Tag: NSA Leak

Midterm Worm Turn

Buck Banks

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!

Most Oppose NSA Anti-Terror Data-Collection Program

Buck Banks

53%

Disapprove of the government’s collection of telephone and internet data as part of anti-terrorism efforts, a new Pew Research poll finds, while 40% approve. Overall approval of the NSA’s data collection program has declined since last summer, when the story first broke based on Edward Snowden’s leaked information.”Today, 40% while 53% disapprove. In July, more Americans approved (50%) than disapproved (44%) of the program.”

Let It Snowden, Let It Snowden, Let It Snowden!

Buck Banks

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.

In Manning Trial, Army Casts Journalists as ‘the Enemy’

Buck Banks

Pfc. Manning was not a humanist; he was a hacker. He was not a whistle-blower. He was a traitor, a traitor who understood the value of compromised information in the hands of the enemy and took deliberate steps to ensure that they, along with the world, received it.

— Pfc. Bradley Manning’s military prosecutor, Capt. Ashden Fein, in his closing arguments in the Bradley Manning court martial, characterizing the recipients of the leaked NSA material — journalists — as “the enemy.”

Edward Snowden Asks Russia for Asylum

Buck Banks

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.

Photo: Tanya Lokshina of Human Rights Watch

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

Buck Banks

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.