Tag: Edward Snowden
Midterm Worm Turn
The NSA leaks were met with Republican indignation.
They said Edward Snowden was a disgrace to the nation.
They called him a spy,
But now they love the guy
For giving them cause to investigate the administration.
They first said Snowden’s leak was a defection,
But now they see his point, upon reflection.
He gave them insights
Into things that weren’t right,
And hey, just in time for the midterm elections!
Enough Spying Already!
In the wake of the Edward Snowden leaks fuss,
Obama says he wants a government we can trust.
‘Cause they only stopped one plot,
Yeah really, that’s all they got
For all those years the NSA was spying on us.
Let It Snowden, Let It Snowden, Let It Snowden!
Recently we learned that our governments, working in concert, have created a system of worldwide mass surveillance watching everything we do. Great Britain’s George Orwell warned us of the danger of this kind of information. The types of collection in the book — microphones and video cameras, TVs that watch us — are nothing compared to what we have available today.
— Edward Snowden, in an “alternative Christmas message” broadcast on U.K. television.
One Sweet Deal
The U.S. government has a new deal for Ed Snowden,
If the Russians don’t give him asylum.
If Snowden won’t fight
An order to extradite,
Our government promises not to torture or kill him.
Edward Snowden Asks Russia for Asylum
Below is Wikileaks’ transcript of the statement Edward Snowden gave at 5 p.m. Moscow time Friday, July 12, 2013. The statement has been edited by Wikileaks.
Hello. My name is Ed Snowden. A little over one month ago, I had family, a home in paradise, and I lived in great comfort. I also had the capability without any warrant to search for, seize, and read your communications. Anyone’s communications at any time. That is the power to change people’s fates.
It is also a serious violation of the law. The 4th and 5th Amendments to the Constitution of my country, Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and numerous statutes and treaties forbid such systems of massive, pervasive surveillance. While the US Constitution marks these programs as illegal, my government argues that secret court rulings, which the world is not permitted to see, somehow legitimize an illegal affair. These rulings simply corrupt the most basic notion of justice – that it must be seen to be done. The immoral cannot be made moral through the use of secret law.
Most See Snowden as Whistle-Blower, Not Traitor
55% to 34%
Margin by which a new Quinnipiac poll finds American voters say that Edward Snowden is a whistle-blower, rather than a traitor. In a massive shift in attitudes, by 45% to 40% voters say the government’s anti-terrorism efforts go too far in restricting civil liberties, a reversal from January 2010 when voters said 63% to 25% that such activities didn’t adequately protect the country.
Snowden’s Asylum Request Denied by Eight Countries
8
Number of countries that have denied Edward Snowden’s request for political asylum. Gawker: “We still don’t know where NSA leaker Edward Snowden, still technically ‘in transit’ in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, will end up next. But now that more than a third of the countries from which he’s applied for asylum have said ‘no,’ we can get a good sense of where he’s not going.”
Back on Stage
Poor Edward Snowden just wanted to be an agent of change,
Now he’s stuck inside of Moscow with the Wikileaks again.
But if you want to fault Snowden,
The very worst thing he’s done
Was dredge up onto the world stage the irrelevant Julian Assange.
