LET THE GOVERNMENT SPIN BEGIN …
Let’s get one thing straight. Edward Snowden is a hero …
The former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who exposed the depths of America’s domestic spy machine deserves our admiration and respect. His revelations were as courageous as they were earth-shattering … forever changing the way millions of Americans look at their government.
It was a wake-up call this country sorely needed … and one we’d best not forget.
As he made abundantly clear during his recent video speech at a Texas-based technology conference (Snowden spoke via a satellite feed from an undisclosed location because he is still a fugitive from the federal government), his story is about freedom – and specifically whether this country means what it says when it claims to be the “land of the free.”
“I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution,” Snowden told attendees at the conference. “And I saw the Constitution was being violated on a massive scale.”
Exactly …
Is our country what we say it is? Or has it morphed into something completely different? Snowden represents all that America is supposed to be. Those he exposed? They represent all America has sadly become.
And people – especially those under forty years of age – understand that intuitively. Instinctively.
Recognizing this, U.S. President Barack Obama’s national intelligence czar James Clapper has embarked on a tour of U.S. colleges and universities in an effort to disabuse America’s youth of the notion that Snowden is a hero.
Clapper, of course, is the federal official who flat out lied to the U.S. Senate thirteen months ago (before the first of Snowden’s explosive revelations) about the extent of the government’s spy activities.
“Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?” U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden asked Clapper last March.
“No, sir,” Clapper responded.
“It does not?” Wyden asked again.
“Not wittingly,” Clapper responded. “There are cases where they could, inadvertently perhaps, collect — but not wittingly.”
Yeah … that’s perjury, people. Clapper knowingly lied to Congress about this program.
Yet now this guy wants us (well, our youth) to take him at his word when he seeks to redefine the legacy of Edward Snowden?
Please …
Anyway, Clapper got the idea for his college speeches after reading an article in The Washington Post.
“An admissions officer from George Washington University told The Post that for the admissions’ essay question, ‘Who’s your personal hero?’ the admissions officer observed that she was seeing a lot more of Edward Snowden citations,” Clapper told students. “And the idea that young people see Edward Snowden as a hero really bothers me. So I thought I needed to talk about Snowden at Georgetown and Georgia and I am going to do the same elsewhere at colleges and universities.”
Really? Good luck with all that …
“I understand that a lot of young people see Snowden as a courageous whistleblower standing up to authority,” Clapper said. “I personally believe that whistleblowing in its highest form takes an incredible amount of courage and integrity. But Snowden isn’t a whistleblower.”
According to Clapper, Snowden is a spy. In fact at one point in his remarks he bizarrely claims that if Snowden were genuinely interested in promoting liberty, he would have taken his concerns either to the NSA’s Inspector General or the U.S. Department of Justice.
Wait … “Justice?” So Snowden should have taken his concerns about domestic spying to the agency that’s spying on reporters?
Amazing logic there …
“Snowden said he felt NSA’s surveillance program was being used to violate privacy and civil liberties,” Clapper said. “If that was his concern, he had a lot of options on where to go with it. He could have reported it to seniors at NSA, which he didn’t do.”
Actually Clapper is lying … again. Snowden did take his concerns to his supervisors. He was ignored.
Finally, Clapper offers up the “big lie.” The lie we will hear repeated ad nauseam the next time “terrorists” react violently to America’s violent (and hypocritical) global interventionism.
Ready?
“We’re beginning to see changes in the communications behavior of our adversaries, particularly and most disturbingly terrorists, a trend that I anticipate will continue,” he said. “And as a consequence our nation is less safe and our people less secure.”
And there we have it … according to Clapper, it’s all going to be Snowden’s fault the next time our country faces the consequences of its own mindless militancy. Never mind those drone strikes or costly foreign invasions.
Remember, America is “fighting for freedom.”
And there’s apparently no freedom it won’t trample on in that fight …
79 comments
I’ve got to agree with Obama on this one.
Myopic comment … “And people – especially those under forty years of age – understand that intuitively. Instinctively.”
Get your head out of your 40-year-old *** long enough to know there are enlightened people older than you.
Agism, like all other prejudices, cloud and diminish your opinion, especially when you’re trying to present a persuasive point of view.
Well put. Opinions are like assholes….everybody has one and some are themselves, assholes. Folks’ opinions are most often less informed, less considered, and offered with heaping doses of incessant and narcissistic self-promoting babble.
Yeah, that rankled me as well. I’m 60 years old and I grew up when these things didn’t happen, when we had a mainstream media that challenged the government, when dissent and protesting wasn’t shut down by the federal government with anti-terrorism infrastructure, when officials that lied to congress were prosecuted, when a president that lied to the American people was impeached, when journalism wasn’t a crime and when journalists weren’t named as co-conspirators to a crime just for doing their jobs, when American citizens weren’t extrajudicialy executed by executive order, When the entire nation wasn’t spied on without warrants like East Germany. when we didn’t kidnap people and torture them in secret prisons in the name of security. When the banks and big corporations didn’t write the laws and regulations, when we still had constitutionally protected civil rights and, when people were people and corporations weren’t.
Yeah that didn’t happen!!! Oh, wait. That did happen during WWII? Including rounding up American citizens and holding them in interment camps without charging them or a trial and seizing their property; And J. Edgar Hoover was spying on Americans without a warrant, including Presidents and congressmen; And the CIA was spying on Americans without a warrant during the Vietnam War and after; And the President of the United States, authorized people to break into the office of his political opponents to steal what information they had? Never mind.
“when dissent and protesting wasn’t shut down by the federal government with anti-terrorism infrastructure”
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.
Gotta love Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
Is this a supposed to be satirical? If you don’t understand the question never mind.
I trust the Government
I trust them to lie, cheat, steal 24/7
Buck Farack
It’s not even a fair fight between Clapper and Snowden. As you demonstrated, it’s child’s play to find the hypocrisy in Clapper’s words.
Snowden in the hero and Clapper, and his handlers, are the heels.
Sorry my friend, a hero doesn’t run to a communist country. Both Snowden and Clapper are idiots.
He had to get the word out as to the evil our government was doing, even to its own citizens. Most of us knew or suspected this for decades, but Snowden blowing the whistle is what it took to wake up a lot of the sheeple.
Once he did, he had no choice but to flee somewhere, anywhere, where he might enjoy a degree of safety from a vindictive and butthurt tyrannical government. Yeah, in a perfect world, he would have been somewhere other than one of our oldest and (at times) most feared adversaries, but with Obama and company using bully tactics to place potential host countries in fear of economic damage, his choices were limited.
Did you see Snowden on TV asking Putin if the Russian government spied on it’s citizens? The dumb SOB isn’t smart enough to know he is being used or just maybe he was a willful participant. Then again maybe the Russians were twisting his arm.
As far as the sheeple, they still don’t know what is going on.
Definitely not his brightest moment but he may figure he has to play a little to his gracious host. Honestly, I don’t fear the Russians as much as I do the traitors at the highest levels of our own government.
Sorry but I set in on too many briefings not to fear the Russians more than our government. Putin is doing exactly what I feared if we ever had an empty suit as CinC.
And what is that? The same thing they did to Georgia under Bush II?
And how do you propose we stop them from taking over an insignificant piece of a country that borders Russia, when the Europeans will not help us. Let’s hear your brilliant plan. Since Bush II the Europeans don’t think much of us anymore and they are not going to give up Russian oil for a portion of Ukraine.
Further, the Bush wars and the Bush recession have bankrupted us financially and emotionally. The Russians know we are not going to engage them in war over the worthless piece of real estate. Now if there was oil there maybe. But there isn’t. So unless the Europeans will work with us we are powerless to do anything about this no matter who the CinC is and the Russians know that.
Yes they did go into Georgia and Bush did react, not as much as I would have liked.
Bush has been gone for over five years but I’m sure you will keep him alive for at least another three.
“Red Lines”, “After my election I have more flexibility.” and a “Reset Button” is empty suit diplomacy.
What is your plan? What do you want the US to do? Its easy to be a back seat driver. Its easy to be a Monday morning quarterback. Typical of Republicans and Teanuts. You can criticize but you can’t come up with any ideas.
What makes you think I’m a Republican or even in the Tea Party? Is it be cause I criticize the seating President, guess what, I criticized the previous one also.
Typical of you in lockstep to stick your head in the sand and blame what’s happening today on someone or something from the past.
It’s not my job to come up with plans or ideas but I have some you wouldn’t like, that’s the job of the Bozos that run the country, that’s why we elect them.
Actually you started the partisan finger pointing with your empty suit comment. And you made a comparison to the previous administration when you said when we had empty suit as the CinC. As though we did not have that for 8 years under Bush.
While it is not your job to come up with ideas, when you accuse someone else of not doing what they should be doing you should be prepared to back that up with what you think should be done. Otherwise its just partisan BS. You can’t say they are wrong if you don’t know what’s right.
The truth is this is not Obama’s fault. There is nothing we can do to help Ukraine. The Europeans hold all the cards and they are not interested in playing those cards for Ukraine.
We have no strategic interest involved. We have no commercial interests involved. We have no defense treaty with Ukraine. All we can do is impose sanctions on Russia, and those will largely be meaningless to the billionaire oligarchs of Russia. We are not going to engage the Russians militarily over this country, and anyone who thinks we should is crazy. We can’t afford another unwinnable war.
As far as ideas I would not like, bring them on. Lets see how many people like your ideas of what Obama should be doing.
Laughing Out Loud
You don’t have to be a partisan to finger point, all you have to do is observe.
I did not make a comparison, I said he was an empty suit, you as a partisan were looking for a comparison.
The truth is this Administration’s foreign diplomacy has embolden Putin,
You are right there is no strategic interest, Russia will do what it wants.
You and your ilk would like nothing better than for me to post my ideas so you can ripe them apart with what you consider superior intellect and knowledge, no thanks.
William, why can’t you get over it, Obama won, he will be criticized it goes along with the job.
Amen! Snowden is, at best, yet another imperfect messenger (although he’s also a self-serving, self-aggrandizing pussy boy to boot), but I’m glad someone else sees Clapper for the true intellectual midget that he is. I still do a little bit of side work in that world, and it’s amazing the utter lack of respect that clown commands among a wide variety of the sub-worlds in the intel community- analysts, gun-toters, case officers- they mock him constantly (although you have to be sure there are no Executive Pay Schedule or careerist-types in the room). He’s described the Muslim Brotherhood as “largely secular,” said during the Libya uprising that Ghaddaffi “will prevail,” and was totally unaware of some major British terror arrests covered by the worldwide press earlier that morning while being interviewed on live TV back in 2010. He is known in the IC as the “intelligence guy who says lots of unintelligent things.”
I couldn’t believe how unintelligent Clapper appeared in that TV interview and I can’t believe he is still in his position.
Nice post. Have heard much of these same opinions about Clapper. And as implied by Mike, the two (Snowden and Clapper) are not perfectly juxtaposed as one imagines a see-saw. One is not right at the expense of the other’s being wrong. IMHO, both are mostly wrong. Sad.
Umm… you do know that Russia hasn’t been under communist rule since 1991 right? Sounds like you’re the idiot.
Your judgment of him shouldn’t be merely based upon which country he ran to, (and he didn’t intend to stay in Russia, the US government revoked his passport) it should be about what he did for us. He risked his life, his citizenship, and freedom for this country by revealing just how very corrupt our government is. Our privacy is being taken away, along with our other basic rights and you call him an idiot…
I can’t believe the selfish greedy people who run this country aren’t even looking into the thousands (who knows how many) of unconstitutional things the NSA and CIA have done and are still doing to us everyday. All they care about is getting Edward Snowden back here to lock him in jail for theft of “classified” property, property that should have never existed in the first place because it’s 100% unlawful. What a free country…not.
LMAO at the Republikans that started the spy program. Only when we have a black president, there’s a problem!! Just like the deficit. Go suck on your mamas tit some more. It will be OK!!
Who gives a shit who started it. Silly partisan politics shouldn’t matter. What should matter is that it exists now and it should not.
It matters because we are all tired of the fake outrage from the right. We know that if a Republican wins the election in 2016 Republicans and Tea Partiers will no longer care about any of this. It will be back to business as usual, the same as it was under Bush when Republicans fought the ACLU when they tried to end these spying programs.
No. Only democrats care about “the fake outrage from the right.” The rest of us only care about ending spying program, not about whether it presents an opportunity to point fingers at the other side.
Snowden told us secrets that should not have been secrets. I’m glad he did it – so why should I want to see him punished for it?
This world can’t be perfect. Some good may come from his revelations, but you can’t let someone who was sworn to secrecy, spy on on information he was not allowed access to reveal it to our adversaries and go unpunished. Unfair as it may seem, it can’t be any other way. This world requires it’s martyrs. Snowden is a very imperfect one.
Untrue. When a government turns against the people, the people have a right to remove that government, and if they do not, they give up the right to live as a free people. Snowden threw off the covers on the mechanism of a worldwide fascist empire, and it is our duty to either change it or destroy it.
The sad thing is that what Snowden exposed is entirely unsurprising. It’s exactly what we were warned of every time a law was passed (and/or extended) that undermined our freedom. We’ve seen even more freedom-destroying bills approved by vast majorities of Congress and signed by the president. And yet these people keep their jobs.
If it comes to bloodshed for Americans to regain their rights, that blood is on the hands of current-day Americans who aren’t fighting now. I can only hope more people realize what’s going on, because it is inevitable for the kinds of powers government is granting itself to be abused. It’s just a matter of time, and I hope time doesn’t run out for us, or our children.
According to Russ Tice, the powers that derived from tearing up the Bill of Rights were abused by early 2002.
Fascist! The US has had to deal with these issues since John Adams’ Alien and Sedition Acts. Nothing new just the technology.
Sic Willie’s hero list. Snowden, the Rosenbergs, John Walker, Benedict Arnold, etc.
Ignorance, thy name is FITS. It’s sad if “those under forty” believe Snowden is a hero. It’s not a video game/reality TV world. Snowden did far more than “expose” anything. It’s opinions like this that prove the danger to America that Libertarians really are. Headlines don’t make a hero, but headlines is all some are reading. Snowden gave Vladimir Putin information that he is now using against us (Crimea) and will continue to use against us, information NOT being revealed to the public. Anyone – ANYONE – who believes Snowden a hero is akin to believing Hitler and Stalin and Mao and Pol Pot were merely practicing population control.
Snowden gave Vladimir Putin information that he is now using against us (Crimea)…
“We” are not Crimea, Kemosabe.
What exactly did Snowden give Russia about Crimea? And how is it being used against us?
Snowden’s mission was to get source and method info. Putin no doubt used/uses that to hide his military and diplomatic communications. He also has data on NATO and western countries he did not have before. Snowden’s “revelations” are a cover that also serves to cripple Russia’s greatest weakness – US intelligence.
Much of what NSA has been accused has been refuted and the rest explained. Consider that the agency has ALL of its programs reviewed by all three branches of government.
http://thewatchlog.com/2014/01/06/mind-games
You will forgive me if I’m not persuaded by your speculation which is based on the speculation of some blogger (I.e. Your source).
Who are you are your sources?
35 years in the business.
The business of what?
Intelligence. Specifically, NSA. Counter-intel among other things.
So in other words you have a vested interest in keeping up with the massive surveillance of citizens. Of course *you* think Snowden is a traitor.
+10
…since the authentic revelations from Snowden and Assange, has anything changed? The 1% called the down the thunder on all of us. Unless our commissioned officers uphold their oaths to the Constitution and with thunder clap surprise arrest the usurpers the blood shed for the Constitution was in vain.
The best thing about the Snowden revelations was that it encouraged Russ Tice to come forth with his own revelations about what he saw in 2002 when the NSA was wiretapping the entire political elite in the US at the behest of the VP’s office. They even tapped Obama from 2004 on, and so now it’s clear why Obama gave Cheney’s ex-company a no-bid contract after he railed against such corruption as a candidate. It’s clear why Obama went to Cheney’s ally Bill Kristol to bless his foreign policy when he railed against the neocon foreign policy as a candidate. It’s clear that we don’t have a functioning democracy in the US (as Jimmy Carter said), and the reason is that the presidency has been taken over by a small band of neocons led by the biggest criminal ever to become VP.
Get off your Lazy @$$…And give us some REAL political news…
Who Gives a $#!* about the NSA..???: There is so much you MISS on purpose…not sure if you’re just talent-less (stupid)…or running interference for Obama…
From Drudge:
STUDY: Marijuana may cause heart problems in young adults…
(if legal, I’m sure We’ll GET STUCK with your doctor bills)….
Aborted babies incinerated in Oregon to provide electricity…
(Is this Obama’s attempt an actual Energy plan?)….
OBAMASCARE: Dem Sen blames voter for tripled insurance premium…
(Your readers claim Obamacare is cheaper)….
Senior home healthcare services slashed…
(I thought Obama care would provide more and better services for less money???))…
THESE THINGS will MOTIVATE the VOTE against Obama…You’ll NEVER stop the Gov’t from spying…I’d advise you to stay off the Kiddie Porn Sites or quit sending money to Islamic-jihad.org …and you would not be $#!**ing your pants over being spied on…
Pervs w/ things to hide, because you’re a liar or dishonest, are most hung-up on the Spy Crap…Clinton had mountains of raw FBI files. FITS is always snooping in underwear drawers, trying to embarrass people because of their personal lives…
So STFU and print some relevant political news…Dumb@$$…
Exactly!!!
If you aren’t doing anything wrong….you have nothing to fear.
Like when the IRS audits conservative groups at the behest of our Democratic POTUS, right?
RIGHT?
That’s Bull-$#!*…I refuse to believe you’re that F*#king stupid..
The IRS targeted and persecuted INNOCENT people based on Obama’s political enemies list…There’s a BIG DIFFERENCE…
And: I’m not for Obama’s corrupt NSA Spying cabal…I’m just saying he’ll do it, regardless of the law…
If Bush would have done it illegally (or even legally) you, and your butt-pirate buddy, FITS, would have $#!* all over yourselves…But Obama will get away w/ it, because he is worshipped by the media, people like you, and FITS, as a god…even if you don’t think you do…
Don’t you mean Bush’s corrupt NSA spying Cabal? He is the one who started the program, and your ilk defended him when he was in power and was called out for doing exactly what the NSA continues to do now.
And isn’t it Republicans who say Americans have no constitutional right to privacy?
Like it or not, Bush, because of his reputation as a defender of America, was using obtained data to STOP Terrorists…I trusted his administration…
Conversely: I DO NOT TRUST Obama..
So STFU…You are Corrupt, and you deserved to be treated as Corrupt…The sooner w/ Flush $#!* like you down the Commode, the better off, and freer, America is…
“The study’s researchers noted that they were limited by incomplete information — data was only available for some of the study participants’ body mass index, for instance; the same goes for family history of heart disease. Given this, it’s impossible to prove that marijuana actually causes cardiovascular problems.”
You think people aren’t smoking pot until it becomes legal? Coffee has higher risks in detailed studies. Fucking moron…
Did you hear about the fourth graders selling pot at their school?
But it’s cool, man…they got it (legally in candy bar form) from their grandparents….
Brain dead kids are fine w/ liberals…they are easier to brainwash…
Yep! I was drinking beer and smoking cigs in the fourth grade in 1976.
And you’re still alive, probably brain dead, but still alive. ;)
Still alive with a B.A. I’m just saying kids will do stupid shit.
That’s obvious, fourth graders were selling dope.
True that!
Nice Excuse making…you don’t care if pot kills…you’re too F*#king Selfish to worry about the father of orphans….
Truth is: You F*#k#d up potheads Can’t stand to get the S#!* slapped out of your Corrupt Schemes w/ reality, can you???….LMAO….
Fuck you piece of shit. Aspirin, Tylenol, drinkng, smoking kills people. Enjoy your diabetes you fat fuck.
Please stop feeding the troll…thank you.
Obama is not a president.
“Snowden said he felt NSA’s surveillance program was being used to violate privacy and civil liberties,” Clapper said. “If that was his concern, he had a lot of options on where to go with it. He could have reported it to seniors at NSA, which he didn’t do.”
“Herr Himmler, I work in one of your camps…and think that you should be made aware of…….”
***************************************************************************************************
“Mr. Gotti, some members of my crew have been threatening some of our loan customers with physical violence……”
At least this way he got to make it out alive.
Exactly.
Should we be outraged over NSA spying, yes; but the only reason anyone on the right, is defending Snowden is because Obama is President. If Romney had been elected they would be crucifying him. Its just their way. Never give up an opportunity to attack a political opponent.
Blah blah blah . . . [partisan politics] . . . Blah blah blah.
Only shallow-minded people decide an issue based on a republican versus democrat dichotomy.
I agree. So why do you do it? Where was all the outrage when Bush was President? Its not partisan to say that Republicans and Tea Partiers are fair weather friends who will disappear if Republicans win the election in 2016. Its not partisan to say you distrust their motives.
Why do I do what? Why do I care that our federal government is setting up surveilance and data trawling to spy on us? I care because it’s an invasion of privacy and a violation of the constitution (I don’t give a shit whether some FISA star-chambered court says otherwise).
And why was there no “outrage” under Bush? There was “rage” against the Patriot Act, as there should have been. But we also didn’t know the full extent of the snooping until Snowden revealed it to us.
Maybe you should focus on the bigger picture — you know, the who spying thing — and quit concerning youself with whether an issue allows you to score points against which ever party you oppose. We would all be better off if we didn’t decide issues based on their affiliation with an (R) or a (D).
I would have been just as outraged if Romney had been President, too. I didn’t vote for him, either. The R’s have put just as many traitors on the ballot as the D’s in the last decade or two.
We need a new noun for those who willingly participate in extreme civil disobedience. Snowden is neither an hero nor a criminal. There was no criminal motive nor criminal intent in his actions. Our government, in this instance and many more, should be wearing the title “criminal” or “domestic terrorist” not Snowden. Not necessarily a “hero”, he has however taken civil disobedience to a new height. Unfortunately, civil disobedience, considered a criminal offense by the government, is often the last resort and often the only mechanism the public has to redress the government. Snowden, a Civil Disobeyer, an Oppositional Defiant!
Obama is neither a hero, a role model, or even safe to have around children. It’s rich to hear this administration lecture us on ANYTHING. Gun running to al Qaeda in Syria through Libya? That’s called TREASON.
As for Snowden, no, he isn’t a hero. He’s in the same boat as Obama – a traitor (to Russia).
http://nyyrc.com/blog/2014/04/if-you-were-ed-snowden-what-would-you-do/
President Obama, Asia, NSA the US Fate and Nukes Predictions – Take This Very Seriously! http://www.drturi.com/president-obama-asia-nsa-the-us-fate-and-nukes-predictions/ RTPls
Al-qaeda praises Snowden for helping terrorist org avoid U.S. surveillance.
http://www.breitbart.com
Helluva hero.
I don’t think that the NSA spying on Americans originated with Obama. I think that it started with the president prior to Obama.