Thoughts on Edward Snowden and the NSA

Edward Snowden in his own defense, listen to this.

When I first heard that many of the members in my New Social Media class—whom I consider to be intelligent, informed, forward-thinking young persons—did not know who Edward Snowden is, I wanted to weep.

First, let me apologize. I know I sometimes speak out of turn, and I blurt thoughts out without thinking things through. The truth is, I am probably ADD, but more relevantly, I care. I care about the future, I care about you. The world is (quite literally) in your hands, and you should be aware of how powerful you are. Be aware, and speak up.

Today, I have more hope. Recently, I was watching a new TV show on the SyFy channel called “Ascension”, involving a conspiracy involving a faked space launch. One of the characters is threatening to expose the lie, and she says, “We are going full Snowden on this.” When Pop Culture is coining a term like this, I know the story is becoming common public knowledge.




Call Me Ed…

Edward Snowden, in my opinion is—in the real sense of the word—a patriot. He cares about the freedom of his country, and upholding the constitution, more than his own personal freedom.

I have done some extensive research on privacy issues and the history of the NSA. Big Data Mining didn’t start in the USA. If you’d like to know what IBM had to with the Holocaust, and where the surveillance community is headed, I invite you to read my whole paper here.

This is an excerpt…

"The National Security Agency acquired its name officially on 4 November 1952. A mingling of military and non-military interests was expressed in the word national. The production of Comint (short for Communications Intelligence) was declared to be a national responsibility. In place of an Armed Forces Security Agency the U.S. Government was to have a National Security Agency, an organization with the same resources plus a new charter. This new charter made the NSA no longer responsible for reporting to the Armed Forces Security Agency. The Director of the NSA was now responsible to report only to the Secretary of Defense, with the Director of Central Intelligence as advisor. This aura of secret intelligence and closed-door administration started with the cold war and still influences policy today.

Unfortunately, the history of the NSA reads like a Tom and Jerry cartoon, with lawmakers publicly trying to protect privacy while blithely allowing the NSA free rein in secret. In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled that a warrant was required for “Domestic Intelligence Surveillance.” In 1975, the Senate Church Committee uncovered illegal domestic spying, prompting the “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act” (FISA), which was supposed to curtail NSA eavesdropping on Americans. With the advent of the Internet, the focus of the NSA shifted to data gathering via the web. In December of 2000, the agency mission statement for the 21st century stated “To perform both its offensive and defensive mission, NSA must ‘live on the network’.’ (Electronic Frontier Foundation). Research and development of privacy-destroying technologies by our government escalated exponentially at this time.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 changed the world, and the NSA, forever. While the USA survived 9/11, the Bill of Rights may not. From the Patriot Act to the recently exposed Prism program, the rights granted in the Fourth Amendment have all but disappeared. Specifically:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The Patriot Act initially allowed circumvention of the Fourth Amendment in the name of National Security in order to protect citizens from international terrorism. Rather than making us secure from unreasonable searches, the government has embraced surveillance as the Holy Grail of control."

Several brilliant people have investigated this issue thoroughly, as should we all. Here are two resources I felt were well done and informative:

• Inside the Mind of Edward Snowden, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. Plus some unaired clips from the same interview with Brian Williams.

• Edward Snowden: The Untold Story

Another Ed I highly admire said this a long time ago:

“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”

—Edward Abbey

The Edward Snowden story continues to unfold. I believe history will remember him as a patriot. Time will tell.