This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
The U.S. vs. Edward Snowden: Does the World Not Have the Courage or Decency to Protect Mr. Snowden?
For previous articles by the author go to: Gordon Gekko's Blog - http://www.gekkosblog.com
Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary — the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there's a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trimtab. It's a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trimtab. Society thinks it's going right by you, that it's left you altogether. But if you're doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go.
So I said, call me Trimtab.
--Richard Buckminster Fuller
Who is Edward Snowden?
Actions speak louder than words, and by his actions alone Edward Snowden has proved himself to be a real American Hero, a Patriot and somebody worthy of being called a Citizen of the World. The sheer amount of personal risk he took was by no means trivial, and the reason he took it for makes it even more significant. I know some people are doubting his credentials and motives now, but it only exemplifies how cynical and cruel we - our current so-called “civilization” - has become. I’ve read his posts on Arstechnica, and to me he just comes across a normal kid of our generation who’s sick and tired of the corrupt and decaying system – the only difference being that he had the courage to do something about it. Moreover, the fact that he’s being hounded by the western global leadership only further goes to prove that he’s done NOTHING wrong. He put his and his family’s life on the hook just so millions could benefit. He had the courage and conviction to stand up to the most powerful government and military force in the world on the grounds of principle alone. He EXACTLY represents what America was and is all about – an individual standing up against tyranny, an individual standing up for his beliefs - and he is doing EXACTLY what the Constitution of the United States demands of its Citizens. And instead of hailing him as a patriot for being a defender the Constitution, many in the public are calling him a traitor. Indeed:
Every nation gets the government it deserves.
--Joseph de Maistre
So far people of the United States have shown to be extremely deserving of their current government.
The morons and mafia agents in Congress (who, by the way, had special exemptions for themselves from NSA surveillance – the mind BOGGLES at the SHEER HYPOCRISY here) decrying Edward’s actions as treasonous are themselves guilty of treason. They have utterly and completely FAILED to uphold the Constitution of the United States. Read the following from the Declaration of Independence and tell me if we are in a different situation today or if Edward’s actions were not aligned with what the Constitution required of him (or all of us, for that matter):
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security
The oppressive regime of the current US Government - running an increasingly violent global empire whose sole aim is to exploit people for the personal benefit of the few - exactly fits the definition of the type of Government the founding fathers were trying to overthrow.
Ironically, the ONLY saving grace for the US in this whole fiasco is probably the fact that Edward Snowden is an American. If the founding fathers were alive today, no doubt it would pain them greatly to witness the transformation of the country they founded into all out tyrannical dictatorship. But seeing Americans like Ed Snowden exist, seeing the words they wrote hundreds of years ago continue to inspire and enlighten people in current generations , they would know they had done something right – that their efforts had not gone completely in vain. Edward, we salute you proudly brother, and wish that there are more like you in America and all other countries around the world who have the guts to stand up to increasingly fascist (but proclaiming themselves to be “democratic”) governments. Have no doubts, you have done the right thing, even though at great personal costs for which the people of this world shall forever be indebted. The world would be a much a better place if there were more like you. You are definitely a “Trimtab”.
The Rationale for Global Spying
The US government has provided as justification for its global spying operations the need to protect itself from “terrorists”. The fact of the matter is that if you do some digging, you’ll find that most of the so-called “terrorist organizations” in the world today were either created or supported militarily/financially at some point by the US government itself. Case in point is the current dictatorship in Egypt headed by an American puppet:
Saddam was a US Government puppet before he went rogue, the Taliban was also created by the CIA, among many others. Currently the US is busy arming terrorists in Syria. In fact, while it pretends to be running scared of “terrorists” all around the world – the US Government is itself the biggest terrorist on Earth. The people of Egypt have realized the truth, so must the rest of the world. The truth of the matter is that the people controlling the US government need these spying operations in order to have information on and thus control over the global slave population which are needed to run their empire.
A Corrupt and Bankrupt Global Bully
The US Government is a morally and financially bankrupt entity that in its megalomaniac delusion expects the world to “obey” it. It has the GALL to demand the very countries that it’s openly mocking and decrying to obey its demands. It is threatening them with “consequences”.
"We've got to start dealing with Vladimir Putin for what he is. [Putin is] an old KGB colonel apparatchik who disdains democracy [and] continues to stick his thumb in our eye."
"Mr. Snowden's claim that he is focused on supporting transparency, freedom of the press and protection of individual rights and democracy is belied by the protectors he has potentially chosen - China, Russia, Ecuador, as we've seen,"
"I wonder if Snowden chose Russia or China for assistance because they are such bastions of Internet freedom...[I] would be deeply troubled [if Russia and China knew of Snowden’s plans] and there would be, without any question, some effect and impact on the relationship and consequences.”
(All emphasis mine)
And instead of making use of the opportunity that destiny has provided them to call the US government on its bullshit and expose its hypocrisy; instead of using the opportunity to show some semblance of gratitude for Mr. Snowden’s efforts to reveal the US Government’s attacks on their sovereignty and do the right thing; instead of showing the world that US hegemony will not be tolerated and people who expose tyranny and risk their lives in service of humanity will be protected; instead of showing the people of this world that there are truly independent nations unwilling to accede to the demands of a dictatorial regime, none of the other countries has done anything. Ecuador and its president Rafael Correa seems to be a petty little man who’s in it only for the fame. He was happy so long as he was gaining all the popularity and sympathy from his nation and the world with the Assange case, seems suddenly to have become goody two-shoes obedient little boy of the master when Biden came with a beating stick and Assange’s role and media coverage in the case threatened to overshadow his:
“The moment that he arrives, if he arrives, the first thing is we'll ask the opinion of the United States, as we did in the Assange case with England," Correa said. "But the decision is ours to make.”
Bullshit. BULLSHIT.
But is this what we have come to? The world is relying on one small unpredictable nation to do the work that must be shouldered by all? Why doesn’t a single nation have the courage to stand up to the Imperial American Government? It can’t be military power, for it is unlikely the US is going to launch a military strike, especially against countries like China or Russia just to get Snowden back. What then, the United States won’t “buy” any more of your stuff with borrowed and/or freshly printed paper money? Great. Who the hell wants a deadbeat customer offering nothing in exchange but worthless paper money? The world must realize that the US Government is a paper tiger simply surviving on the basis of running a global financial scam. All its power is based on lies and deception which is EXACTLY why disclosures, such as by Snowden, threaten it to the degree they do and why the US Government is hell bent on prosecuting the leakers. The US government is a bankrupt entity pretending to be a superpower expecting the world to obey its dictats. It’s time the world showed the US a mirror and told the emperor he’s naked.
Feckless Countries and Politicians
Sadly, the countries which denigrate the US have themselves shown to be no better. They claim to be “independent” nations yet are afraid of offending the United States. None of them seem to be able to stand up for themselves or for the greater good. The feckless politicians ruling them are hiding behind “laws” and technicalities but who otherwise have no hesitation in looting the public treasury or starting wars or killing their own citizens when their personal agendas or profit motives are involved. Apparently Mr. Snowden cannot travel because his passport has been (unlawfully, mind you) revoked. So what? Are we supposed to believe it is so difficult to issue him one by one of the other nations? Let me tell you, if he were a spy for some nation or even a low level operative helping the banksters in one of their looting schemes, TEN passports would have been issued to him instantly. This only goes to show that most governments today, “democratic” or otherwise either belong to or are subservient to the same criminal mafia. They have demonstrated that they aren’t independent nations but mere colonies/puppet states of the US Empire. In fact, most of the political leadership of the world seems to be in cahoots with each other sharing the same bed. These so-called countries are mere prisons with their political “leaders” prison wardens appointed by and/or serving at the pleasure of the US government. They are happy to exploit their prison populations for personal enrichment but with the permission of and in collaboration with the US and the cartel controlling it. This is the only explanation for the deafening global silence and inaction in the Snowden case.
Mr. Snowden’s Shameful Treatment
Letting Mr. Snowden loiter indefinitely in a transit area, is this how the world, especially Russia, want to be seen and recorded by history as having treated those have made the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good? Whatever treatment the US government has in store for Mr. Snowden, he is already being punished by being forced to sit inside an airport terminal in God knows what conditions. Is this how the world intends to thank Mr. Snowden for his services? To the leaders of Russia and China: It’s not some spy we are dealing with here – here is a person who has taken a stand to protect the greater good – and unless, like Europe, you were a subscriber of the NSA “data sharing plan” – exposed massive US spying on your government and citizens. Instead of celebrating and taking the opportunity to reveal the hypocrite bully that is the US Government, you are debating and hiding behind technicalities? It’s your chance. If you fail now, you lose your face in the world and your standing to criticize the US on ANY issue EVER. Moreover, it gives us reason to believe YOU WERE IN ON IT.
The world needs to come together if this banking cartel’s US Government’s tyranny has to end. If the rest of the world can’t protect somebody like Snowden then they have no right to complain against whatever atrocities the US Government commits. They have NO right to complain against NSA surveillance.
Today I am – as we all must be - ashamed to be a part of this world, this race and the current feckless iteration of the human civilization. We have shown ourselves not worthy of the courage and sacrifices of people like Mr. Snowden. The way Mr. Snowden is being treated, it almost seems better not to do anything and leave this world to the fate it deserves. If there is not even one person or one country able to stand up to this tyranny, we are all doomed to exploitation and extinction and rightly so. If we don’t do something NOW, then the day is not far when there will be a Nazi concentration camp in each and every country on earth. No more Snowden’s will sacrifice themselves for us.
A Warning to Global Politicians
Let’s be very careful about who we call "traitor". Edward Snowden is one of us. Bradley Manning is one of us. They are young, technically minded people from the generation that Barack Obama betrayed. They are the generation that grew up on the internet, and were shaped by it. The US government is always going to need intelligence analysts and systems administrators, and they are going to have to hire them from this generation and the ones that follow it. One day, their generation will run the NSA, the CIA and the FBI. This isn’t a phenomenon that is going away. This is inevitable.
And by trying to crush these young whistleblowers with espionage charges, the US government is taking on a generation, and that is a battle it is going to lose.
(All emphasis mine)
Rest assured, people around the world are watching the Snowden case VERY carefully. The means adopted were peaceful and motives genuine. If they determine that the world politicians will not support honest conscientious people and their actions; if it comes to light that the world governments were pretending to be surprised while being neck deep with the NSA and US government in this quagmire, no one else will offer themselves at the altar – not so easily. If the US Empire and its minions think they can control the population by gathering information and spying on them, they are sadly mistaken. Truth is like a virus without symptoms and no cure – you will never know who has been infected and they WILL destroy your empire from the inside much like a termite slowly destroys grand structures. Snowden and Assange have only fired the first warning shots. The war has not even started yet.
The slaves – once aware – will conclude that the current global leadership must be dealt away with and their regimes will be overthrown and new governance installed. The clock is ticking on the current world order of FAKE puppet fascist “democracies”.
In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.
(All emphasis mine)
Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.
»
- advertisements -
Well done, Gordon Gekko. This one is worth a couple of read-throughs.
"Moreover, the fact that he’s being hounded by the western global leadership only further goes to prove that he’s done NOTHING wrong."
Right on. The wrongdoers nowadays get promoted, elected, bailed out, and let off every hook.
By the way, thanks for the Bucky Fuller quote about the trimtab. (I always thought a trimtab was a diet pill.)
Great article on the same day that the Egyptian people came together to overthrow a despot. Regardless of which side you come down on - and I certainly don't condone military coups - at least it can be said that 20 million people were on the streets demanding change. I doubt that Americans have the cojones to do that because they are too busy keeping up with the Kardashian's and tuning into one of five hundred channels of high definition television. Given the recent revelations that have come out about the NSA spying on Americans coupled with other routine violations (TSA as an example) it's amazing that there aren't a million people marching on the District of Corruption with pitchforks and ropes. But the fact is that most of us have been inculcated by government schools to sit by passively while the temperature in the pot is turned up incrementally until we find ourselves parboiled.
Trimtab is a wonderful analogy but not for the ship of state, as the hubris of those who captain it has put it on a collision course with an iceberg of their own making. Thus, down it will go, the only question being how many passengers will go down with it. Since most of them either refuse to believe that the iceberg exists or are too far belowdecks to know what's going on, their odds of survival are essentially nil. And as the ship only has lifeboats for those who captain it, best you build your own as fast as you can:
http://readynutrition.com/resources/52-weeks-to-preparedness-an-introduc...
As for Edward Snowden, he has surely sailed into history, my fervent hope being that he finds safe harbor somewhere soon.
to : GG & DBK
re: trimtabs & stateships
always good to remember this classic Bucky quote:
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
and this one for a monarch on top:
“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly."
tip
Two great quotes there, tip e., as each speaks to the fact that the state, by its very nature, can only be reformed by being replaced, the tragedy being that the world is so steeped in statism that its permanence is presumed to be that of the sun. Not that alternatives to it wouldn't sprout here, there, and everywhere, were humanity allowed to plant the seeds. But it's not, this fact alone saying all that needs to be said about what statism is — force — meaning the initiated violence that is the very definition of aggression. For without said aggression — without the theft of taxation and the endless propaganda that it finances as a matter of course — the state could not perpetuate itself.
The day is coming, however, and faster that most anyone believes, when the forces that are empowering the individual as never before will overcome it. And they will do so by allowing individuals to go about their daily lives, quite unlike today, in anonymity where the state is concerned, seeing to their needs with money of their own making — http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Exposed-Complete-Tomorrows-ebook/product-r... — and thereby exchanging goods and services in complete buyer/seller privacy.
It's that or oblivion, as the state, being static (get it?) and therefore non-evolutionary, can only bring about our extinction.
Which is why its extinction is our only alternative as a species.
Given the current state of affairs, I agree with your assessment. The ship of state is going to - and perhaps needs to be - drowned. Its too far beyond fixing or turning anything at this point.
Well count the 100 million on welfare out
who are there by design, not chance.
To oppose the ruling elite is always to face risk, but America has tradition like Daniel Ellesberg to show bad dick-tator cannot influence media or people. But is America still same America!? Boris see different America that is to slander and blight any society member to destabilize boat. Boris is shocking of hear US is revoke passport first, convene grand jury and make official charge later!
Boris is learn of story of young German youth name is Helmet Hubener, who is can no longer as take Nazi Party line when German troop is die in Stalingrad and publish truth. Gestapo is promptly remove young man head from torso.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmuth_Hübener
Boris, who I am you understand?
You are friend?
Boris,
Anton Chekhov wrote extensively of Russian fatalism and his "In Exile" is a classic read. IMHO the US populace today has greatly exceeded the resignation and fatalistic attitude of Russia during Chekhov's era. The majority of the American people have acquiesced to a life of subservience and compliance.
It is truly a shame.
Americans are happy - defiantly, even ('murica, fuck yeah!...) - with their lives. Ignorance and delusion? - yes; resignation and fatalism? - not even close...
The good ship USS America 2013 is adrift on high seas, the captain an incompetent foolish lying boob holed up in his cabin, many in the crew seemingly lacking courage, and most sycophants. No talk of mutiny despite obvious danger.
Someone strong must emerge to lead. Talented, courageous, vigorous, clear-headed, concerned and willing.
But whom?
Analogous story -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_M%C3%A9duse_(1810)#Course_to_Senegal
On 2 July 1816 Méduse ran into increasingly shallow water, both Chaumareys and Richefort ignoring signs such as white breakers and mud in the water. Eventually, Lieutenant Maudet took it upon himself to start taking soundings off the bow, and, measuring only 18 fathoms, warned his captain. Realising the danger at last, Chaumareys ordered the ship brought up into the wind, but it was too late, ...
Resulting in -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JEAN_LOUIS_TH%C3%89ODORE_G%C3%89RICAU...
At least 147 people were set adrift on a hurriedly constructed raft; all but 15 died in the 13 days before their rescue, and those who survived endured starvation, dehydration and cannibalism.
Shoot first, ask questions later - old american tradition.
The answers, to said questions, are already obvious; and unfortunately, it will involve mucho grande shootings. This is what the powers-that-be fear the most. 100 well-placed bullets would put an end to all of this bullshit. Want to really make a difference at this point? Make "someone" your lifes' work. These fuckers need to know that they're being shadowed, and that Argentina or Switzerland will not provide safe haven from justice. WE ARE AT WAR. LAWS ARE FOR THE LOSERS AT THIS POINT. PICK YOUR WEAPONS, AND PICK THE PRICK YOU WISH TO POISON.
It used to be "remember the Alamo;" now it's "remember the Shawshank..."