Edward Snowden - Hero Or Traitor?

[Kevin]

He's a hero. No different than the folks who risk their lives in combat. What he's doing is protecting the civil rights of all of us against a government who is spying on its own citizens without probable cause of any kind.

I don't take a lot from the fact that he left for HK and then travelled through Russia. He'd be a moron to subject himself to our justice system. His only real choice is to travel to countries which don't have strong extradition treaties with the U.S.

As for the point that he could have taken this to a U.S. newspaper, it's well established that Bradley Manning first attempted to go through numerous domestic news sources and no one would touch it. It wouldn't be shocking to find out that they passed on Snowden as well.

[maconmagnolia]

Originally Posted by Kevin

He's a hero. No different than the folks who risk their lives in combat. What he's doing is protecting the civil rights of all of us against a government who is spying on its own citizens without probable cause of any kind.

I don't take a lot from the fact that he left for HK and then travelled through Russia. He'd be a moron to subject himself to our justice system. His only real choice is to travel to countries which don't have strong extradition treaties with the U.S.

As for the point that he could have taken this to a U.S. newspaper, it's well established that Bradley Manning first attempted to go through numerous domestic news sources and no one would touch it. It wouldn't be shocking to find out that they passed on Snowden as well.

What about the fact that other countries, including potential terrorists, now know what the United States is doing to prevent terrorism? Doesn't this put us at risk?

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by maconmagnolia

What about the fact that other countries, including potential terrorists, now know what the United States is doing to prevent terrorism? Doesn't this put us at risk?

I'm not willing to trade my constitutional right to privacy for a little security. The ability for low level employees to be able to read my emails, listen to my phone calls, etc., without a warrant is repugnant. I don't care if other countries know we're doing this and would frankly be surprised if a program like this would go unnoticed by foreign intelligence.

[HQWest]

Originally Posted by Kevin

He's a hero. No different than the folks who risk their lives in combat. What he's doing is protecting the civil rights of all of us against a government who is spying on its own citizens without probable cause of any kind.

I don't take a lot from the fact that he left for HK and then travelled through Russia. He'd be a moron to subject himself to our justice system. His only real choice is to travel to countries which don't have strong extradition treaties with the U.S.

As for the point that he could have taken this to a U.S. newspaper, it's well established that Bradley Manning first attempted to go through numerous domestic news sources and no one would touch it. It wouldn't be shocking to find out that they passed on Snowden as well.

Nope. He's a traitor (also a whackadoodle). He lied to get the clearance that he needed to get the job in the first place. He wasn't just average joe minding his own business doing his job and found something horrible, he went digging and found something and then high tailed it to China to tell them what he found.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by HQWest

Nope. He's a traitor (also a whackadoodle). He lied to get the clearance that he needed to get the job in the first place. He wasn't just average joe minding his own business doing his job and found something horrible, he went digging and found something and then high tailed it to China to tell them what he found.

Part of his oath is to protect and defend the Constitution. He didn't go to China, he went to HK. There's a meaningful difference there. He didn't talk to the Chinese that you know of, he talked to the news media. I would agree that if he went to disclose the intimate workings of our intelligence to a foreign government and did not go to the media, that'd look pretty bad. By all accounts though, that's not what happened.

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Part of his oath is to protect and defend the Constitution. He didn't go to China, he went to HK. There's a meaningful difference there. He didn't talk to the Chinese that you know of, he talked to the news media. I would agree that if he went to disclose the intimate workings of our intelligence to a foreign government and did not go to the media, that'd look pretty bad. By all accounts though, that's not what happened.

How do you know that he wasn't debriefed by the Chinese and Russian intelligence agencies? He's already made public to Chinese news sources that the U.S. is spying in and hacking into Chinese computer systems... Do you really think China will just let him waltz out of HK without extracting every bit of intel that they can from him? The Chinese and Russian governments are really going out of their way to accommodate Snowden even in the face of damaging relations to the U.S. so that leads me to believe that they believe it's worth it..and not for some BS "preserving democracy" excuse either. None of these countries Snowden is supposedly reaching out to have a decent track record when it comes to democracy or civil liberties.