Excerpts from interview with American hero and patriot The Honorable Edward Snowden

[Type Username Here]

Is the speech of Obama the beginning of a serious regulation?

It was clear from the President’s speech that he wanted to make minor changes to preserve authorities that we don’t need. The President created a review board from officials that were personal friends, from national security insiders, former Deputy of the CIA, people who had every incentive to be soft on these programs and to see them in the best possible light. But what they found was that these programs have no value, they’ve never stopped a terrorist attack in the United States and they have marginal utility at best for other things. The only thing that the Section 215 phone metadata program, actually it’s a broader metadata programme of bulk collection – bulk collection means mass surveillance – program was in stopping or detecting $ 8.500 wire transfer from a cab driver in California and it’s this kind of review where insiders go we don’t need these programs, these programs don’t make us safe. They take a tremendous amount of resources to run and they offer us no value. They go "we can modify these". The National Security agency operates under the President’s executive authority alone. He can end of modify or direct a change of their policies at any time.

For the first time President Obama did concede that the NSA collects and stores trillions of data.

Every time you pick up the phone, dial a number, write an email, make a purchase, travel on the bus carrying a cell phone, swipe a card somewhere, you leave a trace and the government has decided that it’s a good idea to collect it all, everything, even if you’ve never been suspected of any crime. Traditionally the government would identify a suspect, they would go to a judge, they would say we suspect he’s committed this crime, they would get a warrant and then they would be able to use the totality of their powers in pursuit of the investigation. Nowadays what we see is they want to apply the totality of their powers in advance - prior to an investigation.

Does the NSA spy on Siemens, on Mercedes, on other successful German companies for example, to prevail, to have the advantage of knowing what is going on in a scientific and economic world.

I don’t want to pre-empt the editorial decisions of journalists but what I will say is there’s no question that the US is engaged in economic spying.

If there’s information at Siemens that they think would be beneficial to the national interests, not the national security of the United States, they’ll go after that information and they’ll take it.

 

[Type Username Here]

How does a young man from Elizabeth City in North Carolina, 30 years old, get in such a position in such a sensitive area?

That’s a very difficult question to answer. In general, I would say it highlights the dangers of privatising government functions. I worked previously as an actual staff officer, a government employee for the Central Intelligence Agency but I’ve also served much more frequently as a contractor in a private capacity. What that means is you have private for profit companies doing inherently governmental work like targeted espionage, surveillance, compromising foreign systems and anyone who has the skills who can convince a private company that they have the qualifications to do so will be empowered by the government to do that and there’s very little oversight, there’s very little review.

 

[Type Username Here]

In 2007 the CIA stationed you with a diplomatic cover in Geneva in Switzerland. Why did you join the CIA by the way?

I don’t think I can actually answer that one on the record.

OK if it’s what you have been doing there forget it but why did you join the CIA?

In many ways I think it’s a continuation of trying to do everything I could to prosecute the public good in the most effective way and it’s in line with the rest of my government service where I tried to use my technical skills in the most difficult positions I could find in the world and the CIA offered that.

If we go back Special Forces, CIA, NSA, it’s not actually in the description of a human rights activist or somebody who becomes a whistleblower after this. What happens to you?

I think it tells a story and that’s no matter how deeply an individual is embedded in the government, no matter how faithful to the government they are, no matter how strongly they believe in the causes of their government as I did during the Iraq war, people can learn, people can discover the line between appropriate government behaviour and actual wrongdoing and I think it became clear to me that that line had been crossed.

 

[Type Username Here]

The Rest:
http://www.ndr.de/ratgeber/netzwelt/snowden277_page-1.html

 

[ill]

Good read. I view him as both a hero and as a traitor. His legacy will depend on the actions of our people in how we deal with what he's uncovered. The NSA tracking everything is just insane. I knew it was going on but not to this extent.

 

[01King]

How can this guy be anything but a traitor? Giving up US national secrets to Russians and Chinese is treason.

 

[ill]

How can this guy be anything but a traitor? Giving up US national secrets to Russians and Chinese is treason.

Thats one side of it. The other side is that the government should be working FOR us rather than against us which is why he can also be considered a patriot for exposing them.

 

[thekingsmen]

How can this guy be anything but a traitor? Giving up US national secrets to Russians and Chinese is treason.

All of Congress has committed treason. Your point?

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

 

[thekingsmen]

Beware of the illusion of Edward Snowden. He may look like a hero or traitor but he may just be working for the government to destroy dissent and whistle-blowers and the internet free speech. Be careful.

 

[Type Username Here]

Beware of the illusion of Edward Snowden. He may look like a hero or traitor but he may just be working for the government to destroy dissent and whistle-blowers and the internet free speech. Be careful.

That is funny. I seriously laughed out loud friend.

 

[newarkhiphop]

The Honorable Edward Snowden

P. B. U. H

 

[thekingsmen]

That is funny. I seriously laughed out loud friend.

Just be careful...he may not be what you assume he is. Just a side note.

 

[OsO]

when conspiracies become reality.

 

[Crakface]

Whislteblower on the run from the C!A, wont answer why he joined the C!A.