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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday September 17 2019, @02:39PM   Printer-friendly
from the will-not-end-well dept.

Update: DannyB adds: United States Files Civil Lawsuit Against Edward Snowden

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/edward-snowden-nsa-cbs-this-morning-interview-today-2019-09-16/

When pressed on whether he considers what he did unlawful, Snowden refused to take a position but said "it's not hard to make the argument that I broke the law." He went on to say that the government continues to allege that his disclosures caused harm but, according to Snowden, has yet to show evidence of that harm.

"They never show evidence for it even though we're now more than 6 years on, it would be the easiest thing in the world to show. We've never heard that story," he said. "If they had some classified evidence that a hair on a single person's head was harmed, you know as well as I do, it would be on the front page of The New York Times by the end of the day."

Snowden also took issue with the common refrain that leaking classified documents violated the oath of secrecy he took upon entering the CIA. He said an oath of secrecy does not exist.

"One of the common misconceptions in one of the earlier attacks, that we heard in 2015, that we don't hear of so much anymore is that I violated this oath of secrecy. That does not exist. There is a secrecy agreement, but there is also an oath of service. An oath of service is to support and defend, not an agency, not even the president, it is to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies – direct quote – foreign and domestic. And this begs the question, what happens when our obligations come into conflict."


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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday September 17 2019, @05:32PM (10 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 17 2019, @05:32PM (#895279) Journal

    It was Bush's fault that Hurricane Katrina hit the US

    Jerry Fallwell says it was the fault of the gays.

    Trump now fills that slot . . . just tune in to CNN

    Heh, I gave up CNN in 2013, see related posts in this SN topic.

    While I recognize that supporters of Party A will always see the current Party B president as filling the slot of the bad Party B villain, I think Trump is a new and unique phenomena. Some of this past thinking does not apply. Trump has lowered all sorts of bars to where there is no dignity left. This totally does not compare with GWB. I did not vote for GWB, but I would take him back in a heartbeat over Trump. I at least have some respect for GWB and believe that GWB is sane, even if I disagree with policies. So saying Trump now fills the slot really just does not properly describe it.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 17 2019, @05:37PM (4 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 17 2019, @05:37PM (#895284) Journal

    Yeah, I read your other comments about CNN. Good move there.

    Oddly, I believe Trump to be less - uhhhmmm - "evil" than Bush. Definitely less evil than the evil brain in the Bush-Cheney team. Even so, at best, Trump is a real shithead.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday September 17 2019, @05:44PM (2 children)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 17 2019, @05:44PM (#895290) Journal

      Less Evil and Less Dangerous are two different things.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 1) by Sulla on Wednesday September 18 2019, @12:03AM (1 child)

        by Sulla (5173) on Wednesday September 18 2019, @12:03AM (#895422) Journal

        Can you provide a list of the wars/hot conflicts that Trump has started? Because there have been many incidents that would have lead to war/police actions/hot conflict under prior administrations.

        Venezuela protest squashing
        Iran tanker bombing
        Iran shooting down the drone
        Iran funding a group that blew up some oil in Saudi Arabia

        You say dangerous but at Trump rallies his supporters cheer for peace in the Korean peninsula, no new foreign entanglements, pulling out of Afghanistan and Syria, and de-taunt with Iran and Russia.

        --
        Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
        • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 18 2019, @01:45PM

          by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 18 2019, @01:45PM (#895634) Journal

          Can you provide a list of the wars/hot conflicts that Trump has started?

          That misses my real concern. It's not about what he hasn't done. It's what he could do.

          From my perspective, I see it as putting nuclear weapons into the hands of an insane crazy person who is incredibly vindictive and petty, and changes his positions on things depending on which way the wind blows that day.

          Now I might be right or I might be wrong. But I would rather have a more stable person as president. I didn't vote for GWB, and I disagree with many of his policies. But I have a level of respect for GWB (none for Trump) and would gladly have GWB back in Trump's place in a heartbeat. So it's not simply an R versus D thing.

          It's one of: I think Trump is dangerous.

          Right or wrong, it is an opinion.

          --
          People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday September 17 2019, @07:02PM

      by tangomargarine (667) on Tuesday September 17 2019, @07:02PM (#895323)

      On some level you need to know what you're doing to be evil.

      --
      "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 18 2019, @12:48AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 18 2019, @12:48AM (#895445)

    People need to stop rehabilitating war criminals like George Bush just because Trump looks bad. Trump is a typical Republican, plus mean tweets and noticeable cognitive decline. That's it. His policies are corporatist, pro-war, and anti-freedom, just like other Republicans.

    Bush got us into Iraq based on false pretenses (which weren't a valid reason to invade a country even if they were true), which was an illegal war against a country that didn't attack us, and as a result, hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed. Then we also had the Unpatriotic Act, torture (thanks Barack 'Look forward, not back!' Obama!), gitmo, mass surveillance, and so on. Do you really think that Trump is much worse than that? Really?

    • (Score: 1) by Sulla on Wednesday September 18 2019, @01:55AM (3 children)

      by Sulla (5173) on Wednesday September 18 2019, @01:55AM (#895464) Journal

      pro-war

      Citation needed. He has initiated less conflicts than anyone going back to Carter.

      --
      Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
      • (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday September 19 2019, @02:14AM (2 children)

        by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Thursday September 19 2019, @02:14AM (#895965) Journal

        "Locked and loaded."
        "Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!"
        Military parade for Independence Day.
        “I’m the most militaristic person there is.”

        That's enough so far. Hopefully the rest of the world keeps seeing him as a clown before he accidentally starts a shooting war. Most wars only need a pretext to set off.

        --
        This sig for rent.
        • (Score: 1) by Sulla on Thursday September 19 2019, @03:42AM (1 child)

          by Sulla (5173) on Thursday September 19 2019, @03:42AM (#895978) Journal

          Lots of shitty words but less killing than any president since Carter, what actual ACTIONS have occured?

          Hell, Bolton is now running around freaking out because Trump isnt a warmonger and upset that Trump doesnt want to bomb Venezuela, wanted to not kill more Afghanis, didn't want to kill more Yemenese, or Syrians, and called off killing 40-400 Iranians.

          Ill take Bolton, a self-professed warmonger, than fake news media trying to strum up conflict with Russia because they can't handle losing an election.

          --
          Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
          • (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday September 19 2019, @04:04PM

            by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Thursday September 19 2019, @04:04PM (#896131) Journal

            I could look at a few things like...

            Raid on Yalka [wikipedia.org], and when was the last time overt military action was approved in Yemen?
            Bombing Syria [thehill.com].
            Extreme vetting [cbsnews.com], which has the net effect of showing America as having sticks and not olive branches.
            A failure to pull out of Afghanistan so far [nbcnews.com], he's had three years. Maybe he'll make it yet, we'll see. But allowance of this to continue is acquiescence to what has been happening whether he started it or not. Ditto for all the other conflicts he hasn't gotten us out of. Not exactly a peacemaker, unless you have evidence to the contrary?
            Using Military funds for his beautiful Wall, therefore the ethics of which suggest he sees little difference between the two.
            And now we have a deteriorating situation in Iran. Let's see where this one goes.

            In any event, he's talking the talk [rt.com]. When somebody walks the walk on him, because his gut call was wrong, that will be on his watch. And it will be his fault.

            --
            This sig for rent.