On 18 June 2013 07:01, Bernard Tyers - ei8fdb <ei8...@ei8fdb.org> wrote: > I also thought Willliam Binney's view that Edward Snowden was potentially > crossing a line from whistleblower to traitor with the release of information > about the USA's alleged hacking of foreign computer systems is interesting. > Is he right? Does it matter?
I think it makes a big practical difference in public opinion. If the NSA and CIA was *not* trying to spy on countries like Iran and China - what would their purpose really be? Clearly intelligence agencies should be looking for intelligence on threats to the country*. I don't think one of their methods to do so should include dragnet surveillance of all Americans, but getting a WARRANT to go over the telephone records of suspected terrorists is the legal instrument we're pushing for, no? * Among other things, like looking for incidents of 'bad stuff' other countries do, to bring to the UN or other bodies: things like genocide, political imprisonment, censorship, and so on But if you ask the average citizen "Hey, is giving a list of targets the NSA/CIA gathers evidence from overseas an acceptable thing for a [spy]** to give another country in the name of stopping the human-rights-violating surveillance machine?" I think the answer is going to be 'No'. I mean heck, use Binney as an example of the average citizen. ** The subtleties of "defense contractor" and "spy" are probably lost a bit -tom -- Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
