when pressed on whether Gephardt was invited, Fleischer replied, "I don't make all the invitations here at the White House.”
CONTINUED…
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/03/05/...
How nice. A “shadow government.” No need for an opposition in the dark twilight of the Fourth Reich. Right?
Exhibit B:
Bill Moyers described the Secret Government that operated beyond Congressional oversight during Iran-Contra days:
The Secret Government
by Bill Moyers
Seven Locks Press, 1988
EXCERPT...
The contras: Reagan has compared them to our Founding Fathers. In reality, Ronald Reagan and CIA director William Casey were their founding fathers. Two months after his inauguration, the president approved the funds Casey used to create the contras. Their ultimate goal was the violent overthrow of the Nicaraguan government, a government the United States legally recognizes. So the war had to be carried out covertly, as a campaign of terror. But Americans were outraged when J CIA agents mined the Nicaraguan harbors and blew up fuel tanks, causing thousands of Nicaraguan citizens to flee their homes; and Congress, in protest, cut off the contra funds. Still the president refused to give up on his crusade, and his men went to work secretly to keep the war going. The question now was how to evade Congress, the law and public opinion.
First, a small cabal in the White House took charge of policy: President Reagan, CIA Director Casey, National Security Advisers McFarlane and Poindexter, and their aide, Colonel North.
To raise money for the contras, the secret team turned to rightwing governments that could do favors for the United States and receive favors in return. The king of Saudi Arabia doled out a million dollars a month; the sultan of Brunei coughed up $10 million that was misplaced through a White House error. The secret government also encouraged the fund-raising efforts of retired Gen. John Singlaub. Relieved of his command for insubordination in 1977, he now runs the World Anti-Communist League.
SNIP...
GEORGE GORMAN, former captain, U.S. Marine Corps:
I'm two years senior to Oliver North out of the Naval Academy, and the only thing he's got on me is a Silver Star and six more years in the Corps. And when Oliver North started to say the things he started to say, I literally wanted to throw things at my TV set. I seriously considered mailing my Naval Academy ring back to the Naval Academy and denying ever having gone there. I was so embarrassed and humiliated that a professional military officer would stoop to the dishonor and disgrace and warmongering that Oliver North and Poindexter and McFarlane and the rest of the crew did. Selling arms to the Iranians after they blew up the Beirut barracks, after they blew up the Beirut embassy, is the most immoral thing- that's like selling Zyklon-B to the Germans after you've found out the Holocaust is under way.
CONTINUED...
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Moyers/SecretGovt_Moyers.html
Gee. Appears the BFEE has some serious Constitutional issues there, for our Democracy.
Here’s what author Joseph Trento had to say about Ted Shackley (photo) and the government-within-a-government, the “CIA within the CIA” that stayed in power, no matter whether its members were in government or not:
Prelude to Terror:
The Rogue CIA, The Legacy of America's Private Intelligence Network the Compromising of American Intelligence
Book Review:
After decades of writing and research about American intelligence, Joseph Trento has written the most authoritative indictment of CIA splinter groups, two generations of Bush family involvement in illegal financial networks, and the funding of the agents of terror. Prelude to Terror reveals the history of a corrupt group of spymasters-led by Ted Shackley-who were fired when Jimmy Carter became president, but who maintained their intelligence portfolio and used it to create a private intelligence network. After this rogue group helped engineer Carter's defeat in 1980 and allied with George H.W. Bush, these former CIA men planned and conducted what became the Iran-Contra scandal and, through the Saudis, allied the U.S. with extreme elements in Islam. The CIA's number-one front man, Edwin P. Wilson, was framed by Shackley and his cohorts so that Wilson's operations could be taken over. For the first time the story of how CIA director George H. W. Bush was recruited into this network, and brought it into the bosom of the Saudi royal family, is told in detail, as well as how this group's manipulation of the CIA bureaucracy allowed Osama bin Laden's fundraising to thrive as al Qaeda flourished under Saudi and CIA protection.
SOURCE:
http://www.campusi.com/isbn_0786714646.htm
That’s a nice enough summary of some not-so-nice evil bastards who answer to no one the public can call to account. With their rush to classify presidential papers and almost every scrap of paper as “classified,” we can see how they can have secret trials, the destruction of habeus corpus, the loss of the Bill of Rights. They truly are a secret government.
The above was from DU in 2005. In the years since, I've gotten an earful on the subject from all points of the political compass, almost always from the POV of the person whose ox is getting gored. Nothing in that time compares to the uniform and full-political spectrum contempt for NSA spying.
If this is a Bush op, why not do it in the Fall of 2012, during the election season? Or why not do it in 2014, during the mid-terms? As I have said elsewhere, it appears to me that these leaks are coming out at a time precisely designed to minimize the damage to Obama and to the Democratic Party.
Thoughts? 
-Laelth
That's not how it works in the real world.
....by the Royalists & Tories because they didn't Stand Up, out in the open, in front of the British Soldiers and let the British soldiers shoot them.
They chose to evade, hide, and live to continue fighting.
Amazing parallels with those who are insisting that Snowden is a coward for NOT let the US Government do a Bradley Manning to him.
Just like in thee Old Days, we STILL have our "Royalists".
The First and Fourth Amendments are non-negotiable.
Imma 'fraid of Snowden now 
And, of course, it's not going to do any good now, because we're all panicked freaky about Snowden. 
no one here is surprised, no one is shocked, certainly no one needs it explained. It's been explained repeatedly every day for the last six weeks, in all its sordid glory. Hasn't stopped anyone from buying into the bash, though.
%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.paintinghere.org%252Fpainting%252Fthe_son_of_man-9864.html%3B450%3B600
Where up is down, black is white, and liberals are defending RW authoritarianism
Or is that all there ever was? Snowden didn't expose any treason, that's clear. He exposed a perfectly legal warrant and a legally meaningless PowerPoint. If, however, he also shared classified US information with the Chinese, as both he and Chinese media have claimed, he certainly is a traitor. And he betrayed the US because he hates Obama and everything Obama stands for.
Not exactly hero material in my book but no accounting for tastes.
Greenwald by his own admission is a Bush-war supporting, Obama-bashing "Libertarian" hack. Snowden is a Ron Paul loving, Obama-bashng Bush-war volunteer. Neither has exposed any illegal activity, but Snowden by all accounts has certainly committed it. The NSA activities they "revealed" have been public knowledge since at least 2003 when TIA was de-funded by Congress and were nationally debated when the 2008 FISA amendment was passed.
I see nothing democratic about a couple of RW ex-pats with their thumbdrives full of southern strategy trying to interfere with the conduct of US foreign and domestic policy by our duly elected -- twice -- Democratic administration. And the media pundits promoting them are shameless dog whistlers. That's putting it as tactfully as I can.
And cynic or not, I believe you are right. In fact, there's a good chance Edward would have simply been disappeared if he attempted to complain about this. Booz-Allen might have done it themselves when the Feds came to them and said that they had a leak.
It's crazy watching the people trying to spin this. They've even turned around on Bradley Manning(sort of) saying that staying and being tortured would prove his legitimacy.
Martyrdom is now the bar for reporting illegal activities?? 
It's no joke, martyrdom, murder, torture and spherical spying on the Homeland. From a couple week'a back:
NPR reporter mockingly said Snowden thought CIA might send the MAFIA after him.
"He actually suggested in that interview that the CIA might send the Mafia after him. That seems probably a little far-fetched." -- Tom Gjelten to Linda Wertheimer
Doesn't anyone at NPR remember how the CIA hired the Mafia to kill Castro?
FTR: That was 1960 when Ike was president, Nixon was veep, and Dulles headed CIA.
PS: Thank you, Hydra. We are so past Orwell, Big Brother himself would need a a thumb drive crammed with Michelin Guides to recognize the place.
