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A Hopeful Edward Snowden Says "The Balance Of Power Is Beginning To Shift"
It has been two years ago since Edward Snowden released to the world a trove of proof that the NSA, the US' top spy organization, had been focused as much on spying on its own people as on threats from abroad, in the process crushing countless constitutional civil and personal liberties. For his whistleblowing efforts, he was forced into self-appointed exile in Russia to avoid a lengthy prison sentence in the US.
Which is ironic, because on June 2, with the passage of the "Freedom Act" (which actually is an acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ending Eavesdropping, Dragnet-collection and Online Monitoring Act), the NSA's recording of US electronic communications officially ended, in effect validating Snowden's efforts at halting the US conversion into a totalitarian police state.
In reality NSA surveillance did not really end: bulk collection of Americans' metadata is still allowed by phone companies, which is then accessible by the NSA. According to skeptics this makes intrusion into US private lives even more deliberate as private corporations are not subject to FOIA requests or government intervention: in effect Obama has washed his hands of all supervision over data collection even as the NSA still has full access to everything it could ever ask for (it is unclear why the massive NSA spy facility in Bluffdale, Utah will continue existing if the NSA is no longer allowed to intercept and record data).
Still, for Snowden this was a minor, yet massive at the same time, victory. This is what he said in an op-ed in the aftermath of the passage of the Freedom Act:
Privately, there were moments when I worried that we might have put our privileged lives at risk for nothing — that the public would react with indifference, or practiced cynicism, to the revelations.
Never have I been so grateful to have been so wrong.
Two years on, the difference is profound. In a single month, the N.S.A.’s invasive call-tracking program was declared unlawful by the courts and disowned by Congress. After a White House-appointed oversight board investigation found that this program had not stopped a single terrorist attack, even the president who once defended its propriety and criticized its disclosure has now ordered it terminated.
This is the power of an informed public.
Or, perhaps far worse, this is the power of the government to obfuscate, and to pretend it is reforming when in reality it is hunkering down even further.
The answer remains to be seen, but for now Snowden is granted a moment of optimism. His op-ed ends:
At the turning of the millennium, few imagined that citizens of developed democracies would soon be required to defend the concept of an open society against their own leaders.
Yet the balance of power is beginning to shift. We are witnessing the emergence of a post-terror generation, one that rejects a worldview defined by a singular tragedy. For the first time since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, we see the outline of a politics that turns away from reaction and fear in favor of resilience and reason. With each court victory, with every change in the law, we demonstrate facts are more convincing than fear. As a society, we rediscover that the value of a right is not in what it hides, but in what it protects.
Of course, his view that the "balance of power" has shifted will be validated when he returns on US soil and is not promptly handcuffed and whisked off to prison where he spend the next 20 years of his life. Sadly for him, and the post-terror generation, the balance has more more shifting to do, before there are real, tangible changes.
Below is his full NYT Oped:
The World Says No to Surveillance
Two years ago today, three journalists and I worked nervously in a Hong Kong hotel room, waiting to see how the world would react to the revelation that the National Security Agency had been making records of nearly every phone call in the United States. In the days that followed, those journalists and others published documents revealing that democratic governments had been monitoring the private activities of ordinary citizens who had done nothing wrong.
Within days, the United States government responded by bringing charges against me under World War I-era espionage laws. The journalists were advised by lawyers that they risked arrest or subpoena if they returned to the United States. Politicians raced to condemn our efforts as un-American, even treasonous.
Privately, there were moments when I worried that we might have put our privileged lives at risk for nothing — that the public would react with indifference, or practiced cynicism, to the revelations.
Never have I been so grateful to have been so wrong.
Two years on, the difference is profound. In a single month, the N.S.A.’s invasive call-tracking program was declared unlawful by the courts and disowned by Congress. After a White House-appointed oversight board investigation found that this program had not stopped a single terrorist attack, even the president who once defended its propriety and criticized its disclosure has now ordered it terminated.
This is the power of an informed public.
Ending the mass surveillance of private phone calls under the Patriot Act is a historic victory for the rights of every citizen, but it is only the latest product of a change in global awareness. Since 2013, institutions across Europe have ruled similar laws and operations illegal and imposed new restrictions on future activities. The United Nations declared mass surveillance an unambiguous violation of human rights. In Latin America, the efforts of citizens in Brazil led to the Marco Civil, an Internet Bill of Rights. Recognizing the critical role of informed citizens in correcting the excesses of government, the Council of Europe called for new laws to protect whistle-blowers.
Beyond the frontiers of law, progress has come even more quickly. Technologists have worked tirelessly to re-engineer the security of the devices that surround us, along with the language of the Internet itself. Secret flaws in critical infrastructure that had been exploited by governments to facilitate mass surveillance have been detected and corrected. Basic technical safeguards such as encryption — once considered esoteric and unnecessary — are now enabled by default in the products of pioneering companies like Apple, ensuring that even if your phone is stolen, your private life remains private. Such structural technological changes can ensure access to basic privacies beyond borders, insulating ordinary citizens from the arbitrary passage of anti-privacy laws, such as those now descending upon Russia.
Though we have come a long way, the right to privacy — the foundation of the freedoms enshrined in the United States Bill of Rights — remains under threat. Some of the world’s most popular online services have been enlisted as partners in the N.S.A.’s mass surveillance programs, and technology companies are being pressured by governments around the world to work against their customers rather than for them. Billions of cellphone location records are still being intercepted without regard for the guilt or innocence of those affected. We have learned that our government intentionally weakens the fundamental security of the Internet with “back doors” that transform private lives into open books. Metadata revealing the personal associations and interests of ordinary Internet users is still being intercepted and monitored on a scale unprecedented in history: As you read this online, the United States government makes a note.
Spymasters in Australia, Canada and France have exploited recent tragedies to seek intrusive new powers despite evidence such programs would not have prevented attacks. Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain recently mused, “Do we want to allow a means of communication between people which we cannot read?” He soon found his answer, proclaiming that “for too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: As long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone.”
At the turning of the millennium, few imagined that citizens of developed democracies would soon be required to defend the concept of an open society against their own leaders.
Yet the balance of power is beginning to shift. We are witnessing the emergence of a post-terror generation, one that rejects a worldview defined by a singular tragedy. For the first time since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, we see the outline of a politics that turns away from reaction and fear in favor of resilience and reason. With each court victory, with every change in the law, we demonstrate facts are more convincing than fear. As a society, we rediscover that the value of a right is not in what it hides, but in what it protects.
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Whatever changes that were made to the Patriot Act are the result of a rising concern of the American people. And the continuous identification of our enemy and his tactics as you have done throughout your posts, smacker, are the pebbles thrown against the wall that will graduate into the avalanche that will bring it down.
And, IMO, Snowden has thrown a boulder.
No they are simply yanking our chain. Lets see the list of people that they have screwed over. How they screwed them over. Most importantly why they screwed them over.
Its like knowing your wife cheated on you but not knowing it was with the entier football team after every game.
Names? Just pull a page from any American telephone book and you'll find the names of the victims. Let me be the first to list an agency that has made victims of these people: AIPAC.
Manny Friedmann gives the evidence within his article Jews DO control the media that appeared in The Times of Israel:
“We have, for example, AIPAC, which was essentially constructed just to drive agenda in Washington DC. And it succeeds admirably. And we brag about it. Again, it’s just what we do. …
“Let’s be honest with ourselves, here, fellow Jews. We do control the media. We’ve got so many dudes up in the executive offices in all the big movie production companies it’s almost obscene. Just about every movie or TV show, whether it be ‘Tropic Thunder’ or ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm,’ is rife with actors, directors, and writers who are Jewish. Did you know that all eight major film studios are run by Jews?
“But that’s not all. We also control the ads that go on those TV shows.
“And let’s not forget AIPAC, every anti-Semite’s favorite punching bag. We’re talking an organization that’s practically the equivalent of the Elders of Zion. I’ll never forget when I was involved in Israeli advocacy in college and being at one of the many AIPAC conventions. A man literally stood in front of us and told us that their whole goal was to only work with top-50 school graduate students because they would eventually be the people making changes in the government. Here I am, an idealistic little kid that goes to a bottom 50 school (ASU) who wants to do some grassroots advocacy, and these guys are literally talking about infiltrating the government. Intense. …
“The time has come, though. We no longer have to change our names. We no longer have to blend in like chameleons. We own a whole freaking country.
“Instead, we can be proud of who we are, and simultaneously aware of our huge responsibility — and opportunity.” --- Manny Friedmann (2012)
Bull there are many people that they never messed with. Like Mr Corzine or the tan man. Lois Learner is a fine example. So no its not everybody that get messed with.
Genralizations dont cut it. I dont buy the evil jew line either. Now if you say Jewish leadership? Thats another story. That is no different than blaming me for the actions of another. A distiction must be made between the actions of a government and the honest people that live under its boot.
I want to know if Snowden got any docs on 9/11 and if he touts the gov narrative on that. Is he for real or a psy op?
I found Snowden's editorial a little on the vague side at times, and able to be construed in many different ways, some of them not very complimentary to democratic freedom. Now we have a "Freedom Act" to compliment a partially renovated "Patriot Act" to continue the spying on ordinary Americans like this is some sort of improvement to the police state agenda? But then I have always thought that there is more to the Snowden saga than meets the eye as he is tied in via mainstream Greenwald to NSA friendly EBAY and Paypal owner Pierre Omidyar. Yes the Omidyar who along with buddy George Sorros like to dabble in regime change, Nazi juntas and NGOs aimed at destabilizing China and Russia. "Lucy someones not tellin the truth and got some splainin to do"....
John Young of Cryptome posted the grand total of all documents released by Snowden
http://cryptome.org/2013/11/snowden-tally.htm
Please consider something like the following as an addition to your email signature. Doing so may serve as a helpful reminder to someone about to write or say something that they may regret:
WARNING: You are participating in electronic communication at your own risk. The National Security Agency in collaboration with other government agencies and private enterprises are recording, analyzing and storing your communications. Constitutionally aware patriots who regret assisting in the creation and operation of these data collection programs have raised their voices to warn that this information is used by various government agencies to achieve political objectives. In addition, information retained from your digital communications may be provided to foreign governments and/or private companies without your knowledge by various federal agencies. The result may be termination of employment, coercion, indefinite detention or execution.
Edward Snowden released to the world a trove of proof that the NSA, the US' top spy organization, had been focused as much on spying on its own people as on threats from abroad,
And for that, her deserves a medal! I am sick of fake patriots who support the government police state. There is nothing American or partiotic about the Washington, Zionist, Banker police state. If you are one of those who hates Snowden, and who believes our government should be a police state in order to keep us patriotic by force. You are fucking idiot. Yet, a majority of media brainwashed CNN viewers, and Hillary Cliton supporters believe the NSA is our frined, spying on us all ro keep us safe. Republican too, you fuckers are just as bad.
I wish I had written that, Jack, because that's what I intended to say.
Are you impling I am a supporter of a police state? I say once a spook always a spook. For now Im gonna stick with its all lies including Ed. Trust noone not even me.
Just a few weeks ago I was a batshit crazy tinfoiler stomping 9/11 trolls bigtime. People sure do like to label folks.
surely you jest?
btw, WTF ever happen to the rest of the documents you lifted? thought so.
the tide is turning in favor of the NSA and the corporatized spy state.
snowden is either living with his head up his ass to scared to come back to the u.s. to face the music waiting for a pardon from a rand paul presidency
or he is controlled opposition CIA agent waiting as a limited hang out to help mollify the american public into a permanent spy state.
if you think the 'american freedom act' or whatever other bullshit was passed this week actually MADE THINGS BETTER you are an idiot.
the laws that are passed can only make things worse.
there needs to be a moratorium on legislation when congress and senate are being spied upon by the very executives they are attempting to regulate.
any legislative activity is akin to treason by being complicit in the rigging of the fascistic spy machine.
any legislator worth their salt would stop voting and vote NO CONFIDENCE ON EVERYTHING.
A lot of the comments above discussed the issues regarding whether or not Snowden might be some kind of "controlled opposition." I agree that is quite relevant to considering whether or not the "balance of power may be shifting."
However, the underlying the notion of "controlled opposition" is some presumption that there are basic differences between groups of people. I do not agree with that. There are no fundamental dichotomies between different groups of people. The established systems are ALL based on the principles and methods of organized crime, while any opposition AT ALL also operates inside of those systems. All human beings act as entropic pumps of energy flows. The differences are ONLY those regarding the rates and styles of the ways that energy is transformed, which nevertheless ALL result in overall increasing entropy.
One of the basic problems with regarding different groups of human beings through false fundamental dichotomies is that exaggerates their differences. Furthermore, such an approach tends to become deliberately mistaken regarding what everyone is doing. I have always tended to presume that Snowden was a naive idealist, rather than some sinister disinformation agent. However, in my view, such naive idealism is "controlled opposition" too.
"The absolute best controlled opposition is
one that doesn't know they are controlled."
-- Cognitive Dissonance
In my view, the established systems and their controlled opposition necessarily blend into each other. Furthermore, there is nobody who is able to stop acting as entropic pumps of energy flows, which means that EVERYONE LIVES THROUGH ORGANIZED LIES OPERATING ROBBERIES. There is nothing but the dynamic equilibria between different systems of organized lies operating robberies. All of the political labels based upon positing false fundamental dichotomies between people were originally the biggest bullies' bullshit, while their controlled opposition operates within that same bullshit frame of reference. However, the more radical truths are that human beings and civilizations NECESSARILY operate according to the principles and methods of organized crime, because those are essentially the ways that entropic pumps of energy flows operate.
Here is a link to a typical little video regarding how orthodox "science" is overflowing with false fundamental dichotomies, whose presumptions always get everything backwards:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOCaacO8wus
What Is Life? Is Death Real?The entire language based upon DUALITIES, that almost everyone takes for granted, is profoundly misleading. Rather we should start using UNITARY MECHANISMS, because it is all the same energy flowing through different forms, which therefore share that in common, and which manifest essential characteristics due being general energy systems. Paradoxically, the language of DUALITIES is taken way too much for granted, to the degree that it has inverted the meaning of the concept of entropy, so that inverted meaning would continue to be consistent with the biggest bullies' bullshit world view, in which there are false fundamental dichotomies between different groups of people.
Those DUALITIES cascade fractally throughout everything else regarding how people perceive the world in ways which are backwards and absurd, but which nevertheless are almost totally taken for granted, due to the degree to which civilization is controlled by backing up lies with violence, in ways whereby those who were the best at enforcing those frauds were the most wealthy and powerful people within those social systems.
Snowden's last paragraph is full of problematic assertions:
In my view, the balance of power is shifting NOT because of anything outside of the established systems, but rather due to the contradictions inherent in the nature of those systems themselves, which are ALL based on being able to back up lies with violence, which ALL suffer from the problem that being able to enforce frauds never stops those frauds from still being false. Therefore, the established systems are manifesting their paradoxical final failures from too much success. What made them strong is also their weakness that undermines them, so that their own madness becomes self-destructive. Nobody outside of those systems is doing anything significant compared to those systems own self-destruction. It is only AFTER those systems own mad self-destruction becomes significant that any opposition could take advantage of that occurring.
My view of the events on 9/11/2001 is that there is no doubt that those were an inside job, false flag attack, which were very probably done by "Zionists" to blame on "Muslims," in order to start more genocidal wars, and prepare to impose martial law, to maintain the systems of debt slavery, backed by wars based on deceits, that have been growing at an exponential rate for several Centuries. My view is that 9/11 was spectacularly successful in accomplishing its real goals, by those who really made that happen, and then maintained by official story regarding what had happened. However, that short-term "success" then drives the longer term failures, due to the inherent contradictions which arise from being able to control civilization by backing up deceits with destruction, becoming vicious spirals that spin out of control.
The "balance of power is beginning to shift" due to the ways that the established systems are spinning out of control, due to their paradoxical final failures from too much success, driving them to become psychotic, runaway criminal insanities. However, there is NO genuine opposition to that which is not merely more organized crime, which may only be relatively different in the degree to which it is not as criminally insane, because it is relatively not as psychotic, due to having not yet based its social success upon being able to enforce frauds, too much, for too long.
Personally, I would expect that the established systems are going to try to supersede their spectacularly symbolic mass murders committed on 9/11 with more events in the future that will be far worse. However, that will then only actually accelerate the rate at which the established systems are driven through their own madness to become even more self-destructive, as those established systems even more lose control over the civilization that they used to be able to control by being able to back up lies with violence, due to the contradictions inherent in that getting bigger and BIGGER.
The War on Terror was deliberately designed to be a self-fulfilling prophesy, that would make its lies become true, due to the consequences of enforcing those frauds. However, no matter to what degree that is socially successful in each short-term increment, in the longer term, enforcing frauds never stops those frauds from being false, and therefore, the more successfully that frauds are enforced, the more that those are driven to become vicious spirals of feedback, and the more that becomes psychotic, criminal insanities, in the longer term. Hence, the established systems destroy themselves, as the consequences which are inherent to having originally been socially successful through being able to back up lies with violence.
HOWEVER, the deeper points are that there is no "opposition" that can possibly be anything else than some alternative system of lies backed by violence. Meanwhile, Snowden continues to appear to me as being someone who deeply believes in impossible ideals, which are not remotely close to being realistic. Hence, the INHERENT CONTRADICTIONS in his view that: "we see the outline of a politics that turns away from reaction and fear in favor of resilience and reason."
The GREAT PARADOX regarding all human politics is that there must necessarily be some death control systems, which are central to everything else, because everyone necessarily lives as entropic pumps of energy flows, and that is ALL THE SAME ENERGY. Furthermore, to compound that, the biggest bullies' bullshit world view has been built into the structure of the dominant natural languages, and philosophy of science, which people use to think with and communicate through. Therefore, the biggest bullies' bullshit world view promoted false fundamental dichotomies, and their controlled opposition has stayed within that frame of reference. However, there is NO other kind of "opposition" which is not similarly controlled by them necessarily also being entropic pumps of energy flows, which match the principles and methods of organized crime. The upshot of that becomes that any politics based on "resilience and reason" would have to apply that to the ways that the death control systems were conducted.
The GREAT PARADOXES are that there ARE established death control systems, which developed to be based upon the maximum possible deceits (with 9/11 being the most spectacular symbol of that, so far), while any genuine alternatives must necessarily be alternative death control systems. The established systems were certainly based upon "reaction and fear!" However, it is merely more impossible ideals, that are sure to continue to backfire badly in the real world, to promote politics that is based upon ""resilience and reason" which somehow does NOT operate some kind of death control systems.
There is no "right" without a remedy. There is no "freedom" without a force. The only things which actually exist are the dynamic equilibria between different systems of organized lies operating robberies, because EVERYONE OPERATES AS ENTROPIC PUMPS OF ENERGY FLOWS, ALL OF WHICH ARE TRANSFORMING THE SAME ENERGY. The crucial issues are the degree to which most people continue to presume upon the DUALITIES of false fundamental dichotomies, and the related impossible ideals. The biggest forms of organized crime are governments, which are controlled by the best organized gangs of criminals, and those organizations are the biggest and best organized terrorists. Those social facts were spectacularly symbolized by 9/11 being an inside job, false flag attack, whose degree of initial social success has driven its own psychotic criminal insanities towards spinning out of control of those who originally did that, and indeed, out of control of everyone!
There never is any more "control" than that which is achieved through the dynamic equilibria between different systems of organized lies operating robberies. To the degree that any groups promote the impossible ideals that is not the case, then they actually make the real situation become more unbalanced, not less ... Meanwhile, the history of Neolithic Civilizations has been basically the exponential growth of social pyramid systems based on being able to back up lies with violence, becoming more sophisticated systems of legalized lies, backed by legalized violence, all of which was on a tragic trajectory driving itself towards psychotic criminal insanities. That has manifested as the ways that the War on Terror was started by a false flag attack, whose initial spectacular success inevitably becomes madly self-destructive, and will only become even more so whenever the next, probably way worse, likely false flag terrorist attacks occur.
Overall, I agree with many of those who have previously posted comments about that Snowden appears to be some degree of "controlled opposition." However, in my view there is nobody who is not some degree of "controlled opposition," and they must necessarily be, since there is nobody who is not actually living as an entropic pump of energy flows. Furthermore, almost everyone continues to take for granted the ways in which they think about everything in ways which are basically backwards and absurd, because they think by using the dominant natural languages, and think by presuming that the dominant philosophy of science is valid. However, actually, the meaning of entropy was INVERTED during the development of the history of the philosophy of science, in order that meaning would remain consistent with the biggest bullies' bullshit world views which deliberately INVERT THE MEANING OF EVERYTHING, by promoting the DUALITIES of false fundamental dichotomies, and the related impossible ideals.
I believe that is the frame of reference that Snowden was operating out of, i.e., that of a naive idealist. A creative synthesis of post-modernizing science with ancient mysticism could put that overall political problem into proper perspective. However, almost nobody does that, due to the degree that the world is dominated by the biggest bullies' bullshit world views, so that most of the controlled opposition to the established organized crime gangs ALSO promote the same basic false fundamental dichotomies. That is admired by a wide range of other similar people, who continue to promote the perspectives of the controlled opposition groups, whose impossible ideals actually cause the opposite to happen in the real world.
The vast majority are "controlled opposition."
"The absolute best controlled opposition is
one that doesn't know they are controlled."
Not to diminish the significance of meta data collecting etc. but tell me why I should follow that carrot and ignore the fact that NSA and other agencies have huge server farms all over the world that collect ALL electronic communications? In the documentary with/about Snowden, as they are interviewing him he mentions one time only that they are collecting all electronic communications. Of course they cannot look at all of it now but they are busy little beavers testing algorithms etc. for future use. Eventually the most likely scenario will be A.I. watching/predicting/controlling us. Of course.
But this tide turning non-sense is troubling. It's not turning in the favor of humanity. In no real way do I believe for one second that humans will give up a god like power to know all. What is worse, the threat of annihilation from nukes or the threat of being in a very dark distopic never ending nightmare where even your thoughts are not private. I don't like being so pessimistic but I only see one way of turning it off and that's a giant coronal mass ejection frying all electronics on earth. Unfortunately that scenario doesn't bode well for humanity either.
God moves in mysterious ways.
sorry to burst your articulate, effluent bubble Little Eddie...
but it still kinda looks like Same Shit Different Day to me.
no offense.
I think Snowden has never implied that he worships the east more than the west. He has just has stated the facts as he sees them. Truth has it no western government had the balls to support this guy or give him some protection.
Why in the hell would anyone not support this guy when all he is doing is informing the illiterate that you are being messed with big time by big government and you are being monitored daily for no reason at all.
CHRIST, WHAT MORE IS IT THAT YOU NEED TO HELP WAKE UP YOUR FUZZY MINDS FROM THE DEEP SLEEP MOST OF THIS WORLD IS PRESENTLY IN.
Prime Minister Cameron thinks you shouldn't be able to have a conversation on the telephone that the government is unable to read. Wake up England.
The United States renames their spying act as the "FREEDOM ACT" and believe it or not there are people that like that name and feel better with renaming it the freedom act. These are morons so refuse to join them.
Wake up everyone because once the Trans Pacific trade act is signed sealed and delivered and the spy acts are in place you'll be under the thumb of big business. They will then have total control of the masses.
Re Snowden:
No his mind is not for rent
To any god or government
Always hopeful, yet discontent
He knows changes aren't permanent
But change is...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auLBLk4ibAk#t=2m46s
Sorry, but the vast majority of "the public" don't give a damn. Furthermore, as the world economy collapses, they'll ignore their abuse and enslavement even more completely as they worry more about their collapsing standards of living.
FACT: Passing laws or failing to pass laws... makes ZERO DIFFERENCE. The predators-that-be now do whatever they wish, regardless of what fictional "laws" are passed. The actions of the NSA and others are absolute proof of this... and yet the endless weak-minded-fools that populate the planet actually imagine smearing ink on paper will somehow slow-down the predators.
PURE FANTASY.
Among the boomers I agree. The younger not so much. Missguided as they are they are pissed off at all of it. The boomers for the most part dont impress me much. Never have.
Its sad really because many of them will starve to death not long after the checks stop comming. So they are tied to this system. Sure they will talk and snivel but no they wont do jack.
Limited hangout or whatever he may or may not be there Snowden is in my opinion a true hero.
Imma actually vote this election for him for president