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In reply to the discussion: Re: Attacks on Snowden, Greenwald. How the fuck do people like that sleep at night? [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)are so dangerous to our country, our "free" press, our right to freedom of religion, assembly, fair trials and just about everything that makes our country great, our veru social fabric. that I really don't care about much else.
In addition to that, I think the fact that they target those who communicate with people in other countries including one of my family members who calls old grade-school and other chums in a country that is for no possible reason other than economic espionage being targeted makes me think that what the NSA is really about is political control -- intimidating people.l
It's so wrong that anything that Snowden did doesn't really bother me at all.
I lived in the area around Vienna but not in Vienna for some years. That is an area that according to Democracy Now is being targeted because it allegedly has so many spies. Real spies probably do not communicate through telephone or e-mail, especially not in Europe. It would be too obvious for them.
Remember the crazy mistake the US made when it forced the landing of Evo Morales official plane in Austria?
If the surveillance was really aimed at catching spies or terrorists, they would have known that Snowden was not on that plane. And then there is ISIS. How could they miss the financial supporters of ISIS if they are looking for the financial resources of ISIS?
As for the relationship be3tween Snowden and Greenwald, that becomes very clear in Greenwald's book, and the speculation you repeat which I have read before is not supported by Greenwald's telling of how he met, ignored and finally got to know Snowden. Laura Poitras helped Snowden finally get Greenwald's attention.
Greenwald's book is well written and I strongly recommend reading it. I also strongly recommend watching Greenwald's Ted talk on privacy.
The fact is that the NSA needs a warrant based on probable cause that identifies specifically what it wants to search and seize before it searches and seizes communications records of someone like my relative who has family and friends overseas.
I think the NSA is covering up the embarrassing mistakes that they and the government in general make. If the NSA is not blackmailing people yet with the information they glean from their sucking up communications data, it is just a matter of time.
I met too many disgruntled people from Eastern Europe when I lived in Austria to think that the kind of surveillance the NSA is doing will end well. It is a boondoggle that will not serve the stated purpose but rather be used as a means to intimidate and therefore control what you and I think and write.
The state of our press in the US is already bad enough -- almost as subservient to the political interests of the oligarchs as the RT is for Russia. With the NSA observing communications data, it will soon be impossibly dangerous for whistleblowers to communicate freely with the press.
There is nothing wrong with spying on foreign nations to obtain information needed for national security. But the way the NSA is going about it is not very smart.