Last night's revelation that the NSA can monitor individual key strokes that Americans are making on their computers as they type emails or even blog, should be chilling to every freedom loving American. The use of this technology has far reaching implications and could very easily destroy lives of innocent Americans.
How many times have you expressed opinions about the government which if taken the wrong way, or for that matter, written using the wrong words could easily be mis-interpreted by someone looking for sinister motives? We would expect many. How many times have you forwarded emails, cartoons or articles written by someone else who might be on the government watch list? Maybe never, but who know who is being watched? How often has the government denied an event occurring, only later to find out that it actually did happen? Countless! Any set of events or posting or forwarded emails could put you in a situation that you never foresaw.
As soon as Americans are afraid to write something on the internet for fear that Big Brother will be knocking on your door, we have lost our freedoms. We cannot stand for that. We must fight the government from taking away our Constitutionally rights each and every day.
Had Snowden not revealed the workings of the NSA, we would not know what was going on in this spy agency. We thank him for having the moral clarity to take the personal risk to reveal an agency that apparently is out of control. We are sure there might have been other ways of making the revelations other than talking to the Guardian, however, when one sees the anger that our government has expressed toward him, our guess is that had he gone to his superiors, he would have been squashed. Worst of all, we would not know what was going on at this agency.
So if your faithful blogger suddenly disappears, you will know that we have been transported to one of the FEMA camps for re-education. Heck, we need the rest!
Conservative Tom
Russia Grants Snowden 1-Year Asylum
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
Published: August 1, 2013 3 Comments
MOSCOW — After a month holed up in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor wanted by the United States for leaking details of surveillance programs, has received temporary refugee status in Russia and left the airport, his lawyer said Thursday.
The Guardian, via Reuters
The former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden during an interview in Hong Kong in June.
Russia24, via Associated Press
This image taken from Russian television shows Edward J. Snowden's temporary refugee status document.
Readers’ Comments
Share your thoughts.
The movement from the airport’s international transit zone was a significant change in Mr. Snowden’s status for the first time since he left the United States and began leaking details of the National Security Agency’s surveillance.
The refugee status in Russia was the first formal support from another government for Mr. Snowden, 30, and seems likely to elicit strong objections from the United States.
The temporary refugee status allows Mr. Snowden to move freely within the country and is valid for one year, Anatoly Kucherena, a Russian lawyer assisting Mr. Snowden with the asylum request, said in a telephone interview.
Mr. Snowden has left the airport, Mr. Kucherena said, but declined to say where he had gone. “Yes, it is true he is out,” he said, but declined to disclose details.
Mr. Snowden had lived in the international transit zone of the airport since he arrived on June 23, one step ahead of an extradition request filed by the United States in his first stopover in Hong Kong.
For reasons that were unclear, the Russian Federal Migration Service delayed for longer than the typical week the processing of his temporary asylum application.
While the bureaucratic process has unfolded slowly, Russian officials, including President Vladimir V. Putin, have made clear that they have no intention of extraditing him to the United States — a position that has infuriated the Obama administration.
Mr. Putin has insisted that Mr. Snowden’s presence in Russia should not harm relations between the two countries, even as the White House has signaled that President Obama, amid mounting frustration, may cancel a planned summit meeting in Moscow in September.
The United States State Department had said that any move outside the airport — signaling a formal acceptance of Mr. Snowden as an asylum seeker — would be “deeply disappointing,” but has not publicly laid out any ramifications for Russia.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for commenting. Your comments are needed for helping to improve the discussion.