Posts Tagged ‘snowden’

#PardonSnowden ‘s Interruption

Posted: September 27, 2016 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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by @anarchyroll

Life is shades of gray. Black and white, right and wrong seems to increasingly be in the eye of the beholder. Edward Snowden to say the least is a controversial figure. A hero to some, a traitor to others? Did he break numerous laws? Yes. Did he do the American public a great service? Yes.

Privacy is a unique topic of discussion. It is a special issue in that the vast majority of people regardless of political affiliation, gender, race, or religion believe we as humans are entitled to our privacy. From the strictest catholic straight white man to the most flamboyant, liberal, multi racial, transgender. If we didn’t value privacy, there would be no suburbs, there would be no houses, there would be no doors.

The first world may have given up its privacy unknowingly/ignorantly as it embraced smartphones and free internet services over the past decade. When Edward Snowden helped reveal to America and the world the scale of privacy invasion being purposefully deployed by the US government on its citizens, the outrage was split evenly.

One part anger at the government for abuse of power, one part at Snowden for breaking the law and potentially endangering military operation(s), and one part anger at ourselves for being willfully blind to what we as a society didn’t want to think about or acknowledge…that there is no such thing as a free lunch. The free services that seemed too good to be true, were. We have been paying for Facebook, Google, Spotify and the like with our personal data and privacy.

It is human nature to direct and reflect self-hatred outward. That is what Edward Snowden‘s critics are doing. They are angry that he let the world know that which we wish we didn’t. That we are being watched.

That is what he blew the whistle about. That is why he is in exile in Russia. That is why the newspapers that he leaked his information to are swimming in Pulitzer Prizes. Because he removed all shadow of doubt that the government is indeed watching us. They’re watching us, listening to us, tracking us, and there is nothing we can do to stop them. Just typing that out makes me angry. Reading it probably makes you angry or apathetic, both are natural.

It’s natural to point the finger and blame a person. It’s natural to label one person as an enemy.

Snowden is not the enemy. Trying to profit from the information would have made him the enemy. Staying silent, blind, deaf, and dumb would have made him the enemy. But rather than stay comfortable, he took the road less traveled by. He faced the fear of being classified an enemy of the US government. But whistleblowers are not the enemy of the people. They are some of our greatest allies. Snowden is an ally of freedom, an ally of privacy, an ally of innate human rights. Snowden shouldn’t need a pardon but whistleblower protections have failed him. He did the right thing for the public, let’s do the right thing for him, and push for a pardon so he can come home.

Edward #Snowden’s European Vacation?

Posted: December 7, 2015 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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By @anarchyroll
12/6/15

Do you know who Edward Snowden is? Probably.

Do you have an opinion on Edward Snowden? Definitely.

If there’s one thing that I have learned since Snowden popped his whistleblowing cherry, it’s that everyone has an opinion about him whether they know who he is or not. He is either a hero or a traitor. There is no in between or gray area for the masses for this man.

He is either the alpha patriot or the omega cyber terrorist. He either deserves to be given a medal or a noose around his neck.

The United States government on the record believes Edward Snowden to be a traitor who if ever captured will be tried as such. The United States and our allies are the good guys of the world. We protect the masses from the bad guys preemptively when possible, and defeat the bad guys by force when plausible.

Europe generally, and the European Union specifically have been an ally of America for quite some time. The Allied Powers of Word War II naturally comes to mind. One need not be up to the minute on international relations, politics, or events to know that Europe and America have a very positive and professional relationship regardless of specific country or state.
The European Union Parliament recently voted to give Edward Snowden asylum and to offer it to him with as little difficult as possible.

Can you imagine the EU doing this to someone the US government labeled a communist traitor during the Cold War

It’s not a radical example at all. Snowden is currently in Russia.

How can Snowden be a traitor of the highest level in the United States yet our greatest ally is now formally welcoming him with open arms? This was not a random, one off, toothless statement by some drunk politician. This was the equivalent of the United States Congress offering asylum to a man that a country like France had labeled a traitor.
Edward Snowden has become the very public face of a very private world. The world of big data, cyber crime, cyber warfare, and privacy in the digital world.

For better or for worse, whether one agrees or disagrees with his method, Snowden has brought about as important a conversation that can be had in the digital age. One can be the biggest supporter of government surveillance while still admitting that Snowden has spurred a healthy debate on the issue.

Do we not have the right to at least know we are being watched and recorded every time we use our smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop, and any other device that is connected to the internet? The fact is, most people, especially in America simply didn’t know or assume this before Snowden.

A whistleblower is different than a criminal. A whistleblower is different than a traitor. Is that not why the people behind the Pentagon Papers were not executed for treason?

It was very easy to paint Snowden as a traitor to America since he leaked government secrets to the public and has since taken barely secret residence in Russia. The EU formally offering him asylum turns the black and white into a very murky shade of gray.

Considering how many broadcast news stations have had in person interviews with Snowden since he received asylum in Russia indicates that he is not America’s most wanted. After recent terrorist attacks and mass shootings across America and its allies, it is clear that Snowden is not a terrorist even if one views him as a traitor.

If however, he has been formally offered asylum by America’s greatest and longest standing allies…how can he be a traitor?

#Snowden Gets an Endorsement from #Gore

Posted: June 11, 2014 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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by @anarchyroll
6/11/2014

When you’ve been labeled a traitor by the United States federal government and are in hiding in Russia, you’ll take just about any endorsement you can get. Having one of the three most recent Vice Presidents of the United States give you a thumbs up, is Christmas come early.

Al Gore said that Edward Snowden, in addition to breaking the law, “provided an important service” in exposing the NSA bulk surveillance programs.

Gore didn’t completely pardon Snowden’s actions, admitting that he did break the law and would have to serve some penalty for doing so. But Gore also refused to label Snowden a traitor, which is a huge step forward in the public debate on this issue.

The court of public opinion must shift if Snowden is to be able to return to America. The one thing Democrats and Republicans seem to have in common these days is condemning Edward Snowden as a traitor and kissing up the to Military Industrial Complex.

Gore’s endorsement of the good that came out of Snowden’s action are a good start and a good step in the right direction for those in power and on the left to come around to seeing Snowden as more of a whistleblower and less of a traitor.

Inspiration via Devastation: Part 4: Glenn Greenwald & Edward Snowden

Posted: March 30, 2014 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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by @anarchyroll
10/4/2013

(I recently found this in my drafts section. I guess I never hit the publish button last year.)

As I consumed more and more audio books on personal development, philosophy, self help, spirituality, and self actualization I believed less and less in conspiracy theories. As I aged I met more and more people who, as fictional character Don Draper said in the first season on Mad Men, are so desperate to be led, that they’ll follow anybody. The desperate need some people have, to believe that somebody is in control of everything. People cloak themselves in cynicism and sarcasm to mask their fear of mortality and of being too big a coward to even attempt to make a difference in the world. They justify their inaction to themselves by looking for and finding circumstantial evidence that there is a higher power, new world order, shadow government, etc pulling all the strings, in control of all things important. Therefore, why try? why protest? why write letters? why call congressmen? why not do anything other than work a job they hate so they can numb themselves with personal entertainment when “not on the clock”.

As I studied history however, I couldn’t shake the thought that there was a ruling class of wealthy land and resource owners that have continuously taken action in secret to maintain control of money, land, and resources. Learning about someone like Edward Bernays and the invention of the American middle class consumer by the economic ruling class at the turn of the 20th century, did not dissipate my said thought. Old money with a scarcity mentality fueled by paranoia and greed is one thing, the Military Industrial Complex along with the World Bank/IMF working in the shadows to rule the world Pinky and the Brain style just seemed too derived from a bunch of immature, overweight, uneducated men who don’t get laid enough if at all.

Edward Snowden was the Rosetta Stone for legitimacy to those who are paranoid of governmental overreach and privacy invasion. Glenn Greenwald, reporter for The Guardian newspaper has been Snowden‘s contact to the outside world. Information has continued to trickle out for over two months, each leak, has been an ocean of concern of shock, awe, concern, and outrage for anyone who values privacy, freedom (personal and/or of information), governmental transparency, and power. If you are reading this and unaware of who either Snowden or Greenwald are, please click the hyperlinks in this blog to educate yourself on who they are. Simply knowing their names is not enough. Knowledge itself is not power, it is merely the material to create power, or the vehicle to get you to power. You must use the material to formulate the power you wish to have, you must operate the vehicle to arrive at the power destination.

Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald’s bravery and journalistic heroism gets my blood pumping in a way that up until this point in my life, only professional wrestling could. That may read as lame as shit, but professional wrestling has been my biggest personal passion in life, for my entire life. When friends, family, teachers, lovers, and strangers would tell me to be realistic about what I wanted to do in my life, I turned to writing, I turned to journalism, I turned to media communications as a secondary career option. Snowden and Greenwald have given me as great a gift as I could possibly ask for. The consistent flow of positive emotions that lets me know that writing and journalism can give me a lifetime of fulfillment. That if I could never be a professional wrestler or more importantly, a successful one, that I could spend the rest of my life in journalistic pursuits, shining light on information kept from the public in the dark, and die a happy man.

I have spent so many years stagnant. Afraid to take action not only out of fear of failure, but out of the fear of taking the wrong path. Glenn Greenwald and Edward Snowden removed that fear from me. Ironically, by releasing some of the scariest nonfiction information I have ever seen, read, or heard of in my entire life. What the Obama administration is doing to whistleblowers is disgusting. What the NSA is doing is despicable. The surveillance state that the Patriot Act has allowed to formulate is un American. I have found my second passion in life. I have never cared about being rich, I have cared about being happy. I have read enough books from enough credible figures to know that happiness and wealth are not correlated. Beyond having food, shelter, cleanliness, and safety I don’t care for my destiny to be that of a mindless consumer.

I now know that I can be happy being a writer for the rest of my life. I know I can be happy being a journalist, a broadcaster, a radio dj, a talk show host, a producer, a managing editor, a columnist, an author, a staff writer, and any other position my college degree and my natural abilities make me qualified for because I now have the passion and desire to go with my BA and abilities. Edward Snowden’s leaks may have scared the hell out of me, but sometimes we need to be scared to wake the fuck up. I have been woken up. Glenn Greenwald‘s unapologetic journalistic integrity inspires me to the point of goose bumps literally every time I think of his interviews since the Snowden story broke. That is what it takes to get me moving in the direction of my dreams. Thanks to Glenn Greenwald and Edward Snowden not only am I moving, I want to, and feel obligated to keep moving.

#NSA Secrets = Food Sans Ingredient List

Posted: January 22, 2014 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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by @anarchyroll
1/21/2014

Contrary to what FOX News would have you believe, the ACLU is not a terrorist organization.

American Civil Liberties Union…those four words, to me, couldn’t scream democracy more if Uncle Sam was eating a deep fried Twinkie, while driving a Hummer, and taking an IG selfie while making a duckface with the toaster filter all at the same time.

The ACLU is your friend, whether you care or not, whether you want to help them or not. They are the ones, playing within the system to change the system, and make it work for the people, by the people.

It should come as no surprise then, that they’re no fans of the NSA bulk surveillance program that was created in the dark, in secret, and exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden this past summer.  Both Congress and President Obama have said the public debate Snowden started is a good thing for democracy, yet he is still a wanted fugitive, go figure.

The NSA has been using Freedom of Information requests to try and shed more light into the dark and shady world of the NSA’s metadata dragnet.  Surprise, surprise the government is just flat out refusing to grant the ACLU access to various documents. I thought this was America.

Snowden and the ACLU aren’t looking to put soldiers in danger or expose mission critical information that will aide or abed real, actual terrorists who wish to do real, actual harm to innocent civilians on American soil.

Snowden and the ACLU are simply looking to put all of the cards on the table for the American people to decide for themselves.  It is the same thinking behind listing ingredients in food.  We (the country) just want to know what we’re putting into our body (government policy) to make sure it isn’t going to harm us (evaporate our personal privacy).

Allergies, fitness goals, overall health dictate a person must know what their food is made of. Where did it come from? Is it organic? Is it processed? How much salt? How much sugar? What is polymethylsiloxane? These are things that we NEED to know for our own health and peace of mind.

The same goes for what exactly, specifically is the NSA doing with their $1.1 trillion (that’s trillion with a t) budget. How much info are they storing? How often? For how long? From what sources? Are they authorized? Is it legal? By whom? This is not the Soviet Union or Red China. We the people get a say, and at the least have the right to know. If it is important to know if our food has gluten, it is important to know if we are giving up our personal privacy in the name of national security.