Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

m.guardian.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 222 posts

Re: Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

#81

Post by dragonwriter »

bobo1357 wrote: post #44
inzax wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally disagree on slowing down his writing. think about the federalist papers for a second. Someone needed to wrote them to convince a nation about our beloved constitution. Since all eyes are on Snowden, he has the best ability to sway many minds about what he believes and what I believe to be right.

Shouldn't the interpretation of our Constitution be left to the Supreme Court? I mean, the Constitution explicitly grants the Court those powers.

> Shouldn't the interpretation of our Constitution be left to the Supreme Court?

No.

> I mean, the Constitution explicitly grants the Court those powers.

The Constitution defines the judicial power of the United States to include deciding certain classes of legal controversies, including those arising under the Constitution, and provides that the Supreme Court is the organ which executes that role in both an explicitly defined set of cases, and in certain other cases as Congress directs. But that is pretty far from explicitly granting the Supreme Court the sole and exclusive power to interpret the Constitution.

Interpreting the Constitution is no less essential to the Supreme Court's role of deciding certain legal controversies than it is to, e.g., the President's role of seeing that the laws -- including the Constitution -- are faithfully executed, or the Congress's role in carrying out the powers and responsibilities it has defined in the Constitution, or the public's role in evaluating the performance of all three branches and electing members to the two political branches.

The Supreme Court (or the judiciary, or even "government officials" more generally) isn't a special priestly caste to whom the contemplation of certain mysteries is restricted. That would be contrary to the entire concept of government of, by, and for the people.

Re: Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

#83

Post by acqq »

dantheman wrote: post #60
brown9-2 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would that work though? Wouldn't it mean that in order to access the info he is talking about, you need something more than knowledge he has in his head - like physical access to something? But then, in the worst case scenario - how could Snowden access it himself if he needs the documents?

A very simple way to achieve something like this is to generate a random password, print it out and give half to someone else. Then you need 2 people to access the file.

Then better, he gives two halves to at least 4 people (2 copies of each half, to prevent "denial of opening" if one person is blocked) he keeps nothing. He personally doesn't need the data. Publicly interesting things are by journalists. The "don't try to kill me" data is at best when not by him at all.

I posit there's nothing earth shaking on his own notebooks anymore.

Re: Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

#84

Post by BWStearns »

tokenadult wrote: post #65

It's always interesting to me that as a new statement from Snowden to the press comes out, most comments on Hacker News take him totally at his word, and assume that his interpretation of events and policy is by far the interpretation most likely to be true. Because I was already past Snowden's current age and current experience level in living in other countries by the time Snowden was born, I see a lot of holes and…

" I can be appalled by some of what I read about the NSA without agreeing that Snowden is taking the best approach to doing something about that"

This. Most of the people I have discussed this issue with have failed to separate the data that was revealed with the manner in which it was. Thank you for doing so.

Re: Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

#85

Post by foobarbazqux »

bobo1357 wrote: post #79
betterunix wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For legal purposes, sure, but if the people disagree with the court's decision there are ways to change things. We could amend the constitution, we could throw it out and write a new one, we could change the makeup of the court, etc. Legally the ultimate authority on the interpretation of the constitution rests with the Supreme Court, but the citizens of this nation are free to express what they want out of the const…

Yes, you're free to express what you want out of the Constitution but you're not free to break laws as interpreted by our federal courts. Unless the Constitution is amended, shouldn't we be following the rule of law and let the Court interpret the Constitution?

You're free to do what you want as long as you're willing to accept the consequences. You're free to rob a bank if you think it's worth the potential jail time and harm to other people.

Re: Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

#86

Post by lisper »

tokenadult wrote: post #46
eli wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he comes off as naive and more than a little pompous, but I guess it's in the eye of the beholder. Either way, if he really wants the focus back on the documents, he should probably write fewer letters about his beliefs, his security, and his personal situation.

I think he comes off as naive and more than a little pompous, but I guess it's in the eye of the beholder. This is my take too. If he had had more knowledge about the historical background of the other countries he has visited, and especially if he had STRONG knowledge of another language, he might view the position of the United States in these matters a bit differently, and might resolve the trade-offs about what t…

> if he had STRONG knowledge of another language

What difference would that make? I am a naturalized American citizen who speaks three languages (English, German and Hebrew. Four if you count broken Spanish). Would that lead you to put a lot of stock in my position?

Re: Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

#87

Post by Kylekramer »

pvnick wrote: post #55
tokenadult wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he comes off as naive and more than a little pompous, but I guess it's in the eye of the beholder. This is my take too. If he had had more knowledge about the historical background of the other countries he has visited, and especially if he had STRONG knowledge of another language, he might view the position of the United States in these matters a bit differently, and might resolve the trade-offs about what t…

Your statement is completely nonsensical. The whole point is we have primary documents supporting what he says. His personality has nothing to do with those claims. Greenwald and Snowden have a 100% accuracy rate regarding these leaks, and your comment comes off as very head-stuck-in-the-sand-y.

We have primary documents supporting a very small subset of what he says. Most of the claims, including the more extraordinary ones such as he can wiretap anyone in the world including Barack Obama's personal email from his desk, remain undocumented.

Re: Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

#88

Post by grey-area »

tokenadult wrote: post #65

It's always interesting to me that as a new statement from Snowden to the press comes out, most comments on Hacker News take him totally at his word, and assume that his interpretation of events and policy is by far the interpretation most likely to be true. Because I was already past Snowden's current age and current experience level in living in other countries by the time Snowden was born, I see a lot of holes and…

The high degree of cooperation many countries appear to be giving the United States so far in efforts to have Snowden return to the United States for legal proceedings suggests that quite a few experienced national leaders with very different constituencies to represent agree that there is more harm in Snowden being on the loose than in his standing trial to weigh his claims against United States law.

You appear to assume here that politicians take decisions purely or even mostly based on what is best for their constituencies? There could be many reasons for European leaders to be so supine, mostly I imagine it's pressure from the US and not wishing to be made a pariah, but also they are engaged in their own spying which is just as pervasive as the NSA, and to a great or lesser extent are reliant on the NSA for intelligence - most of the governments of Europe are partnered with the NSA on some level since Echelon and integration is probably tighter now, many have US bases on their soil. They have absolutely no interest in seeing any more revelations about the global surveillance network they have helped to create.

Re: Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

#89

Post by MisterWebz »

tokenadult wrote: post #65

It's always interesting to me that as a new statement from Snowden to the press comes out, most comments on Hacker News take him totally at his word, and assume that his interpretation of events and policy is by far the interpretation most likely to be true. Because I was already past Snowden's current age and current experience level in living in other countries by the time Snowden was born, I see a lot of holes and…

Doesn't Greenwald already have a copy of everything Snowden has? If so, then what's the harm in Snowden being "on the loose"?

Re: Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Senator Gordon Humphrey

#90

Post by [deleted] »

phaus wrote: post #52
untog wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To offer an opposing view: I cannot be coerced into revealing that information, even under torture. That is a huge claim. I do not imagine that his training involved being tortured to make sure. If he's wrong, there could be dire consequences for the US. You might even say his ego is writing checks his body can't cash.

Such training does not exist anywhere on this planet. Edit: I already mentioned SERE training in a higher level post. It's pretty intense, but still, the most valuable lesson you learn is that everyone will end up talking. I was simply commenting on the possibility of a person resisting torture. If that person has some sort of safety mechanism in place, the torturer might not be able to get the information he wants,…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN