In the end, Snowdon looked at the blood
on his hands and asked the inevitable question demanded by Nuremburg. The State cannot absolve you of guilt for committing
crimes against its citizens simply because someone at a higher pay scale
authorized it. His answer was to throw
his career and life to the winds and come clean. This was his patriotism.
Now we might begin to confront the
problem politically with hard evidence in hand rather than a litany of official
denial. That the majority of Americans
agree today is stunning and a clear measure that the American people are now on the warpath of reform and merely need a creditable focus.
Was damage created? Surely, yet not
clearly in those realms were real secrecy matters. At least not anything that the press is aware
of.
By and large the secret was the depth
of official data mining and tidbits of what they were interested in. It exposed the capacity to invade a person’s
life and ruin it and that it was pretty well unregulated with ample room for
serious repercussions. This is a
repercussion.
Snowden Calls
Out for Justice and Support: 'I Did What I Believed Right'
NSA whistleblower officially accepts all asylum
offers, and asks for continued support from international community and human
rights campaigners
- Jon Queally, staff writer
Published on Friday, July 12, 2013 by
"I did the right thing."
That's what NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden said
Friday at a meeting held at the Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow where he sat
down with representatives from international human rights groups to explain his
case and ask for their support.
"I did what I believed right and began a
campaign to correct this wrongdoing," Snowden said to those gathered at
the meeting.
"I took what I knew to the public, so what
affects all of us can be discussed by all of us in the light of day, and I
asked the world for justice." –Edward Snowden
"I did not seek to enrich myself," he
said. "I did not seek to sell US secrets. I did not partner with any
foreign government to guarantee my safety. Instead, I took what I knew to the
public, so what affects all of us can be discussed by all of us in the light of
day, and I asked the world for justice."
"That moral decision to tell the public about
spying that affects all of us has been costly," Snowden continued,
"but... I have no regrets."
In addition, Snowden clarified that his asylum status
remained perilous. Though he formally accepted all offers of asylum that have
been granted him so far—including Russia's—Snowdent said that until he can
travel without fear the US will attempt to capture him, his rights are being
unlawfully abridged.
"As we have seen, however, some governments in
Western European and North American states have demonstrated a willingness to
act outside the law," he said, making a clear reference to the forced
landing of Bolivian President Evo Morales' airplane earlier this month.
"This unlawful threat makes it impossible for me to travel to Latin
America and enjoy the asylum granted there in accordance with our shared
rights."
Sergei Nikitin, head of Amnesty International's
Moscow office, was at the meeting and said his
organization was please to reiterate its previously stated support for Snowden
in person.
“We will continue to pressure governments to ensure
his rights are respected - this includes the unassailable right to claim asylum
wherever he may choose," Nikitin said. “What he has disclosed is patently
in the public interest and as a whistleblower his actions were justified. He
has exposed unlawful sweeping surveillance programmes that unquestionably
interfere with an individual’s right to privacy."
He said that US behavior so far has been an affront
to international protections for asylum seekers and an attack on the freedom of
expression.
“Instead of addressing or even owning up to these
blatant breaches, the US government is more intent on persecuting him. Attempts
to pressure governments to block his efforts to seek asylum are deplorable,” he
concluded.
Common Dreams has posted his full statement here, but the Guardian provided
this breakdown of key points (bolding theirs):
• He said that his revelations of his
professional “capability without any warrant to search for, seize, and read
your communications, anyone’s communications, at any time” had drawn attention
to “a serious violations of the law”, under the US constitution and the
universal declaration of human rights. He hit back at US claims that
secret court rulings legalised such surveillance, saying: “These rulings simply
corrupt the most basic notion of justice – that it must be seen to be done.”
• He invoked the second world war and the
crimes of the Nazis by claiming he was acting according to principles set down
at the Nuremburg trials, namely that individuals have a duty to humanity over
and above their duty to their country. “individual citizens have the
duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from
occurring,” he said.
• Snowden said that he had not aimed to enrich
himself by passing on his secrets, and nor had he “partnered” with any foreign
government to guarantee his safety.
• He said the US had violated international laws in
putting pressure on other countries not to take him in, something he said
represented a threat to “the basic rights shared by every person, every nation,
to live free from persecution, and to seek and enjoy asylum”.
• He said nations including Russia, Venezuela,
Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador had offered him asylum and said he accepted all
of the offers and any others he may be given in the future. Referring
specifically to Venezuela, he said his “asylee status” was now formal and said
no country had a right to limit his right to take up that offer. But because of
the “unlawful threat” of the US and European countries it was currently
“impossible” for him to travel to Latin America to take up such an offer.
• He asked Human Rights Watch and Amnesty to
assist him in securing guarantees of safe passage to Latin America, and to help
him with his asylum request to Moscow.
Rebuking
Political Establishment, Americans Say Snowden Is a Whistleblower, Not a
Traitor
New poll also indicates Americans increasingly view
anti-terrorism policies as intruding on their civil liberties
- Andrea Germanos, staff writer
Published on
Wednesday, July 10, 2013 by Common
Dreams
A majority of Americans believe that Edward Snowden
is a whistleblower, not a traitor, according to results of a Quinnipiac poll released
Wednesday.
The view of him more as a whistleblower also crossed
party and gender lines—this despite a chorus of bipartisan voices within
Congress and the corporate media labeling the NSA leaker a traitor.
Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac
University Polling Institute, pointed out that "the verdict that Snowden
is not a traitor goes against almost the unified view of the nation's political
establishment."
The poll also revealed a notable trend in Americans'
views on anti-terrorism policies affecting civil liberties.
A 2010 poll showed that 25% of Americans said that
the government's anti-terrorism policies have gone too far in restricting civil
liberties. But that figure jumped to 45% in the current poll.
While a majority (51%) said they support the NSA's
collection of all phone calls, 53% also stated that the program is too
intrusive into their privacy.
"The massive swing in public opinion about
civil liberties and governmental anti- terrorism efforts, and the public view
that Edward Snowden is more whistleblower than traitor are the public reaction
and apparent shock at the extent to which the government has gone in trying to
prevent future terrorist incidents," added Brown.
2 comments:
The biggest U.S. scam is the fact that Hawaii is not part of the U.S. since there is no treaty of annexation. The Turpie Resolution of 1894 warned foreign countries and U.S. officials to not interfere with the Hawaii situation as it would be an unfriendly act against the U.S.A. So, what Snowden reveals is trivial to what the U.S. has done to Hawaii. We already know how shameful and dishonorable the U.S. is.
This is cool!
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