NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden – Big Man in a World of Little People

By SearchIndia.com on June 9, 201314 Comments

We live in a world full of small men.

Fortunately, there are still some brave, honorable people like Edward Snowden who through their actions make the world a better place for all of us.

Snowden, 29, a former employee of the CIA, works for defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton as an Infrastructure Analyst for the National Security Agency in Hawaii.

Currently in Hong Kong, Snowden has acknowledged that he was the source for Guardian’s scoop on NSA’s unconstitutional PRISM surveillance project of all Americans.

If you value your liberty, watch Edward Snowden’s explosive video interview with the Guardian newspaper on why he leaked details about NSA’s unconstitutional PRISM surveillance of the American people.

14 Responses to "NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden – Big Man in a World of Little People"

vedagiris June 10, 2013 at 7:51 am

Thanks. Forever.
shadowfax_arbit June 10, 2013 at 8:27 am

I don’t understand whats such a big deal in getting tapped.

I feel national security is of bigger concern than individual privacy.

SearchIndia.com Responds:

You write: I don’t understand whats such a big deal in getting tapped. I feel national security is of bigger concern than individual privacy.

I don’t understand why I don’t have a minimum Mental Age for commenters. 🙁

This gross abuse of power by NSA and our Chutiya President Obama and his predecessors like George W.Bush has little to do with security…and everything to do with handing out billions to private contractors like Booz Allen (employer of leaker hero Edward Snowden).

The military has to a large extent been privatized in the U.S., which means tens of billions of dollars go to those close to power.

How do you get those multi-billion dollar contractors – By lobbying, which is an euphemism for bribing.

Difference between India and U.S. – Corruption is often retail and small-scale in India. In the U.S., corruption is wholesale and mega-scale (billions).

Read the following excerpt from today’s New York Times:

Booz Allen Hamilton, has become one of the largest and most profitable corporations in the United States almost exclusively by serving a single client: the government of the United States.

Over the last decade, much of the company’s growth has come from selling expertise, technology and manpower to the National Security Agency and other federal intelligence agencies. Booz Allen earned $1.3 billion, 23 percent of the company’s total revenue, from intelligence work during its most recent fiscal year.

The government has sharply increased spending on high-tech intelligence gathering since 2001, and both the Bush and Obama administrations have chosen to rely on private contractors like Booz Allen for much of the resulting work.

….As evidence of the company’s close relationship with government, the Obama administration’s chief intelligence official, James R. Clapper Jr., is a former Booz executive. The official who held that post in the Bush administration, John M. McConnell, now works for Booz.

….Booz Allen has formed a particularly close relationship with the intelligence agencies, and others besides Mr. Clapper and Mr. McConnell have spent time in the company’s executive offices.

Mr. McConnell has been an advocate for increased federal spending on cybersecurity. He told the CBS News program “60 Minutes” in 2010 that foreign governments had the capacity to bring down the country’s power grid and financial system.

“The United States is not prepared for such an attack,” he said.

Source: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/10/us/booz-allen-grew-rich-on-government-contracts.html

2. There’s a greater chance of dying in a lightning strike than in a terrorist attack.

So why is the U.S. government not investing billions in preventing deaths in Lightning Strikes.

Simple answer, Kiddo – Because there’s no money in it.

Sweetie, always follow the money and you’ll have the answers to most of life’s pressing issues including Love, Sex, Betrayal and Crime.
aylaruya June 10, 2013 at 5:10 pm

I agree with shadowfax. If you have nothing to hide, then why worry?

Seriously, whats wrong with making billions of dollars? That is what corporations are there for right?

That being said, I salute what Edward has done. He left a super well payed job in Hawaii and took this massive risk to warn us. He could have just turned a blind eye and got on with his happy life.

SearchIndia.com Responds:

1. You need to make up your mind on where you stand on the massive cyber-spying operation by NSA.

In the first paragraph, you say “Why worry.”

But by the time, you get to the last paragraph, you write “he…took this massive risk to warn us.”

If you’re not concerned about NSA’s spying and have “nothing to hide” (your words) why then do you “salute” Edward Snowden on the warning.

By using the expression “warn us,” you’re implicitly conceding that there’s a danger in the NSA’s spying.

You guys are ridiculous…you can’t be consistent even in a three-paragraph comment.

2. Oh, I have nothing against companies making a billion or even trillion dollars.

But not in the Washington “Revolving-Door” fashion where current Intelligence Chief (James R. Clapper Jr.) is a former top executive of Booz Allen and the former NSA Chief (John M. McConnell) is a current top executive at Booz Allen.

That is nasty, dirty Cronyism, Washington style.

I’m also opposed to privatization of the U.S. military. But I will not bother to explain the high risks and enormous danger of privatizing the military because you’re not going to get it.

All I’ll say is that Privatization of the Military has resulted from cronyism and corruption in high places in Washington!
- boopalanj June 11, 2013 at 5:13 am
  
  I’m missing Julian Assange 🙁
  
  SearchIndia.com Responds:
  
  Hopefully, there are more Edward Snowdens and Julian Assanges waiting in the wings.
Madmax673 June 10, 2013 at 6:48 pm

Will he be granted a pardon?

SearchIndia.com Responds:

Not in this lifetime!

But you can try: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snowden/Dp03vGYD
guruji June 11, 2013 at 10:37 am

“Fortunately, there are still some brave, honorable people like Edward Snowden” – Unfortunately this scumbag is neither brave, nor honorable.

If he was either, he would done this from US soil. He would not have run-off to Chinese territory with top-secret classified documents in his possession and pass indirect hints during the interview that he has more information than has been revealed so far. The Chinese are just going to lap him up and get it all.

I sincerely hope he is as stupid as he sounds and all the information he has in his possession are useless.

SearchIndia.com Responds:

Sweetie, if Edward Snowden had remained here they (local intelligence authorities) would have done a “Manning” on him and put him in Solitary confinement and what not.

I guess in your weltanschauung, heroes like Snowden must always fall on their sword.

Please do take a moment to sign Snowden’s Pardon Petition. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snowden/Dp03vGYD

Every Signature counts! 😉
- guruji June 11, 2013 at 1:11 pm
  
  Darling, he is still going down!
  
  That is why he is stupid.
  
  He thought that going to Hong Kong will save him.
  
  He is still going to get the “Manning” treatment.
  
  He is a hero alright, for the Chinese though.
  
  SearchIndia.com Responds:
  
  Sweetie, as they say in Mera Bharat Mahaan picture abhi baaki hai. 😉
  - Naveen June 12, 2013 at 7:09 am
    
    I am on the direct opposite side of guruji on this topic.
    
    Edward Snowden is not a scumbag from whatever little we know of him. He is both brave and honorable.
    
    It is obvious that he was fully aware of the consequences of his actions and needless to say that they are neither rewarding nor pleasant for him or people who can be related to him.
    
    It was a smart move to do it from Hongkong instead of the US. Could he have chosen a better place? Those who know international extradition treaties better can probably advise. He at least avoided Obama’s drones for a while!!
    
    He is a hero for not only the Chinese but also for most Americans and other freedom loving people across the globe.
    
    These spying tactics of the US government will become an excellent defence for the NRA and pro-gun lobby to say “This is why we need to increase gun ownership in America”
    
    This may not be a perfect analogy but to say that it is common knowledge that US spies on its own people is like saying Mi>women get raped in Delhi why the hue and cry over “Nirbhaya”.
    
    SearchIndia.com Responds:
    
    Sweetie, one more reason why I like You! 😉
    
    And to think I voted for Obama TWICE!
    
    Plus, I don’t understand Guruji’s logic that a brave man must also be foolish (like expecting Snowden to be in the U.S. after leaking the documents).
- Naveen June 12, 2013 at 4:33 pm
  
  Signed!
  
  SearchIndia.com Responds:
  
  Way to go! 🙂
guruji June 12, 2013 at 1:03 pm

@Naveen – May be I did not make myself clear.

I am not condoning the monitoring done by the NSA.

Wrong as it may be, it was sanctioned by the legislature, judiciary and executive. If you have problems with that you can vote out your elected representative.

But to use the analogy of “women getting assaulted in Delhi” is silly, unless you can show that the PM, Courts and the Parliament authorized the assaults.

What I cannot understand that is the feigned surprise over the existence of this program, especially given that everyone knew it existed since 9/11 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_warrantless_surveillance_controversy

And he is a scumbag because he is leaking top-secret classified information to China – no amount of good intention can justify this.
- Naveen June 12, 2013 at 3:52 pm
  
  You write: “If you have problems with that you can vote out your elected representative.”
  
  Please explain how voting out the elected representative will solve this or any major problem. Had voting out people solved such problems then the world would be a much better place.
  
  Also, I think it is a much better thing to make the currently elected representative represent the sentiments and act on it NOW rather than wait for some election and vote the person out.
  
  Some situations demand major public outrage.
  
  You write: “But to use the analogy of “women getting assaulted in Delhi” is silly, unless you can show that the PM, courts and the Parliament authorized the assaults”
  
  The spirit of the analogy is that just because something bad has been routinely happening and people were unaware or ignorant it does not mean it is ok to accept it and live with it.
  
  The point is not whether the PM or president approved rapes. The point is that what happened is wrong and it has to be protested against and corrected.
  
  You write: “…feigned surprise… given that everyone knew it existed since 9/11”
  
  Had everyone knew about its existence then there would have been no reaction from the people and no debate in the the public space and no need for Obama to issue clarifications.
  
  It is true that some knowledge about the invasive power of the Government exists and many people in general are aware of the Patriot Act. However, people in general trust the government to do the “RIGHT” thing and they did/do not know the full ramifications of the government’s invasive power.
  
  So, when news comes that goverment has access to each of your facebook posts and email accounts it does startle people. This is not feigned surprise but a rude awakening.
  
  You write: “And he is a scumbag because he is leaking top-secret classified information to China – no amount of good intention can justify this.”
  
  He did not leak classfied information to China but to the entire world. We don’t know enough to say whether whatever he exposed was new information to China or something many governments knew all along.
  
  Going by your logic of why he is a scumbag every whistleblower is a scumbag. Who is a bigger scumbag than Julian Assange?
  
  I will end discussion on this topic here from my end. I don’t think we have much of a common ground.
Arjunmk June 12, 2013 at 10:04 pm

Paavam indha aalu (poor man).

One more victim of US power abuse.
vedagiris June 13, 2013 at 4:47 am

@ guruji, the problem is USA is behaving like erstwhile Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, and erstwhile China under Mao Tse Tung where common people are spied upon by their own government.

It will take some time before USA government start killing its own people under pretext of anti national activities.
guruji June 13, 2013 at 3:48 pm

@Naveen

You write: “Please explain how voting out the elected representative will solve this or any major problem”

Please ask that to the Republicans whose immigration policy was “Deport every illegal alien” in 2012, but are moving aggressively to pass the immigration reform bill now. Elections have consequences and they are the loudest voice of protest, which will make every one sit up and listen – at least in the USA.

You write: “The point is that what happened is wrong and it has to be protested against and corrected”

Then it seems to be an incorrect way of expressing this point. The analogy of violence against women does not stick. I have mentioned before and I mention it again – it is wrong and needs to be corrected. My comment was on the silly analogy, which I do not agree with.

You write: “Had everyone knew about its existence then there would have been no reaction from the people and no debate in the the public space and no need for Obama to issue clarifications”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_warrantless_surveillance_controversy – it was well-known enough to have details in Wikipedia. It was even more worse then!

You write: “He did not leak classified information to China but to the entire world”

I am not sure you realize the implications here. He was a first-hand user of the monitoring systems of the NSA, with system administrator access. Not like Julian Assange, who is not even a US citizen.

His knowledge of the NSA systems puts him in a unique position of educating the Chinese on the network details – user accounts, passwords, security architecture, server locations etc. This information in the hands of the Chinese would cause tremendous damage.

Though he may or may not give it out willingly, the Chinese can always extract it out him with drug-induced interrogation. He may not even realize that he gave out information.

And even if he does not give it out, the NSA, for safety reasons, has to assume the worst – that he gave out information under drug-influence, and so have to update / change everything he has knowledge about, to avoid the Chinese breaking in. How much of the tax payers money is this going to cost? No one is willing to bear this.

I do not have any problems with “what he did”, just “how he did it”. There is a distinction.

He already gave interviews to South China Morning Post, explaining briefly the US cyber-surveillance of China. I can only imagine worse.

I too agree that there is nothing further to discuss as we do not have common ground. Ciao.