OK, people keep saying it was against the law. I'm going to borrow from a very recent FB post of mine in response. I'm with SHrdlu and Pam on this one.
This was sanctioned by FISA. You can bitch about FISA all you want, but it and several other checks serve as the due process. Work to change FISA if you believe it flawed. Corporations are people by law, though I think that's one of the more stupid judgements of this century, and I work toward righting that wrong. It's still the damn law. Soldiers have a duty not to follow *illegal* orders, where legality is determined by a judiciary. Individual morality is a much more elastic standard, and it doesn't scale. The devil is in the detail: "How" should that soldier proceed when faced with a possibly illegal order? A court *had* weighed in and this was legal. If he was so bothered by what he saw, and didn't believe the FISA protocol was adequate, he could have exhausted a number of other avenues to appeal and air his concerns. I think you should _first_ follow proper avenues for appeal. If one still feels a strength of conviction after that first rebuff, then sure - engage in civil disobedience, protest, etc. Snowden didn't appear to do that. No hint of raising concerns with the boss, or the boss' boss. No phone call to a Congresscritter or Senator. No talk with a trusted advisor, girlfriend, or anybody. From this vantage point, it just looks like a large ego's unilateral decision to dump classified info with little thought on unintended consequences. That's a marked difference between Ellsberg and Snowden. Ellsberg consulted with peers, Kissinger, McGovern, Fulbright, and spent 18 months trying to get others to act without using public disclosure. Unilaterally doing a classified data dump and then fleeing to China of all places, doesn't exactly give me warm fuzzies about this guy's critical thinking capabilities. Sorry if I disappoint very good friends on this list, but I'm not a Snowden fan, though this is far from a black and white case. I can see thinking people having compelling arguments for either side. I think Toobin captures the essence of my concerns here: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/06/edward-snowden-nsa-leaker-is-no-hero.html BTW, I do think we need greater clarity on what we can reasonably expect wrt privacy rights, and where the damn line is drawn. I *do* have an expectation that my phone records are between me and my provider, unless a warrant is issued based on some alleged wrongdoing on my part. I don't agree with *this* FISA ruling, and I expect that my membership dollars in the ACLU will help initiate a court action over it. PS: Board folks, I think you did fine to take a stab at a message.
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