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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) by ikanreed on Tuesday September 17 2019, @08:26PM (5 children)
Bullshit. The "majority" doesn't tend any such way in some innate and intractable way.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday September 17 2019, @08:55PM (4 children)
Oh, you're going for full-on brainwashing toward revolutionary independent thinking tendencies, then?
It has taken centuries of the opposite to get where we are, and even before "public education" taught people to do as they are told, revolution was a very rare animal.
Maybe you can try this on a new planet if we find a habitable one...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday September 17 2019, @09:11PM (3 children)
There are so many societies on this planet that are nowhere near our level of social, economic, and political decay. None that are entirely free from some degree of apathy and misanthropy, but the US, today? Oh boy there's something special fucked up.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday September 17 2019, @09:43PM (2 children)
I'm a child of the '60s, my dad was lucky enough not to be drafted but he has devoted his entire life to reforming the education system in the US to promote independent thinking. PhD in education, department chairmanships, teaching teachers, setting state curriculum, writing books, etc. He is retiring this year, having Quixotically pursued his goals for 45 years - it would be redundant to say: to little effect.
The history that they teach in the US, at least, shows that wealth disparity, massive concentration of power in the hands of a few, etc. has been endemic to human society since the beginning of recorded history and has rarely been so "good" as it was in the early to mid 1970s - seemingly as a post WWII temporary guilt trip on the part of the power brokers, giving the returning vets' and their kids a break for almost a decade. Maybe it was a feeling of gratitude toward the soldiers for winning the "big one". Whatever, Ronnie's Ray-guns put a stop to all that nonsense and kicked Russia in the balls while they were at it.
May you fight the good fight, may you make more progress than my father did. He spent his whole career swimming against the tide.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by DECbot on Tuesday September 17 2019, @11:27PM (1 child)
I wish it was like that. My thought, the Vets got home and observed how fucked up politics were and ran for a bunch of local offices. In the local elections, the soldiers often campaigned on anti-corruption platforms citing the fucked up things the sheriffs, judges, and county officials did during and right after the war. Things had to clean up or the Vets would win too many elections and later move into more powerful offices.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday September 17 2019, @11:44PM
Hmmm... that's a somewhat less cynical take, that "the people" actually grabbed ahold of democracy and put Vets in office who cared more about people than their own personal power. Not at all surprising that it was short lived, either way.
🌻🌻 [google.com]