The consulting firm Booz Allen issued a statement Tuesday confirming that Edward Snowden, 29, was an employee of the firm for less than 3 months, assigned to a team in Hawaii. The statement says Snowden had a salary rate of $122,000 -- and was terminated Monday "for violations of the firm's code of ethics and firm policy."
On Jun 11, 6:31 am, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > "Snowden is bound to be pilloried as a “traitor” bythe neocons, theLindsey > GrahamsandJohn McCains, and their newfound best friends in the Obama > administration: the latter will doubtless pursue Snowden just like they > pursuedBradley Manningand are still pursuingJulian Assange. And I can’t wait > to hear from theObama culton all this."Edward Snowden, American HeroOne man > stands up against the PanopticonbyJustin Raimondo, June 10, 2013 > At the end of the eighteenth century, the > laissez-faire-philosopher-turned-statistJeremy Benthamdevised a scheme for > the design of a prison he called thePanopticon: a circular building at the > center of which is a watchtower made of glass from which it is possible to > observe the inmates at all times. If we look at America asone vast prison, > with ourselves as the inmates, we can get some idea of what the national > security bureaucracy was envisioning when they conceivedPRISM, “Boundless > Informant,” and the program thatrecords the details(minus content) of every > phone call made in the US (which, as far as I know, doesn’t have a name). > Derived from documents leaked to theGuardiannewspaper columnistGlenn > Greenwald, these revelations throw back the curtain on a modern day, hi tech > Panopticon, with the high priests of the National Security State sitting at > the center of it, relentlessly observing us, the prisonerswho don’t even know > we’re prisoners – 24/7. > PRISM allows the National Security Agency (NSA) “direct access to the systems > of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants,” according to atop > secret documentobtained by theGuardiannewspaper. The information scooped up > by the NSA includes “search history, the content of emails, file transfers > and live chats,” according to the Power Point presentationleakedby former NSA > contractorEdward Snowden. The document claims the US (and British) > governments collect this information “directly from the servers” of internet > service providers. While at first denying even knowing about any such > government program, as well as the idea that they would allow direct access > to their servers, the named ISPs laterconcededthe truth of these accusations > by acknowledging that the information is indeed being provided in a “online > room,” where massive amounts of information are stored and then transferred > to government snoops. > In response tocivil libertarianswho worried about the extend of government > surveillance, and whether it went beyond the bounds allowed by law, the NSA > and the intelligence community routinelydeniedthey were spying on Americans. > It’s just those dastardly foreigners, they said: oh, but of course we > inadvertently scooped up some information on American citizens, however that > was an unavoidable accident – and, inanswerto inquiries from Sens. Ron Wyden > and Mark Udall, they claimed there was no way of knowing how much or to what > extent surveillance of Americans had occurred. No sooner had that been run up > the flagpole than theGuardiandebunked this particular lie with yet another > blockbuster story, this time exposing a program given the sinister name of > “Boundless Informant”: > “The National Security Agency has developed a powerful tool for recording and > analyzing where its intelligence comes from, raising questions about its > repeated assurances to Congress that it cannot keep track of all the > surveillance it performs on American communications.“TheGuardianhas acquired > top-secret documents about the NSA data-mining tool, called Boundless > Informant, that details and even maps by country the voluminous amount of > information it collects from computer and telephone networks.”Accompanying > theGuardianstory isa “heat” mapreprinted from the original documents showing > where the snoops are spying most intensely, with high rates of interception > in red and orange, and the rest in shades of green. America is colored > orange. “Boundless Informant” has the ability to determine how many > communications have been intercepted in a given country, what sort of > communications they are, and other details. In a snapshot of what our spooks > scooped up in March, 2013, we see Iran came in first, unsurprisingly, with > more than 14 billion reports, with Pakistan and Jordan following close > behind. Egypt and India also figure prominently. Israel looks bright red to > me. The map affixes a number to the orange-colored United States: > 2,892,343,346 – presumably the number of “reports” coming into the Panopticon > for that month. > Combined with themassive phone call databasebeing compiled – which can track > your location as well as your calls – this triad of Orwellian devices > constitutes a modern day Panopticon, one that defines us all as inmates in > some vast penal institution. Which pretty much sums up the status of the > individual in the year 2013, and, indeed, in the entire post-9/11 era. We are > living in the era of theSurveillance State, in which the “enemy” is not just > some nameless, faceless terrorist but, potentially, anyone and everyone. > In the midst of these shocking revelations, their author has bravely come > forward: he is 29-year-oldEdward Snowden, a former employee of the Booz-Allen > defense contractor who worked for the NSA and has now apparently fled to Hong > Kong. Inan interviewwith theGuardian,Snowden states his motives forthrightly: > “The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost > everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications > are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your emails > or your wife’s phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your > emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards.“I don’t want to live in a > society that does these sort of things … I do not want to live in a world > where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing > to support or live under.”This is what is going to save our republic, in the > end: the existence of people like Edward Snowden, who, I’m not surprised to > learn,contributed $250to Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign. The whole > tenor of his remarks to theGuardianbespeaks an explicitly libertarian > critique of the “authoritarian mindset” – as he puts it – of the government > spies who are tracking our every move.This video interviewwith Snowden, > conducted by Glenn Greenwald, literally brought tears to my eyes: one could > not possibly hope for a clearer, more eloquent indictment of the emerging > American police state than Snowden’s withering analysis of what he calls “the > architecture of oppression.” Here is someone who gave up a comfortable life > in Hawaii as a highly-paid government contractor and now risks jail – “I do > not expect to see home again” – and eternal exile. Why did he do it? To give > the American people the information they need to decide whether they want to > live in a society where government spying on citizens is ubiquitous. His > greatest fear? It’s not imprisonment, but the fear that his act will change > nothing. > It’s up to us to make sure his heroic act is not in vain. He appears to be a > confirmed libertarian, and an informed and articulate one at that. > Libertarians are in the vanguard of this fight, and have been from the > beginning: it’s no accident that Sen. Rand Paul is introducing legislation > –the Fourth Amendment Restoration Act– to shut down the Panopticon now. Thank > the gods for the Glenn Greenwalds, theDaniel Ellsbergs, and the rest of the > honest liberals who defend the long and distinguished civil libertarian > tradition on the left – they are our invaluable allies > Snowden is bound to be pilloried as a “traitor” bythe neocons, theLindsey > GrahamsandJohn McCains, and their newfound best friends in the Obama > administration: the latter will doubtless pursue Snowden just like they > pursuedBradley Manningand are still pursuingJulian Assange. And I can’t wait > to hear from theObama culton all this. Snowden is already being attacked by > the Usual Suspects for his choice of sanctuaries, and he answers the question > of why Hong Kong:“I think it is really tragic that an American has to move to > a place that has a reputation for less freedom. Still, Hong Kong has a > reputation for freedom in spite of the People’s Republic of China. It has a > strong tradition of free speech.”Stronger, apparently, than our own – and > that may indeed turn out to be true, at least in this particular case. Aside > from thebitter ironyof having to flee toRed Chinain order to escape the > enemies of freedom – Itold youwe’re living inBizarro World– this is actually > quite asmart move, because it’s an open question as to whether the Chinese > government will hand him over to the Americans. If they do, they will surely > take their time about it. Hong Kong has autonomy in its internal affairs, > while defense and foreign policy are Beijing’s domain. The relatively liberal > politics of Hong Kong make a quick handover unlikely – and, as far as Beijing > is concerned, especially unlikely in the wake of a Sino-American summit at > which President Obama wentout of his wayto complain about alleged Chinese > hacking of US computer systems. In response to that charge, Snowden had this > to say:“We hack everyone everywhere. We like to make a distinction between us > and the others. But we are in almost every country in the world. We are not > at war with these countries.”While some Chinese officials would no doubt like > to be able to hand Snowden over to the Americans, the political dynamics of > such a move are highly problematic. They don’t want to be seen as caving in > to American pressure: theultra-nationalistChinese public has enough gripes > about official corruption and growingeconomic inequalityfor the Politburo to > throw this into the boiling pot. The leadership transition is still shaky, > and the new leader, Xi Jinping, is going to be sorely tested as this becomes > a major diplomatic bone of contention between Beijing and Washington. > The impact of these stunning revelations is bound to reverberate throughout > the world, with international as well as domestic political implications we > have only just begun to contemplate, but one aspect of all this I find > especially interesting, and that is how it is changing the ideological > atmosphere in this country. The change was neatly summed up ina tweet by one > Zaid Jilani, who I believe is a former blogger for one of the liberal think > tanks: > “Don’t care what party you vote for, if you’re tea party or#OWS, the only > political labels right now are authoritarian or not-authoritarian.”Certain > events define the battle lines and show us just where everyone stands, and > the Snowden-Greenwald revelations are just such an occasion. Where you come > out on this issue defines who and what you are: the “liberal” > punditsdefendingthis administration’s multi-pronged assaulted on civil > liberties will go down in infamy as the Benedict Arnolds of the American > left. In such times, when the stakes are this high, and the future of the > republic is at issue, character determines who will stand up and who will bow > their heads to the powerful. What is striking, to me, is the atmosphere of > fear that this administration has managed to instill in potential > whistleblowers: in his Sunday morninginterviewwith George Stephanopoulos, > Greenwald was asked if the FBI has paid him a visit “yet”: Glenn’s answer was > classic. He said that if and when the FBI comes calling he’ll tell them, > “There’s this thing called the Constitution, the First Amendment of which” > guarantees his ability to report what the government is doing in the dark. He > made it clear he isn’t intimidated, and when Stephanopoulos asked if we can > be expecting more revelations, Glenn said, “You can.” > For the first time in many years, there is a massive fightback against the > continuous assault on the Constitution and the rule of law we’ve been > experiencing since September 11, 2001. God help us if we > lose.http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2013/06/09/edward-snowden-american-hero/ -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
