Edward Snowden and the Real Issues

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/06/13-4



Edward Snowden is not a traitor. Nor is he a hero, at least not yet. But he probably will be martyred by an establishment that cannot abide critics.


Both House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein (D-Cal.) have called him a traitor, which only shows how ignorant they are. Under our Constitution (and the Espionage Act of 1917), it is not enough for a leaker to do something that might arguable “aid or comfort” an enemy; the leaker must also have the intent, by his disclosures, to betray the United States. No proof exists the Mr. Snowden had either motive.

Quite the contrary. Had he wanted to aid an enemy and hurt the United States, he would not have gone public. He would have secretly disclosed very different information to the agents of a foreign power.

Which raises the question: Why can’t these politicians respect Mr. Snowden for what he is: an ordinary young man who does not claim to be a hero, but is willing to go to jail, if necessary, to start a debate over what our bloated intelligence community and do-nothing Congress are doing to our liberties?

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Because the sonofabitch is threatening the health of the Empire.

Any empire needs to maintain control over the masses; secrecy, surveillance & deception are among the most valuable tools for social control and any little shit who upsets the sheep like this guy has done is a monster. It was that way in Hitler's Germany (& later in East Germany), it was that way in the Soviet Union, it was that way in the British Empire, and it was that way in Rome.

[Catherina]

3. +1000000 n/t

[Eddie Haskell]

2. Forget Snowden and concentrate on the message.

We need a system that eliminates wide scale data collection, but identifies the 0.1% who are a threat. How do we do that?