Edward Snowden Op/Ed in NYT: 'The World Says No to Surveillance'
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/05/opinion/edward-snowden-the-world-says-no-to-surveillance.htmlOP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
Edward Snowden: The World Says No to Surveillance
ADAM MAIDA
By EDWARD J. SNOWDEN
JUNE 4, 2015
Two years on, the difference is profound. In a single month, the N.S.A.’s invasive call-tracking program was declared unlawful by the courts and disowned by Congress. After a White House-appointed oversight board investigation found that this program had not stopped a single terrorist attack, even the president who once defended its propriety and criticized its disclosure has now ordered it terminated.
This is the power of an informed public.
Ending the mass surveillance of private phone calls under the Patriot Act is a historic victory for the rights of every citizen, but it is only the latest product of a change in global awareness. Since 2013, institutions across Europe have ruled similar laws and operations illegal and imposed new restrictions on future activities. The United Nations declared mass surveillance an unambiguous violation of human rights. In Latin America, the efforts of citizens in Brazil led to the Marco Civil, an Internet Bill of Rights. Recognizing the critical role of informed citizens in correcting the excesses of government, the Council of Europe called for new laws to protect whistle-blowers.
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At the turning of the millennium, few imagined that citizens of developed democracies would soon be required to defend the concept of an open society against their own leaders.
Yet the balance of power is beginning to shift. We are witnessing the emergence of a post-terror generation, one that rejects a worldview defined by a singular tragedy. For the first time since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, we see the outline of a politics that turns away from reaction and fear in favor of resilience and reason. With each court victory, with every change in the law, we demonstrate facts are more convincing than fear. As a society, we rediscover that the value of a right is not in what it hides, but in what it protects.
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= new reply since forum marked as read
but glad to see you around -- appreciate your posts & thoughts 
Thank you, JonLP24. I'm just one strident liberal doing my soldiering on DU to "catapult the propaganda."
People like you make DU THE BEST progressive liberal cyber communities on the planet!
So many people vilified Snowden. And now it appears he is playing a KEY ROLE in restoring our Democracy! Thank God for the whistle blowers willing to sacrifice and disrupt their entire lives and future in the name of preserving the best intentions of our Founding Fathers and the Democracy they so cherished!
His critics seem to prefer a totalitarian police state. Including Kerry, who is oblivious to Snowden's contributions for the betterment of our Democracy, and actually doesn't seem to like or understand democracy very much. Like most members of the big PTB CLUB we ain't in!
It will be interesting to review all the other vilifications of Snowden a year or two from now. There will be a lot of politicians that should be embarrassed to be on the wrong side of history, if they were capable of shame.
Here's a link to a Gov. Jesse interview with John Kiriakou, the only person we ever prosecuted for official American torture. Naturally, he wasn't prosecuted for doing it, he was prosecuted for TALKING ABOUT IT, and in the video, it sounds like GWB was lying to make John the FALL GUY for the entire program. How ridiculous. We all know Lyndie England was the evil genius behind all Iraq War torture programs. 
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017270155
-90% Jimmy
-90% Jimmy
and appreciated you showed an interest in the TCN issue the first time I mentioned it here but outside of it there is a lack of concern but remember the outrage over the World Cup workers but the Department of Defense doing the same thing (in a war zone) doesn't quite rate. For me it is different when you get to know a poor Nepali or others on a personal level that is experiencing the exploitation and abuse.
You sent a very long PM that I enjoyed reading all of it -- (I think you started with your interest in Zappa, not his music but his views) that I had every intention of getting back to but settle and take the time that I kept putting off until DU3 but I was often conscience I didn't appreciate or value it -- just wanted to let you know I value your contributions and always a good sign to see you & others with similar views around here.
This was it if you don't remember 
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4322511&mesg_id=4323442
information themselves you would think they could just get a warrant then to get the companies to provide the records 
