Difference between revisions of "Edward J. Snowden"

Latest revision as of 14:47, February 23, 2024

US Government document from 2010 part of the Snowden leaks and sharing agreements with the UK. The Five Eyes program of the English speaking world (United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) use social media for “propaganda,” “deception,” “mass messaging,” “pushing stories”, and "discrediting” the intelligence agencies' enemies with false information spread online.^[1]

Edward J. Snowden (born June 21, 1983) was an American IT specialist and a former employee of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton (a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA)). In June 2013 Snowden revealed the mass domestic surveillance program known as "PRISM". This is an internet snooping program run by the NSA after passage of the Patriot Act and Amendments. He explained to shocked Americans that the National Security Agency had in effect built a dossier on every man, woman and child in the United States of America, and probably beyond borders.

Surveillance capabilities

Snowden told an interviewer,

Training materials provided by Snowden for XKeyscore program detail how analysts can use it and other systems to mine enormous NSA databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search. The request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed. The program covers "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet", including the content of emails, websites visited and searches, as well as their metadata. Under US law, the NSA is required to obtain an individualized FISA warrant only if the target of their surveillance is a 'US person', though no such warrant is required for intercepting the communications of Americans with foreign targets. But XKeyscore provides the technological capability, if not the legal authority, to target even US persons for extensive electronic surveillance without a warrant provided that some identifying information, such as their email or IP address, is known.^[3]

Hong Kong Rally to Support Snowden, Garden Road, Central, Hong Kong, June 15, 2013.

Flight and exile

The revelations made Snowden the intelligence community nemesis.^[4]

After leaking the information in question, Snowden stayed in Hong Kong for a while; he then left China and went to Russia en route to seeking asylum in Ecuador. Snowden was apparently travelling on a passport that had been revoked.^[5] The Wikileaks organization has helped Snowden to stay ahead of Obama's grasp.^[6] The president of Ecuador Rafael Correa explained that Snowden cannot go to Ecuador.^[7] At one point, Obama had Evo Morales, the prime minister of Bolivia detained in an inept attempt to intercept Snowden. As of July 6, 2013, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had offered asylum to Snowden.^[8]

Snowden is a Libertarian^[9] and a Buddhist.^[10] Although he has claimed to have fought for freedom of speech, he nonetheless ignored that Ecuador was also practicing massive surveillance measures.^[11] He was alleged to be a Russian agent.^[12] Thereup on Russian government granted Snowden asylum for three years in Russia.^[13] In addition, the left wing professor and Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers on March 12, 2016, when tweeting his dining room altar of revolutionary heroes (many of which included the likes of Vladimir Lenin, Malcolm X, Karl Marx and Che Guevara), included a picture of Snowden that thanked him.^[14]

Political reaction

Activist in New York's Union Square, June 10, 2013.

John Boehner called Snowden a "traitor" who committed a "giant violation of the law" that put Americans at risk.^[15] Numerous other high-ranking officials have hawkishly demanded his extradition from the People's Republic of China. From China, however, reactions have been supportive, with calls by politicians, and various civil liberties organizations, to implore Beijing to block extradition attempts, on grounds of national security.

While many blasted Snowden, Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a member of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee and one of the chamber's most conservative members, said, "it's going to be an open question how this young man is judged." "If he goes to an independent third country like Iceland and if he refuses to talk to any sort of formal government about this, I think there's a chance that he'll be seen as an advocate of privacy." [2]

Personal views

Snowden is a video game player.^[16]

Snowden told the British left wing newspaper The Guardian:

• "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant."^[17]

The Washington Post quotes him as saying:

• "Allowing the U.S. government to intimidate its people with threats of retaliation for revealing wrongdoing is contrary to the public interest."^[18]

See also

• Bradley Manning
• Julian Assange

• Encryption: Cryptography-Cryptanalysis-Cryptology-Data encryption-Public-key encryption
• First Amendment
• Fourth Amendment
• Fifth Amendment
• Right to Privacy
• FISA abuse

References

External links

• Edward Snowden Is No Traitor