That Snowden fellow

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

If you ask me he, he is guilty of espionage. i don't agree with a lot of what NSA is doing, but you don't just decide to start leaking very highly classified documents all over.

If he felt strongly enough about it being illegal he could have pursed other avenues. he has damaged our national security.. Would not surprise me if he went missing.

I also think news outlets that publish known classified info without a release should beheld accountable.

[Pooky 3,843]

If you ask me he, he is guilty of espionage. i don't agree with a lot of what NSA is doing, but you don't just decide to start leaking very highly classified documents all over.

If he felt strongly enough about it being illegal he could have pursed other avenues. he has damaged our national security.. Would not surprise me if he went missing.

I also think news outlets that publish known classified info without a release should beheld accountable.

What other avenues would you suggest?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Brooks hit the nail pretty much on the head.

Brooks: Snowden violated honor code DAVID BROOKS Updated 7:29 am, Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Edward Snowden appears to be the ultimate unmediated man. Though obviously terrifically bright, he could not successfully work his way through the institution of high school. Then he failed to navigate his way through community college.

According to The Washington Post, he has not been a regular presence around his mother's house for years. When a neighbor in Hawaii tried to introduce himself, Snowden cut him off and made it clear he wanted no neighborly relationships. He went to work for Booz Allen Hamilton and the CIA, but he has separated himself from them, too.

Though thoughtful, morally engaged and deeply committed to his beliefs, he appears to be a product of one of the more unfortunate trends of the age: the atomization of society, the loosening of social bonds, the apparently growing share of young men in their 20s who are living technological existences in the fuzzy land between their childhood institutions and adult family commitments.

This lens makes you more likely to share the distinct strands of libertarianism that are blossoming in this fragmenting age: the deep suspicion of authority, the strong belief that hierarchies and organizations are suspect, the fervent devotion to transparency, the assumption that individual preference should be supreme. You're more likely to donate to the Ron Paul for president campaign, as Snowden did.

It's logical, given this background and mindset, that Snowden would sacrifice his career to expose data mining procedures of the National Security Agency. Even if he has not been able to point to any specific abuses, he was bound to be horrified by the confidentiality endemic to military and intelligence activities. And, of course, he's right that the procedures he's unveiled could lend themselves to abuse in the future.

For society to function well, there have to be basic levels of trust and cooperation, a respect for institutions and deference to common procedures. By deciding to unilaterally leak secret NSA documents, Snowden has betrayed all of these things.

He betrayed honesty and integrity, the foundation of all cooperative activity. He made explicit and implicit oaths to respect the secrecy of the information with which he was entrusted. He betrayed his oaths.

He betrayed his friends. He betrayed his employers. Booz Allen and the CIA took a high-school dropout and offered him positions with lavish salaries. He is violating the honor codes of all those who enabled him to rise.

He betrayed the cause of open government. Every time there is a leak like this, the powers that be close the circle of trust a little tighter. They limit debate a little more.

He betrayed the privacy of us all. If federal security agencies can't do vast data sweeps, they will inevitably revert to the older, more intrusive eavesdropping methods.

He betrayed the Constitution. The founders did not create the United States so that some solitary 29-year-old could make unilateral decisions about what should be exposed.

Snowden faced a moral dilemma. On the one hand, he had information about a program he thought was truly menacing. On the other hand, he had made certain commitments as a public servant. Sometimes leakers have to leak.

The information they possess is so grave that it demands they violate their oaths.

But before they do, you hope they will interrogate themselves closely. Is the information so grave that it's worth betraying an oath and unilaterally exposing secrets that can never be reclassified.

Judging by his comments reported in the news media so far, Snowden was obsessed with the danger of data mining but oblivious to his betrayals and toward the damage he has done to social arrangements and the invisible bonds that hold them together.

[Darnell 8,479]

woo hoo ! Snowden is a victim of the softly spiraling (downward) moral decay !!!

who'da thunk it ?

---

In other news - he's released a bunch of stuff about what we've been doing to the Chinese, to the Chinese (or just to the world?)

so he's gonna have some big problems soonish.

[duraaraa 203]

I'm happy he leaked it, and think of him as a hero. If we're being spied on, we should know.

[TBoneTX 46,273]

I'm happy he leaked it, and think of him as a hero. If we're being spied on, we should know.

Si, man. Unfortunately, he's also certainly soon to be a dead man, sigh man.

[duraaraa 203]

Si, man. Unfortunately, he's also certainly soon to be a dead man, sigh man.

Probably.... it's just ridiculous.

We've been using terrorism as an excuse to create a police state, all the while saying that we won't give in to terrorism. The terrorists have won.

If it gets any worse, I guess there's always going back overseas.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

I'm happy he leaked it, and think of him as a hero. If we're being spied on, we should know.

So you're saying that you were confused about the passage of the Patriot Act in the first place? You thought that they were and always have been kidding about national security?

Amongst the 'we' are the 'they' and yes Virginia, 'they' do wish us harm.

[SMR 368]

Certain types of secrets should not be kept. Ethics, morality, honor, justice, and law all dictate that if you are aware of certain types of violations, you should make those violations known. Prior commitments are basically null and void if the nature of the secret is damning enough. Accordingly, the issue at the heart of Edward Snowden's guilt or innocence lies in the significance and meaning of the documents and secrets that he leaked.

The focus of the Edward Snowden media buzz has not been targeted at the right information. This is probably maliciously so. Does anyone have a link to the actual documents and slides that he leaked? I'm aware that the leak vaguely references the fact that the NSA is tapping our phones/logging the numbers we call. But what does the actual information that he leaked look like? I feel like there is a giant cover-up going on where the focus is place on Snowden, his past, his pole dancing girlfriend, and his new life in Hong-Kong. The real story is those documents and I feel like a lot of people are hoping that eventually we'll all just forget what this story is actually about.

[duraaraa 203]

So you're saying that you were confused about the passage of the Patriot Act in the first place? You thought that they were and always have been kidding about national security?

Amongst the 'we' are the 'they' and yes Virginia, 'they' do wish us harm.

I think the patriot act is absolute #######. Since then, the government has been able to use terrorism as an excuse to do whatever it pleases.