Snowden embraces American flag in WIRED photo shoot[W:511]

WASHINGTON — Some patriot!NSA traitor Edward Snowden, who leaked secret government data that he stole from the agency, has been photographed embracing an American flag while on the lam in Russia.
The image, which appears in the September issue of WIRED magazine, is likely to offend Americans who believe Snowden put lives at risk.

http://nypost.com/2014/08/13/snowden-embraces-american-flag-in-wired-photo-shoot/http://nypost.com/2014/08/13/snowden-embraces-american-flag-in-wired-photo-shoot/

Click to expand...

What a putz this guy is....I hope when he is caught he spends the rest of his natural life behind bars.

j-mac said:

What a putz this guy is....I hope when he is caught he spends the rest of his natural life behind bars.

Click to expand...

Standard disinformation. He has learned much about such practices since taking residence in Russia. Almost certainly, he intends to try to divide the American people and probably deflect negative attention from his patrons in the Kremlin.

Snowden can shove that flag right up his ass.

Patriotism isn't about obeying the law or loyalty to the government. It's about being loyal to the country and the ideals it was founded on. Arguably, Snowden showed that more than any other scumbag in the NSA. At least he didn't feel the need to boldface lie to the American public about the government's surveillance habits.

j-mac said:

What a putz this guy is....I hope when he is caught he spends the rest of his natural life behind bars.

Click to expand...

How dare anyone open the curtain and expose massive and illegal activities of 3 letter agencies that threaten the very core of American freedom!

Wait, let me guess. He should have talked to his supervisor. :lamo

Risky Thicket said:

How dare anyone open the curtain and expose massive and illegal activities of 3 letter agencies that threaten the very core of American freedom!

Wait, let me guess. He should have talked to his supervisor. :lamo

Click to expand...

Oh, you're right, clearly the thing to do is run to the Russians. Look, I know there are some that think the US is the great evil in the world and like anything that harms the US, a lot of us just aren't in that place.

X Factor said:

Snowden can shove that flag right up his ass.

Click to expand...

The anti-freedom right wing kooks in the US have already done that.

X Factor said:

Oh, you're right, clearly the thing to do is run to the Russians. Look, I know there are some that think the US is the great evil in the world and like anything that harms the US, a lot of us just aren't in that place.

Click to expand...

Senator Church's NSA warning 40 years ago.

In the need to develop a capacity to know what potential enemies are doing, the United States government has perfected a technological capability that enables us to monitor the messages that go through the air. Now, that is necessary and important to the United States as we look abroad at enemies or potential enemies. We must know, at the same time, that capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left such is the capability to monitor everything—telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn't matter. There would be no place to hide.
If this government ever became a tyrant, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this technology.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Church


As Snowden exposed, the Church Committees warning wasn't heeded.

TeleKat said:

Patriotism isn't about obeying the law or loyalty to the government. It's about being loyal to the country and the ideals it was founded on. Arguably, Snowden showed that more than any other scumbag in the NSA. At least he didn't feel the need to boldface lie to the American public about the government's surveillance habits.

Click to expand...

There's more than one kind of scumbag, unfortunately.

X Factor said:

Oh, you're right, clearly the thing to do is run to the Russians. Look, I know there are some that think the US is the great evil in the world and like anything that harms the US, a lot of us just aren't in that place.

Click to expand...

Dood, he didn't run to the Russians. Who told you that? Do you realize how it can to be that he was stranded in Russia?

Hahaha what an idiot. Enjoy your time in Russia, bro!

X Factor said:

Oh, you're right, clearly the thing to do is run to the Russians. Look, I know there are some that think the US is the great evil in the world and like anything that harms the US, a lot of us just aren't in that place.

Click to expand...

Run to the Russians? My goodness, your short term memory is deficient.

The US revoked his passport, is what happened. Selective amnesia on your part?

The Russians were the only ones who would take him. Kinda like Assange living in the Ecuadorian Embassy because he angered the US.

X Factor said:

Oh, you're right, clearly the thing to do is run to the Russians. Look, I know there are some that think the US is the great evil in the world and like anything that harms the US, a lot of us just aren't in that place.

Click to expand...

Heh, heh, heh.

I must be missing something with Snowden, because there are a lot of people on the left and right who are normally civil liberties advocates who despise the guy. We know the head of NSA has no problem looking into a camera and lying to the Congress and the public about what the agency is doing. We now know the CIA spies on Senators investigating past wrongdoing and is more than happy to delete/disappear documents that reveal wrongdoing. We know that going through the chain of command is futile. The Obama administration is brutally cracking down on leakers, and is as we speak threatening to jail journalists for failing to reveal their sources, in their prosecution of leakers who revealed illegal activity by the intelligence agencies.

So in a broad sense, without endorsing everything Snowden has done, I'm not sure what someone wanting to expose the extent of the police state in the U.S. is supposed to do? The NSA was simply operating without meaningful restraints, including gathering near blanket coverage of all electronic communications in the U.S., of everyone. And every check on their ability to sift through the data from non-terrorists (aka innocent Americans charged and suspected of no crimes) has been shown to be window dressing, ineffective.

I guess I don't understand how a person can complain about the near total police state we live under, with our government having nearly unrestricted access to ALL our communications, then demonize a person who took a huge risk to expose it all. Sure, he's imperfect, and undoubtedly has made mistakes, but the venom directed against him by civil liberties advocates is really puzzling to me. I don't like that he's hiding out in Russia, and before that China, but the U.S. makes it impossible for him to seek refuge in any other country, so we can't exactly complain that he's not traveling because the U.S. has made that impossible. And I don't expect him to be arrested and voluntarily go to solitary, never to be heard from again, which is what the U.S. did to Manning, for far LESS.

Risky Thicket said:

Dood, he didn't run to the Russians. Who told you that? Do you realize how it can to be that he was stranded in Russia?

Click to expand...

Oh please. X Factor was just being dishonest. He knows perfectly well that the U S Government and it's allies hemmed him in. Snowden is using the Russians to remain free, while the Russians are using him to embarrass our government. This gives the opportunity for our government to try to propagandize about some kind of clandestine relationship. The stupid ignorantly parrot this idea, while the intelligent dishonestly do so.

JasperL said:

The NSA was simply operating without meaningful restraints, including gathering near blanket coverage of all electronic communications in the U.S., of everyone.

Click to expand...

See, if this was agreed upon by everyone, you'd have a point. But instead, your argument basically rests upon this statement as if it's a universal fact. Well, it's not. That's the rub.

j-mac said:

What a putz this guy is....I hope when he is caught he spends the rest of his natural life behind bars.

Click to expand...

A few changes are needed...

What a hero this guy is....I hope when he is caught he spends the rest of his natural life happy and free.

There we go.

OldWorldOrder said:

See, if this was agreed upon by everyone, you'd have a point. But instead, your argument basically rests upon this statement as if it's a universal fact. Well, it's not. That's the rub.

Click to expand...

How is that not true?

Risky Thicket said:

How is that not true?

Click to expand...

Well, some people consider the FISA courts to be meaningful restraints. Certainly legal restraint. I mean according to those federal judges, anyway. And near blanket coverage is simply not true, period. Unless you have a very liberal definition of "near".

Do you wonder why, of the 40,000+ folks who work at NSA, the vast, vast majority of them have no problem with what it does? They who know much more of it than normal folks? Is it because they're all bad people? Dumb? Or could it be something else?

OldWorldOrder said:

Well, some people consider the FISA courts to be meaningful restraints. Certainly legal restraint. I mean according to those federal judges, anyway. And near blanket coverage is simply not true, period. Unless you have a very liberal definition of "near".

Do you wonder why, of the 40,000+ folks who work at NSA, the vast, vast majority of them have no problem with what it does?

Click to expand...

I wonder how you know that the vast majority of them have no problem with what the NSA does?

The NSA is compartmentalized and as such the vast majority of the NSA doesn't know what the vast majority of the NSA does. Even then I don't know that there has been any published survey or research regarding the question.

They who know much more of it than normal folks? Is it because they're all bad people? Dumb? Or could it be something else?

Click to expand...

I'll take "Something else" for $50, Bob.

Perhaps we should ask Snowden why no one speaks out publicly.

X Factor said:

Oh, you're right, clearly the thing to do is run to the Russians. Look, I know there are some that think the US is the great evil in the world and like anything that harms the US, a lot of us just aren't in that place.

Click to expand...

Listen, as one person who thinks that too many people on here like to white wash the old Soviet Union and some how compare us to them, I love my country and believe that overall it's a force for good. Still, I'd love to see you explain exactly what he was suppose to do at the time? Give himself up to government that wanted him hung?

OldWorldOrder said:

Well, some people consider the FISA courts to be meaningful restraints. Certainly legal restraint. I mean according to those federal judges, anyway. And near blanket coverage is simply not true, period. Unless you have a very liberal definition of "near".

Do you wonder why, of the 40,000+ folks who work at NSA, the vast, vast majority of them have no problem with what it does? They who know much more of it than normal folks? Is it because they're all bad people? Dumb? Or could it be something else?

Click to expand...

We don't know the kind of folks the NSA looks for when they are screening candidates. But I will tell you one thing; many in the NSA and intelligence believe that it's better to be safe than to be free. If it means tearing up the constitution and the rights within to save a few Americans, many of them would do so. These people are hired to protect Americans, not the values they stand for.

Risky Thicket said:

I wonder how you know that the vast majority of them have no problem with what the NSA does?

Click to expand...

Well, the ones on the FISA court allowed what they allowed and did not what they did not. What do you think that means?

The NSA is compartmentalized and as such the vast majority of the NSA doesn't know what the vast majority of the NSA does.

Click to expand...

Is it? They certainly know about SIGINT.

Even then I don't know that there has been any published survey or research regarding the question.

Click to expand...

Are they slaves? If they don't like it, they can leave, right?

I'll take "Something else" for $50, Bob.

Click to expand...

Ah, what's that then? Are they evil? 40,000+ evildoers?

Perhaps we should ask Snowden why no one speaks out publicly.

Click to expand...

Or just drive to like central Maryland around lunchtime and ask basically anyone.

Hamster Buddha said:

We don't know the kind of folks the NSA looks for when they are screening candidates.

Click to expand...

Who is exactly is "we"? Have you asked around? They have a website.

But I will tell you one thing; many in the NSA and intelligence believe that it's better to be safe than to be free. If it means tearing up the constitution and the rights within to save a few Americans, many of them would do so. These people are hired to protect Americans, not the values they stand for.

Click to expand...

Exactly! There's a balance between freedom and safety. 100% of either is very bad. NSA has the mission of providing safety. The legislative and judicial branches have the mission (among many others) of ensuring that it does that without compromising freedom. Seems to me the system is working but...perhaps some guys on the internet who are involved in none of those three organizations know better.

America needs more selfless patriots like Edward Snowden. Especially in the government. He pretty much ruined his own life in the name of our freedom.

Binary_Digit said:

America needs more selfless patriots like Edward Snowden. Especially in the government. He pretty much ruined his own life in the name of our freedom.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I've been meaning to hand over documents about American intelligence operations oversees, I'm just waiting to decide on which day I want to make my own federal holiday. April is a little light on those, right? On the other hand, these August days are nice and it'd be nice to be out and about. Hmmm...once I decide, though, I'm going to turn over lots of stuff like that and hurt American intelligence collection against foreign targets and become a super big hero and a selfless patriot like Snowden! I can't wait!