Like him or not, he's still on the loose and making America look stupid.
President Barack Obama has publicly displayed a relaxed attitude toward Snowden's movements, saying last month that he wouldn't be "scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker."
But the drama surrounding the flight of Bolivian President Evo Morales, whose plane was abruptly rerouted to Vienna after apparently being denied permission to fly over France, suggests that pressure is being applied behind the scenes.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo told Spanish National Television that "they told us that the information was clear, that he was inside.
This was only part 1 of the Frontline documentary, and it was almost 2 hours long. Part 2 is going to talk about how the internet companies like Google and Facebook got involved in this.
The things that struck me about this were:
- I really liked that some of the NSA people that backed the decision to do all of this spying agreed to be interviewed. It showed how complex this issue really is.
- Dick Cheney is portrayed as the evil puppet-master, and at one point he had made decisions that Bush didn't even know about. The document authorizing the program was kept in a safe in Cheney's office, and few people knew about it.
- John Ashcroft came off looking like a hero, sort of. Ashcroft was hospitalized when the authorization was about to expire. When Alberto Gonzalez and others came to his hospital room to get his signature to extend it, he gave a lengthy speech and refused to sign it.
- To get around that, they just changed the document so that Gonzalez could sign it instead of Ashcroft, which was illegal.
- We knew about "warrantless wiretapping" way back in 2005. The stuff Snowden brought to light was just more about how extreme the spying had become, not that it was going on.
- Some people leaked info about the program to the press. Several people who had pushed back against the practice were accused of being the leakers, but weren't. They had their houses raided by the FBI.
Despite all of the hype around this topic, I just don't think most Americans care about it that much. It's really sensational to say "The government is spying on your email and Facebook!" but it just seems like most people don't care. I don't know if its because people just trust that the government is using it to only go after terrorists, or if they like the internet so much they just accept the risk, or if it is simply apathy in general.
A guy who spoke truth to power about Vietnam in the early 70's. Leaked Pentagon docs about what was really going on there that contradicted what the Nixon administration as saying. In particular, exposing the extent of the bombing of neutral Cambodia which the admin had been denying.
A guy who spoke truth to power about Vietnam in the early 70's. Leaked Pentagon docs about what was really going on there that contradicted what the Nixon administration as saying. In particular, exposing the extent of the bombing of neutral Cambodia which the admin had been denying.
i wikied him after marys post. looks like he shamed 3 presidents/administrations. not bad.
A guy who spoke truth to power about Vietnam in the early 70's. Leaked Pentagon docs about what was really going on there that contradicted what the Nixon administration as saying. In particular, exposing the extent of the bombing of neutral Cambodia which the admin had been denying.
i wikied him after marys post. looks like he shamed 3 presidents/administrations. not bad.
No question the lying went all the way back to Kennedy and Johnson. Nobody's hands are clean or have ever been when it comes to American foreign policy during the Cold War up to the present. Nobody.
pioneer98 wrote:Despite all of the hype around this topic, I just don't think most Americans care about it that much. It's really sensational to say "The government is spying on your email and Facebook!" but it just seems like most people don't care. I don't know if its because people just trust that the government is using it to only go after terrorists, or if they like the internet so much they just accept the risk, or if it is simply apathy in general.
If only all of that shady stuff had been done by Democrats instead of Republicans, then we would care. Right now we have to focus on more important things, like BNEGHAZI and finding all those secret emails Obummer was sending to low grade IRS employees.
