6/27/2013



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World owes Snowden debt of gratitude
Updated: 2013-06-14 07:56
By Chen Weihua ( China Daily)
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World owes Snowden debt of gratitudeThere have been raging debates about whether Edward Snowden is a whistleblower, hero, criminal or traitor after the former CIA employee revealed the US National Security Agency's top-secret surveillance program of people's phone, e-mail and Internet records.

But people both inside and outside the United States owe the 29-year-old a thank you for telling them that they are being closely watched by a government that likes to portray itself as a protector of privacy and civil liberties, and a role model for other countries.

Most people, except those at the NSA and a few lawmakers like Dianne Feinstein, chair of the US National Intelligence Committee, were not aware of the surveillance until Snowden exposed it.

Those who want to cast Snowden as a traitor argue that the information he leaked could aid the US' enemies and poses a national security threat. That has been a familiar excuse used in the US since Sept 11, 2001, to scare people into supporting actions they don't necessarily agree with.

Holding prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center without trial and drone attacks in other countries are all conducted in the name of keeping the country safe. However, the morality and legality of such actions have been questioned globally.

Now Snowden has bitterly reminded people in the US of the surveillance society they are living in.

There is no doubt that the Obama administration has been hugely embarrassed by the scandal since the Democratic president has long campaigned for transparency and against the government's overreach during the George W. Bush years.

The phone and Internet companies that have aided the NSA in mining people's phone and e-mail data have also come under public scrutiny. Indeed, such companies as Google, Apple, Twitter, Microsoft, Facebook, Verizon and AT&T have betrayed the trust of people worldwide.

The American Civil Liberties Union, a Verizon Communications client, has already filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration in a bid to stop the data gathering and purge any storage of its information.

What is chilling is that the Obama administration has not only denied any wrongdoing, it has vehemently defended the NSA surveillance program as legal and necessary. It is also doing everything it can to hunt down Snowden and charge him with treason.

That is what they have done to Bradley Manning, a 25-year-old soldier who was arrested in Iraq three years ago on suspicion of passing classified information to WikiLeaks.


US prosecutors have also targeted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is now living in asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, at the opening of Manning's trial, alleging that he directly encouraged and aided Manning's leaks of classified documents and conspired with Manning in the theft of classified information.

Supporters of Manning and Assange have launched a worldwide campaign to nominate them for the Nobel Peace Prize, and a petition to pardon Snowden on the White House website had already gathered 63,013 signatures by 7:40 am Thursday.

For the past few months, the US has been viciously accusing China and other nations of cyberespionage, yet Snowden's whistle-blowing has revealed that it is the US that has been engaging in a monstrous spying program on people all over the world.

And that's not all. A recent Reuters report showed that the US government has become the largest buyer in a burgeoning gray market where hackers and security firms sell tools for breaking into computers. It said the US intelligence and military agencies are using the tools to infiltrate computer networks overseas, leaving behind spy programs and cyberweapons that can disrupt data or damage systems.

The report claims that much of the offensive cyberwarfare is done by publicly traded US defense contractors, such as Raytheon Co and Northrop Grumman Corp.

It may sound paranoid - like some in the US House Intelligence Committee - to brand those US firms who collaborate with the NSA as a possible national security threat, as they did to Chinese telecom firms Huawei and ZTE. But it is so ironic when recalling Obama's many passionate speeches on freedom, civil liberties, the rights of the individual and government transparency.

Those speeches sound hollow now.

8 comments:

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

Frankly I think the guy is a bit of an idiot. He obviously didn't think it thru.

He's set himself up to be a political pawn, endangered his life and life and liberty of his girlfriend -- who no doubt will have 24/7 surveillance on her including wiretaps...

For what? Most people in the security industry already know the US Federal Government and their "alphabet agencies" the worlds biggest snoopers -- online and offline, what, with their drones, spy planes and satellites...the one's we know about. How about the shit we don't know about? Their military-industrial-political complex is HUGE -- spending more money than the GDPs of most cuntrees, in many cases the combined GDPs of cuntrees.

Add to that the WELL KNOWN doctrine of "American Exceptionalism" -- that the USA is such a "special cuntree" so it's their DUTY to be the leader of the free world, and the arbiter of good and evil for all mankind. You have to be in a COMA not to know this.

America is constantly battling "evil", which means somewhere on this planet there are contingents of the US Military bombing and shooting the fuck out of some hapless cuntree. To do this "effectively" they need DATA to formulate their plans of "liberation". This is serious business. It makes money, but there is a "humanitarian ideal" too: to secure the civil and human rights of a population oppressed, accomplished of course by that unique, gung-ho American political tactic of bombing the unlucky cuntree and its peoples back to the Paleolithic Era, occupying the cuntree, and then loudly proclaiming to the world: "Mission accomplished. These people are now free and have civil and human rights! God Bless America!.

Anonymous said...

Indeed indeed. That is why if Shane Todd was involved in any espionage and Chinese companies like Huawei was accused of killing him, the American power alphabet agencies would have all the evidence to condemn China and to use it to bring down China.

Anonymous said...

It was reported that Edward Snowden did not even complete high school.

So how come a high school drop-out was entrusted with the US government's biggest secrets, and even reportedly earned $120K per year?

If Snowden was born a Sinkie and live in Sinkieland, could this have happened?

Anonymous said...

That's why America is the land of opportunities.

Sinkies, please take note if you are getting nowhere in your own Sinkieland due to too many foreigners with 3rd world degrees taking away your jobs.

The said...

/// For what? Most people in the security industry already know the US Federal Government and their "alphabet agencies" the worlds biggest snoopers -- online and offline, what, with their drones, spy planes and satellites...the one's we know about. How about the shit we don't know about? ///

At least this episode will show the US as the supreme hypocrite that it is for the world to see.

Most people may know that the alphabet soup agencies are involved in spying, but proof is difficult to come by. At least now we have confession from an insider.

The US has been bashing China for alleged hacking. Now, we now who are the real culprits.

Anonymous said...

We are all East Germans now.

George Orwell is saying "I told you so" from the grave.

Anonymous said...

Edward Snowdon is a hero. No matter how some people or the media try to down play this matter to "we already know all along what ?" , his whistle-blow has help people to see clearly where things are going if they are not stopped.

Imagine someone bravely put his life on the line for singaporeans and blow the whistle about PAP betrayal of us, we may not be in such sorry stage today.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

@1131:

>> we may not be in such sorry stage today.

Actually things don't change, regardless of how many people "blow the whistle". The red-faced culprits go into damage-control mode for awhile, all sorts of loud protestations and justifications get aired by the complicit main stream media....and then it all dies down and life returns to normal.

Julian Assange created a global firestorm with his Wikileaks revelations. The US spec ops got caught mowing down Reuters reporters, video went viral.

What happened? Big wayang for awhile. Then nothing. Same-o, same-o.

Truth be told: people have a large tolerance for government corruption. The pragmatic folks, generally accept that there is bound to be some corruption in every government -- differing only in degree from cuntree to cuntree.

Govt corruption? No problem lah. Just cover your own arse and make sure you're not sucked into the game as a disposable pawn.