Edward Snowden - Revoltingistan's Human Of The Year

[Revoltingest]

I'm sure the new pope is a nice guy, & intends to do well. I wish him success in steering the church in a better
direction. But he just began the job, & his accomplishments lay in front of him, so Time's accolade is premature.

In response, Revoltingistan hereby issues its first ever Human Of The Year, the HOTY. This year's "hottie" is
Edward Snowden, who has single handedly & at great personal risk turned Americastan's political & civil liberties
landscape upside down.

Even the courts are threatening the status quo, which we only recently learned was the status quo.
Judge deals blow to NSA phone data program | Fox News

(Note: I chose Fox a source just to send some friends into paroxysms of peevishness.)

Congratulations, Mr Snowden! Please accept these roses, presented by another pioneer (Ms Betty Boop).

 

[Father Heathen]

I'm sure the new pope is a nice guy, & intends to do well. I wish him success in steering the church in a better direction. But he just began the job, & his accomplishments lay in front of him, so Time's accolade is premature. In response, Revoltingistan hereby issues its first ever Human Of The Year, the HOTY. This year's "hottie" is Edward Snowden, who has single handedly & at great personal risk turned Americastan's political & civil liberties landscape upside down.

Even the courts are threatening the status quo, which we only recently learned was the status quo.
Judge deals blow to NSA phone data program | Fox News

Note: I chose Fox a source just to send some friends into paroxysms of peevishness.

Given that it's FOX, I'm surprised that the headline didn't read "liberal activist judge undermines defense against terrorism."

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

Snowden will undoubtedly go down as either a Saint or a sinner... depending who gets to write the history of our times.
In either event we will all look much more carefully at what our lords and masters are doing in our name, but to our detriment.

 

[InformedIgnorance]

Hmmmn it is a relatively good thing that Time was able to point to the pope... otherwise they would have had to face the very real possibility of making snowden man of the year (he was certainly the one who had the most significant impact on global public awareness on any particular issue of substance) which I think would have had significantly uncomfortable outcomes for time.

 

[Valjean]

Isn't Time's person of the year supposed to reflect influence? My impression is that Snowden's influence has been the greater, thus far.

Time wussed out.

 

[Revoltingest]

Isn't Time's person of the year supposed to reflect influence? My impression is that Snowden's influence has been the greater, thus far.
Time wussed out.

I speculate that Time used a criterion different from actual influence.
They probably based their choice upon likeability, & a desire to encourage the new pope's agenda, ie, potential positive influence.

 

[Jeremy Mason]

I just did a search on this subject and it appears that Snowden was awarded man of the year by The Guardian and many other believe that Snowden was robbed byTimes decision.

 

[BlandOatmeal]

I believe Snowden did America a great service. Good choice for your award.

 

[apophenia]

Snowden will undoubtedly go down as either a Saint or a sinner... depending who gets to write the history of our times.
In either event we will all look much more carefully at what our lords and masters are doing in our name, but to our detriment.

Well, maybe you and I will.

As Nietzsche said, it makes the ruling class's job much easier if the slaves can be trained to maintain each other's slavery.

Thing is, the American Dream has always relied on the possibility of becoming part of the elite plutocracy. So the serfs need to believe they have the same value system as their overlords, in the hope of one day becoming them.

Even the 1% are serfs, compared to the 0.01% who do actually rule.

And they know it. So they don't want to crap in their fondly imagined future nest.

 

[Revoltingest]

Breaking Snowden news..
NYFF: Edward Snowden Doc 'Citizenfour' Reveals Existence of Second NSA Whistleblower

A second National Security Agency whistleblower exists within the ranks of government intelligence.
That bombshell comes toward the end of Citizenfour, a new documentary from filmmaker Laura Poitras about NSA informant Edward Snowden that had its world premiere on Friday at the New York Film Festival.
In the key scene, journalist Glenn Greenwald visits Snowden at a hotel room in Moscow. Fearing they are being taped, Greenwald communicates with Snowden via pen and paper.
While some of the exchanges are blurred for the camera, it becomes clear that Greenwald wants to convey that another government whistleblower -- higher in rank than Snowden -- has come forward.
The revelation clearly shocks Snowden, whose mouth drops open when he reads the details of the informant's leak.
Also revealed by Greenwald is the fact that 1.2 million Americans are currently on a government watch-list. Among them is Poitras herself.

 

[LuisDantas]

That is great news, if perhaps unavoidable.

Much like arms racing, walls of secrecy are a self-destructing strategy. They must be destroyed because they literaly fail to offer a way out of their automatic response.

 

[oldbadger]

Congratulations to Edward Snowden for being given the Revolting Hottie award.

After careful consideration it has been decided to present Mr Snowden another award.....
...........the OldBadger Warp award. (What a right Pr----).

An intelligence expert's devastating verdict: Leaks by Edward Snowden and the Guardian have put British hostages in even greater peril
PUBLISHED: 01:23, 25 September 2014 | UPDATED: 09:34, 25 September 2014
Edward Snowden is a former contractor for the U.S.
The agony of Barbara Henning, the wife of the Islamic State hostage Alan Henning, so genuinely and painfully expressed two days ago, is almost too much to bear.
Her anguish is felt not just by the family members of all IS’s hostages and, of course, by the hostages themselves, but is shared in part by every decent person in Britain.
David Cameron has expressed outrage at this organisation’s sadistic killings. He has declared that the killers of the British aid worker David Haines, and the Americans James Foley and Steven Sotloff, would be ‘hunted down and brought to justice’.
He has promised we will drive back and ‘ultimately destroy’ the so-called Islamic State and the ‘monsters’ who fight for it.


Read more: Edward Snowden and Guardian leaks put British hostages in greater peril | Daily Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

[Revoltingest]

Congratulations to Edward Snowden for being given the Revolting Hottie award.

After careful consideration it has been decided to present Mr Snowden another award.....
...........the OldBadger Warp award. (What a right Pr----).

An intelligence expert's devastating verdict: Leaks by Edward Snowden and the Guardian have put British hostages in even greater peril
PUBLISHED: 01:23, 25 September 2014 | UPDATED: 09:34, 25 September 2014
Edward Snowden is a former contractor for the U.S.
The agony of Barbara Henning, the wife of the Islamic State hostage Alan Henning, so genuinely and painfully expressed two days ago, is almost too much to bear.
Her anguish is felt not just by the family members of all IS’s hostages and, of course, by the hostages themselves, but is shared in part by every decent person in Britain.
David Cameron has expressed outrage at this organisation’s sadistic killings. He has declared that the killers of the British aid worker David Haines, and the Americans James Foley and Steven Sotloff, would be ‘hunted down and brought to justice’.
He has promised we will drive back and ‘ultimately destroy’ the so-called Islamic State and the ‘monsters’ who fight for it.


Read more: Edward Snowden and Guardian leaks put British hostages in greater peril | Daily Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

To resist the nascent police state, which would watch our every move, is a messy
process. When our government behaves dangerously & illegally, conventional means
of redress fail. So there will be casualties in this battle. But remember that to allow
government to take ever more control will have casualties too...in greater numbers.
We each will take a side. I take Snowden's.

 

[LuisDantas]

So do I. At some point we have to say that enough is enough already.

 

[Alceste]

Yup. Snowden for the win. Looking forward to Greenwald's coverage of the second whistle blower. Probably just got myself on the watch list for saying so lol.

 

[Alceste]

Congratulations to Edward Snowden for being given the Revolting Hottie award.

After careful consideration it has been decided to present Mr Snowden another award.....
...........the OldBadger Warp award. (What a right Pr----).

An intelligence expert's devastating verdict: Leaks by Edward Snowden and the Guardian have put British hostages in even greater peril
PUBLISHED: 01:23, 25 September 2014 | UPDATED: 09:34, 25 September 2014
Edward Snowden is a former contractor for the U.S.
The agony of Barbara Henning, the wife of the Islamic State hostage Alan Henning, so genuinely and painfully expressed two days ago, is almost too much to bear.
Her anguish is felt not just by the family members of all IS’s hostages and, of course, by the hostages themselves, but is shared in part by every decent person in Britain.
David Cameron has expressed outrage at this organisation’s sadistic killings. He has declared that the killers of the British aid worker David Haines, and the Americans James Foley and Steven Sotloff, would be ‘hunted down and brought to justice’.
He has promised we will drive back and ‘ultimately destroy’ the so-called Islamic State and the ‘monsters’ who fight for it.


Read more: Edward Snowden and Guardian leaks put British hostages in greater peril | Daily Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

I read the article. It seems to me that if the NSA leaks had any impact on the safety of hostages or the ability of intelligence operatives to locate terrorists, there would be some evidence of this. But hostages were being beheaded in Iraq long before the leaks. It took a decade to locate bin Laden, and he was found long after the leaks.

I'm also unaware of even one specific example of the mass warrantless snooping program resulting in the capture of a terrorist or the rescue of a hostage. If it were as effective as the author claims, I would expect to see several such examples offered by the government in defence of the program.

I suggest that perhaps terrorists never were broadcasting their location and plans willy nilly over the Internet. I propose that they've been careful to use encryption, burner phones, coded language, shadowy, anonymous corners of the Internet, onion routing, face to face communication and other tools for being sneaky the entire time.

 

[oldbadger]

................
Defense Intelligence Agency assessment of damage done by Edward Snowden leaks
US national security
Defense Intelligence Agency assessment of damage done by Edward Snowden leaks – read the report
A top-secret Pentagon report on NSA contractor Edward Snowden's leaks concluded that 'the scope of the compromised knowledge related to US intelligence capabilities is staggering'. Twelve pages of the 39-page report were declassified as part of a Foia request

 

[Revoltingest]

................
Defense Intelligence Agency assessment of damage done by Edward Snowden leaks
US national security
Defense Intelligence Agency assessment of damage done by Edward Snowden leaks – read the report
A top-secret Pentagon report on NSA contractor Edward Snowden's leaks concluded that 'the scope of the compromised knowledge related to US intelligence capabilities is staggering'. Twelve pages of the 39-page report were declassified as part of a Foia request

Would we expect any other result from a government report?
I don't consider it information, since we cannot tell how much is disinformation.

 

[oldbadger]

Would we expect any other result from a government report?
I don't consider it information, since we cannot tell how much is disinformation.

We, the people, are responsible for our Guv'mints.
Does that sound too pompous?
..... probably...... :sad:

We cannot measure or guess at how many people will die, how many systems will fail, how many initiatives collapse because of this convenience traitor.

Take care who is applauded, and for what........ I know we've all had some real idjits in both democratic and permanent government positions, but to join the enemy in demonstration by revealing sensitive info ......... nah..... sod 'im.

 

[Alceste]

Both of you, badger's second link is to Information released by the government in response to an FOI request. It's not confidential, it's not a leak, it's not propaganda, it's authentic interdepartmental communications a democratic government was obliged by law to release on request. And no more. There is a very broadly defined national security exemption in British FOI act, so the intelligence services are not obliged to release anything at all to the public, full stop. So, this heavily redacted document very probably reflects exactly what intelligence services in a democracy would prefer voters to believe, while falling short of outright deception.

Source: I worked for 2 years in FOI / data protection legislation and policy for the local government in the UK and worked on a team that processed hundreds of these requests per year. We redacted everything we were not required to release by law, ensured that nothing required to be released by law had been redacted, and liased with the government's lawyers as necessary to be able to tell the difference.

As far as the document itself is concerned, it's just somebody's opinion. We all had to write reports expressing our professional opinion in the council. Professional opinions inevitably overlap with personal opinions. For example, my work skewed very heavily toward protecting the privacy of individuals. Not only was that my job, but it was also something I personally believe in.I suspect the intelligence community skews heavily toward the personal opinion that being allowed to spy on the entire population without legal restraint is very important for national security.

I have a cousin who is very intelligent and well informed, but doesn't believe in climate change. He works in the oil industry and the culture of this industry does not tolerate accurate perceptions regarding the dangers of fossil fuel emissions.

People are people.