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Forums - Politics - Your thoughts on Snowden

 

How do you view Snowden?

Hero 163 73.76%
 
Coward 12 5.43%
 
A threat to national security 19 8.60%
 
Snitch 11 4.98%
 
Snowden?? Heck is that?? 16 7.24%
 
Total:221
sales2099 on 25 June 2013

I think this guys is a traitor to the US. The program is meant to spy on terrorists, and the general public has nothing to worry about. The gov't isnt interested in monitoring for petty crimes.....they listen to people that can possibly threaten national security.

So the average guy who bootlegs music online.......the government doesn't give two shits (pardon me) about them. So this guy took a program that is said to have stopped 50+ terror plots, and made it so the general public is outraged over something that doesn't effect them and actually protects them.

Its easy to criticize these things....until the next 911 happens. The government can only do so much sometimes.



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thranx on 25 June 2013
sales2099 said:
I think this guys is a traitor to the US. The program is meant to spy on terrorists, and the general public has nothing to worry about. The gov't isnt interested in monitoring for petty crimes.....they listen to people that can possibly threaten national security.

So the average guy who bootlegs music online.......the government doesn't give two shits (pardon me) about them. So this guy took a program that is said to have stopped 50+ terror plots, and made it so the general public is outraged over something that doesn't effect them and actually protects them.


I wouldnt be worried, except we just another branch of the government use its power to sup[ress opinion. imagine what kind of abuses can happen with this one. If the IRS can't handle not targetting specific groups that they dont agree with, how do you except an organiziton that we aren't supposed to know about to control itself? I just dont trust people I dont know that much, not do I trust large organiztion that have little to no oversight. I mean if they already failed at keeping their program hidden, and couldn't stop one guy from messing it all up how do you expect them to not have other bad employees who may abuse power?



thranx on 25 June 2013
Slimebeast said:

Abuse is certainly a problem and in my view a much stronger argument than just simply "my privacy must be respected out of principle, no matter the circumstances".

Abuse was certainly a huge problem with the KGB and other secret government agencies in the East and are still today in Third world countries so the potential for misuse is there, and power itself usually corrupts like you say, but I'm now aware of any severe abuse in Western democracies in modern times. Yes some abuse certainly happens but I simply don't know about many cases where a person's life has been destroyed because of government surveillance abuse in the West.

But I know for a fact that thousands of people's lives are being destroyed by violent crime and terrorism every year.


how about the current IRS scandal? doesn't really make me want to trust another government agency with too much information.



Kasz216 on 25 June 2013
Mr Khan said:

The budget for the data collection itself (likely such buildings are under the NSA's general budget) is only $20 million. For instance, it costs Twitter's archive company $6 million a year just for twitter, so imagine handling Twitter, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, and MSN


Thing is.  The NSA's total budget is completely classified.



Mr Khan on 25 June 2013
sales2099 said:

I think this guys is a traitor to the US. The program is meant to spy on terrorists, and the general public has nothing to worry about. The gov't isnt interested in monitoring for petty crimes.....they listen to people that can possibly threaten national security.

So the average guy who bootlegs music online.......the government doesn't give two shits (pardon me) about them. So this guy took a program that is said to have stopped 50+ terror plots, and made it so the general public is outraged over something that doesn't effect them and actually protects them.

Its easy to criticize these things....until the next 911 happens. The government can only do so much sometimes.

The last time the government let one slip bast the goalies, there was a clear, legal source of information (ironically, in light of the current tiff, the Russian FSB) telling them that these Chechen immigrants had radical connections and likely terroristic intentions.

Now the government claims to have stopped dozens of plots with PRISM, but my point is that *the* 9/11 could have been stopped without all this warrantless spying (just requiring GW Bush and his team to pay more attention to the memo from August 2001), and the most recent incident, also, could have been stopped through using information obtained through more accountable processes.



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MTZehvor on 25 June 2013
Mr Khan said:
sales2099 said:

I think this guys is a traitor to the US. The program is meant to spy on terrorists, and the general public has nothing to worry about. The gov't isnt interested in monitoring for petty crimes.....they listen to people that can possibly threaten national security.

So the average guy who bootlegs music online.......the government doesn't give two shits (pardon me) about them. So this guy took a program that is said to have stopped 50+ terror plots, and made it so the general public is outraged over something that doesn't effect them and actually protects them.

Its easy to criticize these things....until the next 911 happens. The government can only do so much sometimes.

The last time the government let one slip bast the goalies, there was a clear, legal source of information (ironically, in light of the current tiff, the Russian FSB) telling them that these Chechen immigrants had radical connections and likely terroristic intentions.

Now the government claims to have stopped dozens of plots with PRISM, but my point is that *the* 9/11 could have been stopped without all this warrantless spying (just requiring GW Bush and his team to pay more attention to the memo from August 2001), and the most recent incident, also, could have been stopped through using information obtained through more accountable processes.

This. So much this.

And yes, personal privacy and the fourth amendment certainly are a "sacred cow." There's a reason for that as well. It's one of the essential liberties that the nation was founded on. 



the2real4mafol on 25 June 2013
MTZehvor said:
Mr Khan said:
sales2099 said:

I think this guys is a traitor to the US. The program is meant to spy on terrorists, and the general public has nothing to worry about. The gov't isnt interested in monitoring for petty crimes.....they listen to people that can possibly threaten national security.

So the average guy who bootlegs music online.......the government doesn't give two shits (pardon me) about them. So this guy took a program that is said to have stopped 50+ terror plots, and made it so the general public is outraged over something that doesn't effect them and actually protects them.

Its easy to criticize these things....until the next 911 happens. The government can only do so much sometimes.

The last time the government let one slip bast the goalies, there was a clear, legal source of information (ironically, in light of the current tiff, the Russian FSB) telling them that these Chechen immigrants had radical connections and likely terroristic intentions.

Now the government claims to have stopped dozens of plots with PRISM, but my point is that *the* 9/11 could have been stopped without all this warrantless spying (just requiring GW Bush and his team to pay more attention to the memo from August 2001), and the most recent incident, also, could have been stopped through using information obtained through more accountable processes.

This. So much this.

And yes, personal privacy and the fourth amendment certainly are a "sacred cow." There's a reason for that as well. It's one of the essential liberties that the nation was founded on. 

I think privacy is important for all people in the world, It's an essential part of human nature.  It's just a shame it's constantly being attacked by governments and security agencies around the world. 



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cablebox on 25 June 2013

The guy was making 200k before all this with no high school diplomat goddamn!! and he had less than 3 months on the job



Soleron on 25 June 2013

The world needed to know about this. It's not, "what the NSA did was legal therefore he should be punished". It's, "what the NSA did shouldn't be legal". He described no oversight, no effective protection, and basically unlimited access to personal data with or without evidence-based suspicion.



Cypher1980 on 25 June 2013

Its difficult to see him as anything other than an extremely brave individual.
He's exposed the illegal activities of his administration despite the consequences to him as a human being.