91–100 of 115 posts
It is unbelievable how (self)censored the mainstream media/politics discussion is. Keith Alexander lied to the congress on record, whistleblowers before Snowden were jailed for blowing the whistle and there was absolutely no chance he could reveal/fix any illegal wrongdoing by the government via the official whistleblowers channels. He did not run away and ruin his sweet life for the lulz, there was clearly no other…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
While I still disagree that Snowden's blind trust in those two particular journalists (whom I referred to as "the media", not to discredit these two journalists in particular, but because I was trying make a more general statement) was justified considering the massive scale of his leak and the fact that he was quite literally dealing with matters of national security, I admit that the trade-off between having more o…
> he was quite literally dealing with matters of national security Do you think that Al-Qaeda is a greater threat to national security than a spy agency run amok? Justifying prosecution with such logic... it reminds me of the story about the burglar suing the home owner because he injured himself while illegally on the property.
Most definitely not. And I'm not sure how you could have gotten that impression if you actually read my posts instead of taking that single statement out of context.
For the record, I applaud Snowden for his revelation of the NSA's overreach. I just happen to also believe that he could have handled the leak in a much more responsible and defensible manner by carefully reviewing each document that he leaked to ensure they were relevant to the case he was making, and redact any non-relevant sensitive information that could be damaging to national security, instead of just dumping thousands of documents that he never read and delegating to the media what should have been his own responsibility as a whistleblower.
He definitely deserves much praise for his bravery and for sparking the resulting conversation about privacy and government overreach, but we shouldn't let that blind us from the potential dangers of the approach he took.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Keith Alexander lied to the congress on record You forgot the war liars/criminals Bush, Rice and Powell.
Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, and Rumsfeld are still on top of my shitlist as far as people that need to be brought to justice for betraying America. Unlike the "harms" Snowden did, their disinformation campaign on Iraq murdered over 6,000 Americans, maimed many more, killed several hundred thousand in Iraq, cost a few hundred billion, and have trillions in long-term liabilities. I consider Snowden's case a mixed bag depe…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Manning isn't the same as Snowden. Lumping them together is a disservice to what Snowden did. Manning volunteered for the military and gave up some rights as a result. He then distributed data that put lives in danger because he didn't think to clean it up. Snowden was a private citizen, one who felt his country was not going down the right path. He took time to hatch a plan and release data that he believed wouldn't…
No, Snowden did exactly what Manning did with the data except took the time to read and organize it per several interviews. Despite being able to filter to domestic only, he instead dumped all NSA's secrets (including foreign operations) he had onto foreign journalists. That's risking operators' lives esp if a foreign, intelligence service our human assets target decides to target those media organizations. Given the…
Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald are American citizens?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, Snowden did exactly what Manning did with the data except took the time to read and organize it per several interviews. Despite being able to filter to domestic only, he instead dumped all NSA's secrets (including foreign operations) he had onto foreign journalists. That's risking operators' lives esp if a foreign, intelligence service our human assets target decides to target those media organizations. Given the…
>foreign journalists Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald are American citizens?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What makes you think he is up for the right thing? Serious question.
Everyone wants to do the right thing, they just all have different ideas about what the right thing is. There's always hope that people will come around. Not much, but it's all we've got. Every time someone decides that someone they disagree with isn't trying to do the right thing (at least according to their own judgement), a kitten dies. Also, every time a public official does change their mind about something but…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Why is this argument not immediately raised every time some clown uses the "he broke the law, he has to face the music" argument? Corporate media outlets exist to disseminate propaganda, not seek consistent, logical answers to important questions. They seek to frame the debate in the context constructed by Wall Street and Washington and redirect anger and angst so that people fight against each other instead of agai…
>Corporate media outlets exist to disseminate propaganda, not seek consistent, logical answers to important questions... Do you honestly believe this? How do you think an article like this gets written? Do you think that there is some secret puppet master that dictated the talking points of this article or that every journalist including the one who wrote this article is in on some huge conspiracy? Are those options…
"In 1983, 90% of US media was controlled by fifty companies; today, 90% is controlled by just six companies" [1]
Media outlets just act in their owners' best interest (which is to eliminate competition and preserve status quo), that's all.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownersh...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, and Rumsfeld are still on top of my shitlist as far as people that need to be brought to justice for betraying America. Unlike the "harms" Snowden did, their disinformation campaign on Iraq murdered over 6,000 Americans, maimed many more, killed several hundred thousand in Iraq, cost a few hundred billion, and have trillions in long-term liabilities. I consider Snowden's case a mixed bag depe…
Cheney and Rumsfeld had power since they seized it in 1975 (google "Halloween massacre"). They're responsible for far more than just the Iraq war.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> he was quite literally dealing with matters of national security Do you think that Al-Qaeda is a greater threat to national security than a spy agency run amok? Justifying prosecution with such logic... it reminds me of the story about the burglar suing the home owner because he injured himself while illegally on the property.
> Do you think that Al-Qaeda is a greater threat to national security than a spy agency run amok? Most definitely not. And I'm not sure how you could have gotten that impression if you actually read my posts instead of taking that single statement out of context. For the record, I applaud Snowden for his revelation of the NSA's overreach. I just happen to also believe that he could have handled the leak in a much mor…
We aren't going to agree though, as I believe that he should have dumped it all - unrestricted public access. Whatever potential good end a kindly king can apply state secrets is far outweighed by the potential abuses (a great imagination isn't required, lots of historical examples exist).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Do you think that Al-Qaeda is a greater threat to national security than a spy agency run amok? Most definitely not. And I'm not sure how you could have gotten that impression if you actually read my posts instead of taking that single statement out of context. For the record, I applaud Snowden for his revelation of the NSA's overreach. I just happen to also believe that he could have handled the leak in a much mor…
I did read your entire post - several actually. So if you were not referring to the slide with Al-Qaeda related operational details (referenced in your John Oliver link), what did he neglect to redact? If that is not the thing you want to see him prosecuted for, can you state it more clearly? I assume you aren't wanting him prosecuted for "the potential dangers of the approach he took", such hypotheticals would be an…
The thousands of documents that he didn't even read (or even try to redact) before he handed them off.
> We aren't going to agree though, as I believe that he should have dumped it all - unrestricted public access.
You're right. We'll have to agree to disagree.