Monday ramblings--Edward Snowden!
It is interesting to note that Edward Snowden, a three month contract employee attached to the NSA's Prism program has decided to take it on himself to reveal a program that a probable hundreds or thousands of people decided not to reveal. It is interesting to note that it has been reported that Mr. Snowden has the equivalency of a GED degree, which is a high school equivalency for someone who did not even complete that level of education.
What we find so ironic in the whole affair is that Snowden's contractor agreed to hire and pay his salary and exhibited a level of trust in him that has, as evidenced by his actions, not been justified. So, Mr. Snowden has taken it upon himself to change the world wide dynamic on security and eavesdropping with the help of the Guardian newspaper, who decided to publish his claims. We saw the interview with the Guardian reporter on MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning and the reporter seemed very defensive and very, very militant with his defense of his and his papers actions. The Guardian reporter accused the MSNBC interviewer of reading off of White House talking points when all she was trying to do was to ask a legitimate and probing question of the gentleman.
What is so interesting about this whole affair to us is the fact that a person of this type was ever allowed around this type of information. It tells us that there is still a high level of individuality still alive in the United States and in the world. It also makes us pause and think and observe that actions of this type taken by individuals of this type will do more to harm the cause of individual freedom and privacy than they do it any benefit. That fact that this man was able to do what he did does more to make us think that there was not any real problem that he was trying to solve than anything else. If there had been any real problem with what this government agency was trying to do, Mr. Snowden would not have been allowed anywhere near this type of information to enable him to do what he did.
The problem, as we see it, is that now that Snowden has done what he had done with the newspapers help, these agencies will draw back into a cloak of secrecy so complete that it may accomplish what Snowden was trying to prevent!
It may also be noted that the effort surrounding the government trying to track down leaks in the news media now has more justification to it than it ever did before.
We saw an interview with Edward Snowden from Hong Kong where he has fled to avoid arrest and prosecution under United States and other nations laws and we came away from that interview feeling that this man has some sort of complex about being some sort of sacrificial hero for his very dubious cause. Snowden mentioned that there was a Central Intelligence Agency outpost in the United States embassy just up the road and that he might be rendered (killed) for what he had done. It is also interesting to note that comparisons have been drawn between Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning, the military service member who facilitated the Wikileaks controversy. We have never thought much good about what Bradley manning did!
In point of fact, when people like Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning do what they do, they, in effect, take the law into their own hands when they choose to move outside of its protections both for themselves and for others. It has long been a liberal shibboleth that there is this threatening police state that is out to get them and their rights. What they seem to fail to realize is that there is this looming threat from radicals in this world that may do horrific and lasting damage to the world as we know it that may involve the deaths of thousands and thousands of innocent people if the radicals ultimate desire is realized--the exploding of a nuclear weapon somewhere across the United States or a place like Israel. If that were to happen, the state reaction to it would be to take a great deal of rights away from its citizenry that would do far more damage than anything that Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning were trying to prevent.
We remember September eleventh, 2001 very well and we also are aware of what happened in Europe from 1933 until 1945 when millions of Jews and others were exterminated simply for being who they were. We are a very long way away from that in the United States and across most of the world and we feel if that situation is ever to arise it will not be from actions of nations intelligence agencies to protect their populace’s from the cancers that exist within them. It was not George W. Bush’s administration secrecy excesses that drove us to near collapse as it was his failure to provide adequate regulation over the nation’s financial services as well as other things. Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany on the back of an economic collapse that also resulted from a lack of regulation in the decade before it occurred. Keeping close track of those that would do us harm is simply another form of regulation!
IOVHO,
Regards,
Joe
To say that "God exists" is the greatest understatement ever made across space and time.
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