NSA whistleblower in China

[jhungary]

People get overly excited about this.

1.) He is a contractor in NSA, that mean he is at most a filing clerk, how many info he know that can damage our own national security. Not much.

NSA is not stupid, he is a civilian employee means he is not on the top of the food chain.

2.) Although what he did is heroic, he DID BROKE THE LAW. Same as that wikileak dude. You broke the law, then you get to be punish, would you say you break the law because of the greater good so you are not to be punished??

3.) He is not running because he is a dissident, he is RUNNING BECAUSE HE BROKE US LAW.
He brought the Intel out of his office, this is a grand larceny, which is theft. The fact that he put Sensitive Material out in the open is in violate the National Security Act, 2004. If he does not leave, he would have gone to jail.

We are very much very tolerate our own dissident, see how many people in this forum with US flag and starting to go after US foreign policy or anything US done, if we do not tolerate dissident, they all would have went to jail or WORSE a LONG TIME AGO, just look at Gpit and ephone, if we do what Chinese do and arrest people because they are dissident, they would have been in jail already, let alone posting here.

Chinese Forum User reside in USA here should be the first line of evidence on how we tolerate dissident. LOL

4.) Indeed what he is saying is not any news, he (Snowden) frustrated NOT BECUASE US MONITORING THE INTERNET. but he got frustrated because they continue to do this after Bush was ousted yet the monitor still continue after Obama administration.

 

[iranigirl2]

US likely to blame China for NSA leaks: Ex-CIA officer

The United States will likely blame the Chinese government for the latest leak of National Security Agency information, a former CIA case officer revealed.

In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Robert Baer said that American intelligence officials were possibly considering NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s case as Chinese espionage.

The 29-year-old Snowden said that he was behind the leak of the U.S. government’s spying programs. He fled to Hong Kong after admitting the case.“I’ve talked to a bunch of people in Washington today, in official positions, and they are looking at this as a potential Chinese espionage case,” Baer said.He added that Washington has no choice but to charge Snowden since he has revealed classified information."I just don't see any way out of it," the official said. "Whether you agree with him or not, he's violated the law. They cannot let this pass."


Snowden, who was an ex-CIA employee working as a contractor at the U.S. National Security Agency, said he acted out of conscience to protect "basic liberties for people around the world."Speaking from Hong Kong, Snowden said he revealed the case because he felt the U.S. was building an unaccountable and secret espionage machine that spied on every American.

"I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things. ... I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under," he told The Guardian.Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years.

PressTV - 'US likely to blame China for NSA leaks'

 

[faithfulguy]

If this guy break the US law, than he is a criminal and need to go to jail.

 

[JayAtl]

This guy is no regular Indian and he doesn’t do random and aren’t fool , because going to HK instead of jetting off so obviously to Beijing or Shanghai approves that it’s the conclusion of a well-planned and thought out research. Either he is very smart and experienced, or he’s under a careful guidance.

The guy is Indian!!

 

[Enemy]

The guy is Indian!!

Who is Indian?

 

[JayAtl]

Who is Indian?

The Chinese fella speeder2 said the whistle blower guy is Indian and I quoted him- well portion of the gibberish he posted.

 

[gambit]

People get overly excited about this.

1.) He is a contractor in NSA, that mean he is at most a filing clerk, how many info he know that can damage our own national security. Not much.

NSA is not stupid, he is a civilian employee means he is not on the top of the food chain.

2.) Although what he did is heroic, he DID BROKE THE LAW. Same as that wikileak dude. You broke the law, then you get to be punish, would you say you break the law because of the greater good so you are not to be punished??

3.) He is not running because he is a dissident, he is RUNNING BECAUSE HE BROKE US LAW.
He brought the Intel out of his office, this is a grand larceny, which is theft. The fact that he put Sensitive Material out in the open is in violate the National Security Act, 2004. If he does not leave, he would have gone to jail.

We are very much very tolerate our own dissident, see how many people in this forum with US flag and starting to go after US foreign policy or anything US done, if we do not tolerate dissident, they all would have went to jail or WORSE a LONG TIME AGO, just look at Gpit and ephone, if we do what Chinese do and arrest people because they are dissident, they would have been in jail already, let alone posting here.

Chinese Forum User reside in USA here should be the first line of evidence on how we tolerate dissident. LOL

4.) Indeed what he is saying is not any news, he (Snowden) frustrated NOT BECUASE US MONITORING THE INTERNET. but he got frustrated because they continue to do this after Bush was ousted yet the monitor still continue after Obama administration.

I have a problem with the word 'dissident'. It is grossly overused.

All every and any Tom, Dick, and Harry who want to gain some little bits of notoriety and be semi-famous among the quasi-intellectual crowd have to do is criticize the US and provoke some public response and voila...!!! He or She can now claim the exalted victim status of 'dissident'.

A true dissident is someone who is persecuted BY THE GOVERNMENT for his criticisms of the government. Not someone who provoked and got only low level public response from his fellow citizens. Worse yet if those responses intellectually spanked his criticisms from here to next week Sunday.

The persecution by the government must be active and NOTORIOUS, meaning his plight must be well known to all, domestic and foreign. His personal life, from family to wealth, must be ADVERSELY affected, and it must be long term due to the fact that the true dissident is always a patriot and prefers to remain in-country and willingly bear the consequences of his actions. His actions are at least usually, if not often, illegal but are morally praiseworthy most of the time, if not all of the time, and if those actions are illegal, they are not physically destructive to his fellow citizens but only morally condemning to the government. His martyr status is non-disputable.

In that context, it is extremely difficult to find any true political dissident in the US, and not even the famous Noam Chomsky, someone often cited in this forum, can qualify. In fact, Chomsky's $$million$$ of profit from his America hating books, his freedom to travel, and his past association with the Pentagon (via MIT) absolutely disqualified Chomsky from bearing the dissident label.

Neither Bradley Manning nor Edward Snowden are dissidents.

 

[jhungary]

I have a problem with the word 'dissident'. It is grossly overused.

All every and any Tom, Dick, and Harry who want to gain some little bits of notoriety and be semi-famous among the quasi-intellectual crowd have to do is criticize the US and provoke some public response and voila...!!! He or She can now claim the exalted victim status of 'dissident'.

A true dissident is someone who is persecuted BY THE GOVERNMENT for his criticisms of the government. Not someone who provoked and got only low level public response from his fellow citizens. Worse yet if those responses intellectually spanked his criticisms from here to next week Sunday.

The persecution by the government must be active and NOTORIOUS, meaning his plight must be well known to all, domestic and foreign. His personal life, from family to wealth, must be ADVERSELY affected, and it must be long term due to the fact that the true dissident is always a patriot and prefers to remain in-country and willingly bear the consequences of his actions. His actions are at least usually, if not often, illegal but are morally praiseworthy most of the time, if not all of the time, and if those actions are illegal, they are not physically destructive to his fellow citizens but only morally condemning to the government. His martyr status is non-disputable.

In that context, it is extremely difficult to find any true political dissident in the US, and not even the famous Noam Chomsky, someone often cited in this forum, can qualify. In fact, Chomsky's $$million$$ of profit from his America hating books, his freedom to travel, and his past association with the Pentagon (via MIT) absolutely disqualified Chomsky from bearing the dissident label.

Neither Bradley Manning nor Edward Snowden are dissidents.

It's hard to find dissident in the US is simply because US will not prosecute those who pose a different voice. You can have dissident in China because they will actually arrest you and put you to jail, just because you say something bad about the country and/or CCP.

You can publicly hate America in America, yet you will not get arrested, you will not get prosecution nor you will not get any prejudice.

People who wistleblow either stem from 1 of the 2. Either he wanted fame and money, or he is really, REALLY cannot keep silence on something.

You can be left or you can be right, that does not make you a dissident, as we accept all voices. You have to have censorship to have dissident, otherwise, you are not a dissident, just a dude with different view.

Hence I said, he did not run away because he is a dissident, he left because he broke the law. Plain and simple

 

[fallstuff]

Why does someone walk away from $200k a year job with a community college diploma ? Has China offered him more money ? He can make millions by writing a book which I seriously doubt was a deciding factor on his part.

 

[gambit]

It's hard to find dissident in the US is simply because US will not prosecute those who pose a different voice. You can have dissident in China because they will actually arrest you and put you to jail, just because you say something bad about the country and/or CCP.

You can publicly hate America in America, yet you will not get arrested, you will not get prosecution nor you will not get any prejudice.

People who wistleblow either stem from 1 of the 2. Either he wanted fame and money, or he is really, REALLY cannot keep silence on something.

You can be left or you can be right, that does not make you a dissident, as we accept all voices. You have to have censorship to have dissident, otherwise, you are not a dissident, just a dude with different view.

Hence I said, he did not run away because he is a dissident, he left because he broke the law. Plain and simple

Let us be generous -- for now -- and say Snowden's action is morally praiseworthy and am willing to be that generous because there are aspects of this NSA massive data collection effort that are distasteful to me. But you are correct that his action is also legally indictable because, as a once contractor myself, I fully understand what a contractor must go through and what he must agreed to before he can be employed.

The way I see it, and again for now, that if the morality of the data collection effort is morally offensive to enough to the American public, then perhaps that will alleviate or even negate any legal liabilities Snowden may face, sort of like how we tolerate the criminality of a police confidential informant for the greater need of law enforcement.

People who conferred the martyr label of 'dissident' upon Snowden do so out of their own biases, not from any honest assessment of the situation.

 

[Barrack-Obummer]

The obama administration is looking more and more like nazi germany every day. He has succesfully and completley lost all credibility. Nixon faced certain impeachement over watergate if he hadn't resigned first, but I'm saddened to say that I would be shocked if obama is even tried over spying on the entire world, let alone the number of other civil rights infringements we've seen under this regime. This is what the "land of the free" has come to today. All in the name of "terrorism". What a joke.

This is the same president that promised to protect wistle blowers. This is the same president that promised a fast end to the war in Afghanistan. The same president that promised more government transparency. The same president that promised to end the drone program and guantanamo bay. The list just goes on..

 

[Götterdämmerung]

USA = United STASI of America

 

[Argus Panoptes]

@Aeronaut Snowden has still not "defected" to China and therefore the title of the thread is still incorrect.

Russia Says It Would Consider Asylum For Edward Snowden

Russia Says It Would Consider Asylum For Edward Snowden

Posted: 06/11/2013 8:31 am EDT | Updated: 06/11/2013 8:43 am EDT


Russia would consider granting asylum to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.

Snowden fled the United States after leaking information about the NSA's secret surveillance of phone records and information collected by Internet providers. After revealing his identity to the public, he said that he had sought refuge in Hong Kong, and was hoping "to seek asylum in a country with shared values."

Snowden has not made any requests for asylum yet, but Peskov told Russian newspaper Kommersant, "If such an appeal is given, it will be considered."

"We'll act according to facts," he said. The Guardian reported Tuesday that the statement prompted other Russian officials to declare their support for Snowden. As the newspaper noted, the country has a poor record for human rights and free speech, but has been known to support critics of the United States.

The revelation that Snowden fled to Hong Kong ignited debate about whether it was a wise choice. Some experts argued that Hong Kong's government will likely hand him over to the United States, citing the treaty that guarantees extradition with the exception of outstanding circumstances. Snowden is believed to have checked out of the hotel where he was staying on Monday, and his current whereabouts are unknown.

 

[Argus Panoptes]

The US government will make attempts to get Snowden back:

Edward Snowden not safe in Hong Kong, warns human rights chief | World news | guardian.co.uk

Edward Snowden not safe in Hong Kong, warns human rights chief

Hong Kong authorities have co-operated with the CIA in the past to remove enemies of US, says Human Rights Watch director

Paul Owen
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 June 2013 13.41 BST


The US whistleblower Edward Snowden should not consider himself safe in Hong Kong, which has co-operated with the CIA before to remove America's enemies, the emergencies director of Human Rights Watch has warned.

"There's little doubt [reason] to believe that the Hong Kong authorities would not co-operate with the CIA in this case," said Peter Bouckaert, who after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi found faxes in Tripoli indicating that the Hong Kong authorities had co-operated with the CIA in rendering an anti-Gaddafi Islamist to Libya.

Snowden said he had chosen Hong Kong as the place from which to reveal his identity as the source of the Guardian's series of stories about US surveillance because "they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent", and because he believed that it was one of the few places in the world that could and would resist the dictates of the US government.

Bouckaert, however, said Snowden was mistaken on both points.

"The rendition of [Sami al-]Saadi took place nine years ago in 2004, but I certainly would not consider Hong Kong a safe place for him [Snowden] at the moment," he told the Guardian.

"Certainly the reputation of Hong Kong as a place where free speech is defended has decreased in recent years, [and] there is no reason to believe that the very close relationship which is visible from these faxes between the intelligence agency in Hong Kong and the CIA has changed in a significant way … and that Snowden would not be at risk from extradition from Hong Kong."

He added: "It's very clear from the faxes that the Hong Kong authorities at the time co-operated very closely with both the CIA and MI6 in bringing Saadi back to Libya, where he was later tortured and sentenced to death." In the event he was not executed.

Snowden is currently in Hong Kong, but he moved to a new hotel in an unknown location on Monday. A landmark legal ruling in Hong Kong could buy him time if he decides to apply for asylum there. Meanwhile activists in Iceland are making preparations should the whistleblower try to head there, as he has indicated he might. "My predisposition is to seek asylum in a country with shared values. The nation that most encompasses this is Iceland. They stood up for people over internet freedom," he told the Guardian.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin said that if Snowden applied for asylum in Russia, the request would be considered.

"If such an appeal is given, it will be considered. We'll act according to facts," said Dmitry Peskov.

The move seems to have more to do with Russia's support for anti-western dissidents than any commitment to freedom of speech of whistleblowing.

At the end of last year British ministers agreed to pay more than £2m to the family of Saadi by way of compensation and without admitting any liability in the case.

 

[grey boy 2]

U.S. intellegence leak: Contractor behind revelations. - YouTube