Spying Scandal

I feel sorry for this guy that he has to now live in fear for the rest of his life because he decided to do good and shed light on the USA spying on people domestically and abroad.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun...nowden-why

Here's more links on this story if anyone cares to read about it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun...rveillance

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun...rd-snowden

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun...rveillance

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun...ama-hayden

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun...rveillance

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/...insecurity

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun...ong-gamble

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/...en-britain

What's astonishing is that the guy so clearly knew and understood what the consequences of his actions would be for him personally, the need to remove himself from his loved ones for their own safety, the risk of jail, maybe worse, yet he still had the courage to do what he felt in his heart was the right thing.
How many of us, hand on heart, could say we would be brave enough to do that?

The stuff these guys are capable of is the stuff of movies. I remember the scenes at the beginning of the third Jason Bourne movie, a reporter mentions a keyword in a mobile phone conversation, and minutes later, the CIA/NSA is monitoring his phones, and cutting into the CCTV lines to see what is going on. It was great entertainment, but suddenly now it appears it could be true, and it could be happening to any one of us (at least any US citizen, it remains to be seen to what extent the UK are doing this). This monitoring is not targetted at the 'bad guys', it is all encompassing, they are indiscriminately watching everyone!

The real joke is that the politicians say they need more powers to monitor us to stop terrorism, yet this has been going on in secret, and still the terrorist acts have been happening, it hasn't stopped them!


America 'the land of the free' - yeah right.

(10-06-2013 12:22 )munch1917 Wrote:  The stuff these guys are capable of is the stuff of movies. I remember the scenes at the beginning of the third Jason Bourne movie, a reporter mentions a keyword in a mobile phone conversation, and minutes later, the CIA/NSA is monitoring his phones, and cutting into the CCTV lines to see what is going on. It was great entertainment, but suddenly now it appears it could be true

Look up "Echelon". The Keyword intercept system is nothing new....

And on that note, i would like to take this opportunity to welcome those lovely chaps from GCHQ, Menwith Hill and Langley to the thread

How long can this bloke stay in this transit zone in Moscow? If he won't be granted asylum in Ecuador for a few months then I wonder why he doesn't try staying in Russia since Putin has said he is a free man. He wouldn't have to worry about extradition from Russia if there is no treaty.

I'm amazed the U.S want him on trial so badly. If he can satisfy a judge that there's an argument that the goverment violated the constitution then he could quite easily walk free. Anyone else been following this story?

It has to be disconcerting when democratic governments spy on their own people. This is nothing new of course. Telephone inteceptions were a long established procedure but a court had to grant the authorities this by warrant and it was only used when someone was suspected of illegal activity. The last thirty plus years has seen CCTV spread like wildfire but the actual ability to snoop so intimately on the private lives of ordinary citizens is an alarming situation that has arisen since 9/11. The threat of terrorist atrocities is always sadly a possibility, but one which successive UK governments have used to their advantage in justifying surveillance of us all. Slowly but surely many of our long fought civil rights are being eroded I fear.

Another unpleasant twist in this story, as officials abuse anti-terrorist laws to try to intimidate those reporting on the story.

The partner of one of the Guardian journalists working on this story was detained at Heathrow while passing through the UK, and held for the full 9 hours allowed. He was held under 'anti-terrorist' laws, but questioned about the NSA story.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/au...d-heathrow


An astonishing, but not entirely surprising abuse of their powers. Sadly, much of the legislation rushed through after 9/11 and 7/7 has been systematically misused for purposes other than the anti-terrorism it was supposedly intended for.

This stuff is big brothers, big brother! All in the name of security. Its out of control IMO