I heard a US government spokesman make the argument a little while ago that you could tell Edward Snowden was a bad guy because of which countries he was looking for asylum with. (I paraphrase; I can't remember who said it, so I can't look it up).
This is a bad argument. In centuries past there would have been many countries that didn't care what the US thought, and quite a few that didn't even know what the US thought. This is no longer true; these days the only countries that will reliably ignore US wishes are those that are, if not hostile, at least not terribly friendly.
It is much more cogent to observe that Snowden knew without having to wait and see that he would be prosecuted as hard as possible. And all that tells you about him is that he's not stupid; it's much more informative about the US. Snowden has revealed that a major government organisation has conducted an illegal and unconstitutional spying program against pretty much the entire country, and lied about it to the Senate.
In a country whose split from the UK was in part because of general search warrants, and which enshrines freedom from unreasonable search and seizure in its constitution, he should be celebrated as a patriot. The people in charge of this program should be the ones contemplating long prison terms. Anyone who knew about it and took an oath to protect and defend the constitution should be sacked or impeached.
The US government should have promised Snowden full immunity and invited him to testify before congress. We would not then have to worry about what the Russians might buy or steal from him in the way of classified intelligence, and we could have the debate we should be having about what level of spying on the population we're willing to tolerate. Snowden knew that wasn't going to happen, and it is a sad commentary on what this country has become.
I was going to rant about how Edward Snowden is not the issue, and we should be investigating the NSA, but SMBC pretty much nailed that.
Knowledge is power; if we let the government know everything about us, we hand ourselves over to the first tyrant who manages to get his or her hands on the levers of that power. I would much rather fight a few unpopular religious zealots with the help of the rest of society, than take on my own government alone. But I've said this before.
This is a bad argument. In centuries past there would have been many countries that didn't care what the US thought, and quite a few that didn't even know what the US thought. This is no longer true; these days the only countries that will reliably ignore US wishes are those that are, if not hostile, at least not terribly friendly.
It is much more cogent to observe that Snowden knew without having to wait and see that he would be prosecuted as hard as possible. And all that tells you about him is that he's not stupid; it's much more informative about the US. Snowden has revealed that a major government organisation has conducted an illegal and unconstitutional spying program against pretty much the entire country, and lied about it to the Senate.
In a country whose split from the UK was in part because of general search warrants, and which enshrines freedom from unreasonable search and seizure in its constitution, he should be celebrated as a patriot. The people in charge of this program should be the ones contemplating long prison terms. Anyone who knew about it and took an oath to protect and defend the constitution should be sacked or impeached.
The US government should have promised Snowden full immunity and invited him to testify before congress. We would not then have to worry about what the Russians might buy or steal from him in the way of classified intelligence, and we could have the debate we should be having about what level of spying on the population we're willing to tolerate. Snowden knew that wasn't going to happen, and it is a sad commentary on what this country has become.
I was going to rant about how Edward Snowden is not the issue, and we should be investigating the NSA, but SMBC pretty much nailed that.
Knowledge is power; if we let the government know everything about us, we hand ourselves over to the first tyrant who manages to get his or her hands on the levers of that power. I would much rather fight a few unpopular religious zealots with the help of the rest of society, than take on my own government alone. But I've said this before.
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