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Edward Snowden is asking the US president to pardon him based on the morality of his action.
Well, here is a completely opposite view from the other side, so to speak:
http://observer.com/2016/09/were-losing-the-war-against-terrorism/
"Since 9/11, NSA has been the backbone of the Western intelligence alliance against terrorism. Its signals intelligence is responsible for the strong majority of successful counterterrorism operations in the West. More than three-quarters of the time, NSA or one of its close partner Anglosphere spy partners like Britain's GCHQ, develops a lead on a terror cell which is passed to the FBI and others for action which crushes that cell before it kills. If NSA loses the ability to do this, innocent people in many countries will die.
Unfortunately, there's mounting evidence that NSA's edge over the terrorists is waning. It's impossible not to notice that jihadist emphasis on communications security and encryption, which is now gaining ground, began in 2013. That, of course, is when Edward Snowden, an NSA IT contractor, stole something like 1.7 million classified documents from his employer, shared them with outsiders, then defected to Moscow."
"However, our precious edge in the SpyWar is waning fast. We are no longer winning. We're about to hear a great deal of unwarranted praise of Ed Snowden thanks to the hagiographic movie about him by Oliver Stone that's to be released this week. Don't be fooled. Snowden is no hero. In truth, he and his journalist helpers have aided terrorists in important ways. Snowden and his co-conspirators have blood on their hands—and perhaps much more blood soon thanks to their aid to the genocidal maniacs of ISIS."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday September 15 2016, @02:43PM
> How does legal surveillance hurt me?
One more answer to this.
What makes you think what is going on is actually legal?
Consider the US Constitution. Now consider the following.
1. Secret surveillance (even of US citizens)
2. Secret databases and profiles of people
3. Secret warrants
4. . . . issued by Secret Courts
5. Under cover of Secret Laws
6. Or under Secret Interpretations of public laws
7. Secret Arrests
8. Secret Trials
9. Using Secret Evidence
10. (which is not made available to the defense)
11. Secret Convictions in the Secret Courts
12. Secret Prisons
13. Secret Torture
It sounds to me like we are becoming the very thing that we were fighting against in the previous century.
And this is legal?
I don't think so. No matter what they say. This is not what the writers of the constitution envisioned.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 15 2016, @02:46PM
Just to add one thing.
The beauty of how such an evil system works is that anyone, at any point in the above chain, can rationalize that they are just doing their job. Their part in it is not so bad. For example, the surveillance people. The real problem is that everything else on that list exists. But the one item in the list where I do my job is just my patriotic duty -- to protect us from bad guys.
Clue: if you participate in the overall list of what I mentioned, then YOU ARE THE BAD GUYS.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15 2016, @04:58PM
exactly. you don't protect america by attacking americans. you attack americans when you attack american values, even if perpetrating your crimes against freedom on non americans (in america's name no less). you are the terrorists, you are the traitors, you are the enemy to be rooted out and destroyed.