A lot of things that seem a certain way aren’t. Either way, why do you think this program is illegal? What specifically about what they are doing do you feel is illegal?
No it’s not. If it were, there would be far fewer leaks and security breaches. Even if such a thing were possible, there is no evidence, and very little reason to think Snowden was capable of doing that. We don’t even know that the info he had on his laptop was in fact “unbreakably encrypted”.
It is child’s play to unbreakably encrypt your data. The data on my laptop is strongly encrypted - the weakness is the relatively short passcode that I’ve used. But if I were carrying around state secrets, I would use a strong passcode that no government in the world can break.
He said he was an “infrastructure analyst.” According to the NY Times, “an infrastructure analyst at the N.S.A., like a burglar casing an apartment building, looks for new ways to break into Internet and telephone traffic around the world.”
The way he has described giving encrypted data to third parties, with encryption keys delivered to them in the case of his unavailability, is a sure sign that he knew what he was doing in regards to computer security. It sure seems like he was a computer hacker for hire.
But those skills are way beyond what’s necessary for strong encryption. My 84-year-old mother could do it. To doubt that a young tech-savvy person could lock his data, and would do so in this case, is naive.
OK, so the government developed and deployed a spying program on it’s own citizens in defiance of the law.
Snowden ALSO broke the law by leaking classified documents that uncovered the government’s illegal program.
Snowden is in some other country trying to seek asylum from the U.S government who is mightily anxious to see him imprisoned.
And the people responsible for the ILLEGAL domestic spying program are… Awaiting trial for their wrong doing? Being interrogated? Fired from their positions? Being held accountable IN ANY MOTHER EFFING WAY?
That people are basing their opinions on unstated assumptions
the point of civil disobedience is to be punished.
The collection of metadata and internet data is illegal
If he released in a less illegal way, it would have never gotten out, and Snowden would have been arrested.
That’s a good start. Either way, I am not sure why you are so desirous to defend the guy given he is perfectly capable of defending himself.
Cite? Honestly, no expert would ever say something with that confidence given how many times “unbreakable” encryption has been broken. Especially given that you have no idea what a first world government is capable of, nor would the need to necessarily break the encryption to access the information. Do you honestly think the Chinese government copied his laptops, then saw they were encrypted, then gave up because there NO WAY they could ever access the information?
He has lied about thousand things. What makes you so confident he was good at what he did beyond his supposed job title?
Again, why do you believe this guy? He lied to get his job, didn’t seem to finish anything schooling he had, and was dumb enough to think Hong Kong would allow him to stay there while the US petitioned to have him returned. This is just not a smart and thoughtful guy.
More importantly, if you buy his claim that he main goal is to let the people know what is going on, why isn’t he releasing the info himself? Why is he encrypting data and giving it to third parties? Seems more like he wants to hold the government hostage, not enlighten the public.
It was not in defiance of it’s own laws.
It has not been demonstrated they did anything illegal. What exactly would they be arrested for?
Anyway what the heck are all you guys actually reading? I see in this thread completely opposite claims about the facts of the case (not judgments, simply the facts) and so far, almost no links. Where are people getting information like:
Snowden is an encryption expert
Snowden knows shit about encryption
Snowden has released the information carefully
Snowden has been haphazard about releasing the information
China can read our encrypted stuff
Nobody can read our encrypted stuff
Snowden is highly educated
Snowden lied about his education
Snowden expected a cushy life afterwards
Snowden did not expect a cushy life afterwards
etc?
His heroism or non-heroism will turn directly on answers to questions like these, and others, so it’s almost pointless to discuss it till things like this are settled. If they can’t be settled, the heroism question can’t be settled either. (Unless you rely on axioms like “Heroes never flee” but you shouldn’t do that.)
It’s an (somewhat understandable) assumption based on his position.
See above.
There is zero evidence that this is true. Either way, this and the next question are subjective.
See above.
China routinely hacks private anf government computers, accessing encrypted data.
Nobody with any kind of expertise on the matter can or would say that.
No one says he is highly educated.
Established fact. He lied about both his education and work history on a number of occasions.
He is quoted as saying he expected to be given asylum in HK while fighting the US government in court. You can determine for yourself whether that would allow him to have a cushy life. It certainly meant he didn’t expect to be willingly sacrificing his freedom or modern conveniences.
He worked at the NSA, in a somewhat technical job, and the tools to do strong encryption are widely available to even non-technical people.
Plus, he has made claims about how he’s distributed cypher-data to other sources, to be decrypted in case of his unavailability. This description is indicative that he has more than a passing knowledge of these techniques.
But the bottom-line is that you don’t need to be an expert nowadays.
China can attempt to get our encrypted stuff through other means, such as compromised passwords, moles, multi-user systems with poor security, etc. However, if I’m storing data with me as the only person who needs access to it, it’s every bit as secure as the strength of my password.
These questions do have a strong bearing on how you view his actions. My assumption has been that he willingly consigned himself to being miserably in exile for an indeterminate time. Others here have argued otherwise, but I’m not swayed too much by their arguments, at least not yet. I’m open-minded about it, but I just don’t see him thinking he’d have a cushy lifestyle.
Here is an article detailing 11 of Snowden’s revelations (where “revelation” is used in a loose sense since a lot of it is stuff I’m sure everybody knows everybody knows though always unofficially).
A lot of it seems to have much more to do with international intrigue than domestic surveillance. I’m not sure what the ideology is that would drive these kinds of disclosures.
No less a figure than Daniel Ellsberg has weighed in on whether or not Snowden should have flown the country. His call: Snowden did the right thing. Because, among other things:
Ellsberg also points out that the prospect of being tortured like Bradley Manning was (and it’s not just me, it’s the UN that said Manning was tortured) would be grounds for being granted political asylum in most countries … except of course for American bullying and bribing to keep them from doing so.
You naysayers should read Ellsberg’s full op-ed piece. It’ll save me the trouble of bringing up his points one by one.
Well, no. What’s written is the opinion of a couple of people (who I presume are journalists) and which is focused on a single section of a single law. They don’t seem to realize that the activity may be authorized under another statute, or by case law.
Glenn Greenwald talking about Snowden.
23:05-30:30, although I don’t think there’s anything too new. Mostly about how Greenwald thought Snowden was going to be much older before his first meeting since Snowden told him he knew he was going to be killed, sent to prison, or made a fugitive, and his motivations.
As an aside, watching Greenwald go from a dissident blogger all those years ago to mainstream newsman calling for his arrest has been pretty fun. Like watching a garage band hit it big.