Thursday, May 29, 2014

The Wire: Edward Snowden Would 'Like to Go Home'

A round up of some of the highlights of the hour-long special:

On what he didn't take from the NSA: "I didn’t want to take information," Snowden said, "that would cause people to die."

On why he went to the media with the NSA's surveillance programs: Snowden told NBC that he raised concerns internally about the NSA's procedures before going to a journalist with the information, only after his attempts to reform the agency from the inside failed. NBC noted that they have at least one verified email from Snowden, to the General Counsel backing up his claims, and that the network has a pending FOIA request for more.

On whether he is "blameless:" In response to a question from Williams on how he views his own actions, Snowden said "I think the most important idea is to remember that there have been times throughout history where what is right is not the same as what is legal. Sometimes to do the right thing, you have to break a law. And the key there is in terms of civil disobedience." (read more)

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Brian Williams was really uncomfortable and it was clear that he wanted to steer clear of any current administration blame.

Unknown said...

"What’s more shocking for anybody is not the dirtiness of the business, it’s the dirtiness of the targeting. It’s the dirtiness of the way these things are being used."

that reminds me of something...

Shouting Thomas said...

We'd all like to go home.

But, you can't go home again!

ricpic said...

Thomas Wolfe was right! About not being able to go home and so many other things. But he wasn't tragically hip so nowadays he's nobody, man.

edutcher said...

He described himself as a spy.

Way too much double-aught-whathisname, not unlike the guy from Santa Barbara.

As for going home. you're safer with Vlad.

Trooper York said...

I am afraid that ed is right. He is safer in Russia.

Aridog said...

Why in God's name does anyone want this punk back in the USA? What for? Do you really think the feds would set up a trial with discovery? Bwahahahaha.

The Little shit is a traitor, not a whistle blower (he had choices other than a foreign news outlet or an internal office of counsel...he did NOT want to take them).

Bring him home? Why? Let him rot in Russia or China for the rest of his life...once the money runs out (about the time his political worth is zero) it will be a very shitty existence. He deserves it.

edutcher said...

Ari, I was only defining treason as aid and comfort, but, yeah, I see your point.

Granted, he probably aided the Russkies and whomever else in letting them know how we collect data, but I don't think he was working for anybody.

I said whistleblower in the sense he let us know our rights were being violated.

ndspinelli said...

Anyone who is skeptical of Snowden had to be impressed w/ the guy. His demeanor, choice of words, and body language all said straightforward and honest. Not so much for Brian Williams!

Chip Ahoy said...

I had my mind blown today BLAMO brains all over the place.

I had a dr appointment, so eager to have a needle stuck in my arm and things attached to my body and knocked around with a triangular hammer, I got up early by hours.

So what am I going to do now? I know, wash the truck.

First time in history I or anyone blasted right through ZONK done in three minutes. A whole team jumps all through the truck and wipes it right up.

So what am I going to do now? I know, check out that dollar store the online blokes told me about to buy cleaner for the carpet steam cleaner. "Awesome" is the name of the cleaner purchased from those stores I never do go into, but now I'll give it a go.

Before that I thought, nah, don't buy it from there. Buy it from Amazon instead, as you do, for convenience. But it was way more expensive than the blokes said that it is. So check out the store instead. One is nearby. I'll go there. But it's closed. Too early for that.

$19.00 for a gallon of the cleaner on Amazon.

And $19.00 for a gallon of the oxiclean liquid on Amazon.

A few dollars at the budget-y store.

Near the doctor my old neighborhood has changed completely. Buildings changed but businesses within them are 100% turnover. I recognized nothing.

A different type of dollar store. Mostly kid stuff, toys all around. Outside is a box of butterfly net. The cutest little things.

They said, "Hello there, good morning!"

I said. "I got a dollar so I want to buy something."

They have the product I had in mind. But sold in 32oz containers not a gallon. So I got 4 to spare me more trips. And they also had oxiclean in liquid form and I picked up a gallon of that. Total oz of cleaner is three gallons. I think.

I was expecting my bill to be high. It's only logical. But they rung up a total of $8.00.

All the impressive cleaner I could carry for only $8.00.

It would have been $60.00 on Amazon.

These are round figures I'm using.

Is that why they call it awesome, because it is nearly free? No, say the people there. They use it for everything, they said. Everything they repeated and emphasized, except glass and leather per instruction on back. It is used in steam cleaners. And most everything else.

I recommend checking out those stores. Cute little crap all over the place. Lots of goodies to eat and destroy your health.

Adorable toy butterfly nets, she said, children sure love those things, you can use to catch miller moths.

This concludes my tale of my blown mind.

AllenS said...

Do whatever you have to do, just get Snowden back here. Then, waterboard the absolute fuck out of him to see if he knows anymore that he hasn't talked about.

The Dude said...

Only if we get to stand him up against a wall and shoot him afterwards. Snowden, that is.