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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."
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 17 2019, @06:57PM (7 children)
I remember all, y'all trumptards and the burn-to-the-ground leftshits screaming about how Obama 2.0, aka Clinton was gonna drone Assange and plot Snowden's downfall. And yet during the entire Obama administration none of that happened. Obama commuted Manning's sentence and released her. Now that you got what you wanted, trump's coming after them all. Assange is in jail as the tip-of-the-spear to shut down press freedoms, Manning is in jail, and the entire DoJ is now moving on Snowden like a bitch. The minute it benefits Putin to kick Snowden out, he's going to his buddy trump that favor. Even Glenn Greenwald has become a target of Trump's buddy in fascism, Bolsonaro.
You dipshits never realized that the first to go would be the disrupters because fascism brooks no disruption. You fucking shit for brains geniuses.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 17 2019, @07:02PM (1 child)
Also, Peter Thiel shut down the snowden archives at The Intercept. All of those documents we never got to see? We're never going to see them, they are now solely in the hands of one of trump's biggest swamp-monsters.
You stupid fucking idiots.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 17 2019, @09:08PM
And the GOP gun idolators are on a tear to censor video games.
Haha you gamergate fools. You were always just a tool of Bannon, now they don't need you any more either.
Used like a $2 whore.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 18 2019, @01:09AM (4 children)
Did Obama pardon Snowden? No, and in fact, he actively defended unconstitutional mass surveillance and lied about it. Trump is just as bad or even worse on these issues, but let's not pretend that Obama was even close to good; he was still profoundly evil. If Obama were good, he would have opposed mass surveillance and pardoned Snowden and Manning.
I despise Trump and think he's much worse than Obama, but I still despise Obama for his many wrongdoings.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 18 2019, @01:14AM (3 children)
You wanted perfect. You got it. A perfect storm of corruption and fascism.
And yet you are still blaming obama for being imperfect. Nah dude, this ain't on obama, stop trying to deflect.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 18 2019, @01:35AM
Did you even read my comment? I said that Trump is worse than Obama, and yet you're treating me as a Trump supporter. Tribalism is truly a disease of the mind. I didn't vote for either of these authoritarian corporatists.
Imperfect? Obama wasn't just "imperfect"; he was evil. Obama took us from two wars to seven, many of which weren't even declared by Congress and were/are thus unconstitutional; he droned American citizens without due process; he used drones heavily, even though over 90% of the time they hit the wrong targets; he supported mass surveillance and lied about it; he didn't prosecute torturers ('Look forward, not back'); he didn't truly try to get single payer when the Democrats had a supermajority, and instead waiting until their position was much weaker and did nothing to reign in on the more corporate Democrats; he bailed out the banks with almost no strings attached, and didn't try to prosecute the ones who actually crashed the economy; and he did not veto the Unpatriotic Act, even though he could have at least done so as a sign of protest. And it's not just about what new things a president does, but what policies they continue from past administrations. He did little about the drug war, nothing about the TSA, little about Gitmo, and so on. Sure, Obama couldn't unilaterally solve all of these problems himself (though some he could), but he could at least take a strong public stance against injustice. Yet, for so many issues, he didn't even do that, and was instead actively on the wrong side.
What about all of that is merely "imperfect"? That's such a gross understatement that it falls into 'not even wrong' territory. I blame Obama for his very real and very disastrous failings.
Trump might be even worse, but that doesn't make Obama good or even merely "imperfect."
(Score: 2) by Pav on Wednesday September 18 2019, @03:37AM (1 child)
"Hope and change" Obama? He was "more of the same" Obama. He turned three wars into seven, backed out of universal health care in favour of a right wing plan ie. Romneycare-rebranded... which was the republican plan. Romney/Obamacare boosts profits for little real benefit - it's an enforced giveaway to insurance companies for people who mostly can't afford to make use of it due to copays and deductables. Obama had a horrendous record on the environment... his EPA backed out and left things to the states... and during the DAPL pipeline (to the Koch's refinery in Texas) he let the illegal pipeline continue being built for the better part of a year, and then (to save face) his EPA disallowed building a few days before Trump came to power - I wonder why. Obama was the "deporter in chief"... Trump is yet to match Obamas month-on-month deportation numbers. As for Obama being better for the likes of Snowden - he sued more leakers under the espionage act than all previous presidents combined.
Trump is stupid and corrupt... but I'd rather have his ugly face and twitter megaphone blasting out the corruption rather than Obamas smiling while he expertly sweeps it under the carpet. If Clinton had become president there would be no way most of the Democratic field would have to pay lip service to universal health care, free college etc... and no way the youth would be so educated and passionate about politics. The Titanic has been taking on water for a while now, but Trump at least makes it obvious that something needs to be done.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 18 2019, @04:36AM
You utter moron.
Trump's poisoning the air, the water and the earth. He's poisoning our foods too - now the pork industry no longer has any federal inspectors, its all "self-inspection."
You are doing that moronic trumptard nihlistic sophistry where you overemphasize the problems of one side because the other side's problems are so fucking gargantuan that it dwarfs your ability to understand, so you focus on the easy stuff instead of staring the devil in the eye. Grow the fuck up you mental fucking midget.