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Edward Snowden Q&A: Dick Cheney traitor charge is 'the highest honor' -- The Guardian

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  • Edward Snowden Q&A: Dick Cheney traitor charge is 'the highest honor' -- The Guardian

    Edward Snowden Q&A: Dick Cheney traitor charge is 'the highest honor'

    The whistleblower behind the biggest intelligence leak in NSA history answered your questions about the NSA surveillance revelations

    The Guardian

    Glen Greenwald
    6/17/2013

    Excerpt:

    It is the interview the world's media organisations have been chasing for more than a week, but instead Edward Snowden is giving Guardian readers the exclusive.

    The 29-year-old former NSA contractor and source of the Guardian's NSA files coverage will – with the help of Glenn Greenwald – take your questions today on why he revealed the NSA's top-secret surveillance of US citizens, the international storm that has ensued, and the uncertain future he now faces. Ask him anything.

    Snowden, who has fled the US, told the Guardian he "does not expect to see home again", but where he'll end up has yet to be determined.

    He will be online today from 11am ET/4pm BST today. An important caveat: the live chat is subject to Snowden's security concerns and also his access to a secure internet connection. It is possible that he will appear and disappear intermittently, so if it takes him a while to get through the questions, please be patient.

    To participate, post your question below and recommend your favorites. As he makes his way through the thread, we'll embed his replies as posts in the live blog. You can also follow along on Twitter using the hashtag #AskSnowden.

    We expect the site to experience high demand so we'll re-publish the Q&A in full after the live chat has finished.



    Question:
    GlennGreenwald
    17 June 2013 2:11pm


    Let's begin with these:

    1) Why did you choose Hong Kong to go to and then tell them about US hacking on their research facilities and universities?

    2) How many sets of the documents you disclosed did you make, and how many different people have them? If anything happens to you, do they still exist?

    Answer:

    1) First, the US Government, just as they did with other whistleblowers, immediately and predictably destroyed any possibility of a fair trial at home, openly declaring me guilty of treason and that the disclosure of secret, criminal, and even unconstitutional acts is an unforgivable crime. That's not justice, and it would be foolish to volunteer yourself to it if you can do more good outside of prison than in it.

    Second, let's be clear: I did not reveal any US operations against legitimate military targets. I pointed out where the NSA has hacked civilian infrastructure such as universities, hospitals, and private businesses because it is dangerous. These nakedly, aggressively criminal acts are wrong no matter the target. Not only that, when NSA makes a technical mistake during an exploitation operation, critical systems crash. Congress hasn't declared war on the countries - the majority of them are our allies - but without asking for public permission, NSA is running network operations against them that affect millions of innocent people. And for what? So we can have secret access to a computer in a country we're not even fighting? So we can potentially reveal a potential terrorist with the potential to kill fewer Americans than our own Police? No, the public needs to know the kinds of things a government does in its name, or the "consent of the governed" is meaningless.

    2) All I can say right now is the US Government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped.


    ..................................

    View the complete Q&A Session at:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013...-whistleblower
    Last edited by bsteadman; 06-17-2013, 10:17 PM.
    B. Steadman

  • #2
    Free Republic is running a thread titled, 'Edward Snowden blames Obama', which was started 6/17/2013 by 'Sub-Driver'

    The thread references a 6/17/2013 Politico article written by Tal Kopan- http://www.politico.com/story/2013/0...ama-92901.html

    View the complete Free Republic thread at:

    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3032311/posts

    Excerpt:

    NSA leaker Edward Snowden criticized President Barack Obama for empty promises in an online Q-and-A on Monday, saying the president’s alleged failings influenced his decision to release the secret information on surveillance.

    “Obama’s campaign promises and election gave me faith that he would lead us toward fixing the problems he outlined in his quest for votes. Many Americans felt similarly. Unfortunately, shortly after assuming power, he closed the door on investigating systemic violations of law, deepened and expanded several abusive programs, and refused to spend the political capital to end the kind of human rights violations like we see in Guantanamo, where men still sit without charge,” Snowden said in a response to a question from a commenter on The Guardian’s website.

    Snowden was responding to this question: “Why did you wait to release the documents if you said you wanted to tell the world about the NSA programs since before Obama became president?”

    Snowden also said the U.S. would not be able to silence him.

    “All I can say right now is the US Government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped,” Snowden said when asked by Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald what would happen to the information he possessed if something happened to him.

    He defended his decision to flee to Hong Kong, claiming the U.S. government did what he expected when the story came out and ruined his chance of a fair trial.

    “First, the US Government, just as they did with other whistleblowers, immediately and predictably destroyed any possibility of a fair trial at home....
    B. Steadman

    Comment


    • #3
      AMERICAN ADVOCATE says : Edward Snowden is a bona fide AMERICAN hero for exposing the illegal activities
      of the current ' mis-administration '. If I were in his position , I would have done the same thing and more .
      Ed is not the only person who has blown the whistle and exposed fraud , spying , treason lately .
      " We the People " should all be grateful for learning the truth about all the many scandals of obummer
      and his criminal cronies .

      Comment

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