Sunday, June 9, 2013

(UPDATED) Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations/ Hero or Traitor?

UPDATE; Edward Snowden: Hero or Traitor?  "The good folks at Legal Insurrection raised an interesting point this morning. Why didn’t the prior revelations raised by William Binney cause as much controversy? Mr. Binney is a 32 year veteran of the NSA, who appeared in a 2012 video shot by Laura Poitras for The New York Times, who ironically enough, also directed and produced the interview with Edward Snowden."

Guardian  "The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton."
....
 Having watched the Obama administration prosecute whistleblowers at a historically unprecedented rate, he fully expects the US government to attempt to use all its weight to punish him. "I am not afraid," he said calmly, "because this is the choice I've made."
....
Strewn about the side of his bed are his suitcase, a plate with the remains of room-service breakfast, and a copy of Angler, the biography of former vice-president Dick Cheney.
....
"Snowden said that he admires both Ellsberg and Manning, but argues that there is one important distinction between himself and the army private....
"I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest," he said. "There are all sorts of documents that would have made a big impact that I didn't turn over, because harming people isn't my goal. Transparency is."
More here.

Boundless Informant: the NSA's secret tool to track global surveillance data
The color scheme ranges from green (least subjected to surveillance) through yellow and orange to red (most surveillance). Note the '2007' date in the image relates to the document from which the interactive map derives its top secret classification, not to the map itself.

No comments: