NSA vs Americans: Snowden calls for public oversight US spy programs

Edward Snowden speaks at SXSW, calls for public oversight of U.S. spy programs

Austin, Texas (CNN) -- In a rare public talk via the Web, fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden urged a tech conference audience Monday to help "fix" the U.S. government's surveillance of its citizens.
He spoke via teleconference from Russia to an audience of thousands at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin. The event marked the first time the former National Security Agency contractor has directly addressed people in the United States since he fled the country with thousands of secret documents last June.
In response to a question, Snowden said he had no regrets about his decision to leak the NSA documents, which showed the intelligence agency has conducted secret monitoring of Americans' phone and Internet behavior in the name of national security.
"Would I do it again? Absolutely. Regardless of what happens to me, this is something we had a right to," he said.

Snowden Documents Reveal NSA Gave Israeli Spies Raw Emails, Texts, Calls of Innocent Americans



Long and short of it is US is creating an atmosphere of global Cold War.. on steroids.

It's about controlling the masses so they either aline with a centralized global government.. or get framed with the next 'terror attack' to justify ever-increasingly all-seeing NSA surveillance.

reply to post by gardener

We Americans have just one last opportunity to right this ship or it's all over ...
The foreign leaders have insisted NSA stop invading our privacy and received some response, but Americans are voting in Primary elections this month. Please vote for Tea Party candidates who has the Constitution as guiding principles...establishment Republicans are to be voted out of office.
Hopefully Mr. Snowden will return to America shortly in 2016 as the hero welcome he deserves.

You cannot have public oversight of spy programs or there would be no spy programs. This is a totally ridiculous concept and what you would call a true moral dilemma. Spy programs are inherently dangerous to more than the humans carrying them out.

The problem is not with spy programs themselves but with the individuals in power who maybe do have too much oversight over....or maybe insight to...them. I don't know how you address that level of corruption other than to keep changing the players and not allow the entrenchment of the good ole boys and their cronies and the misuse that inevitably follows.

The problem is also with people taking fragments out of context without knowing the whole story and blowing them up out of proportion and maybe even putting us in more danger than the spy programs themselves.

reply to post by ~Lucidity


If the spy program includes releasing broad samples of Americans' emails, texts, calls - which it does - then I can see why he is calling for public overview.

THEN AGAIN, IM CONVINCED THIS POLISHED AMERICAN IS A SHILL FOR CIA/NSA =D He doesn't seem stressed at all and if he was really a whistleblower, he would most likely be dead by now, ie ramming his car into a tree

gardener
reply to post by ~Lucidity

 

If the spy program includes releasing broad samples of Americans' emails, texts, calls - which it does - then I can see why he is calling for public overview.

THEN AGAIN, IM CONVINCED THIS POLISHED AMERICAN IS A SHILL FOR CIA/NSA =D He doesn't seem stressed at all and if he was really a whistleblower, he would most likely be dead by now, ie ramming his car into a tree

I added some. But wait...who is releasing the samples?

RE: Maybe putting us in danger than even the spy programs themselves.

Absolutely. I do not advocate Snowden calling for public overview of spy programs. You are right, how can spy programs be transparent if they are covert operations!?

I do however take a shill movement like Snowden and attempt to identify the underlying privacy issues. The problem is with NSA spying on Americans and selling that info for instance to Israel, which seems very much the case despite Snowden there to fog up Security issues.

reply to post by gardener


For starters, I think that "spying" and "public oversight" are polar opposites and I can just imagine what a circle-jerk that public "oversight" would actually turn out to be.

I can see it now...Darrell Issa to the rescue!

reply to post by gardener


I know it is supposed to say "public" but your version is way better.

reply to post by ~Lucidity

The Grand Jury system is perfectly capable and willing to add this new role...they have personal integrity.

reply to post by Flatfish

Mock much?

Granite
reply to post by ~Lucidity

 

The Grand Jury system is perfectly capable and willing to add this new role...they have personal integrity.

I don't understand this in the context of this thread or why it was directed at anything I said? Could you elaborate please? Or was it irony/sarcasm?

Granite
reply to post by ~Lucidity

 

The Grand Jury system is perfectly capable and willing to add this new role...they have personal integrity.

Really? Do you really think you can use such a broad brush to establish the "personal integrity" of grand juries? Have you ever testified in front of a grand jury before? Well I have and I can assure you that, depending on a number of factors like population and employment diversity, (or lack thereof) the "personal integrity" of a grand jury is no more assured than that of their employer.

I could show you a county here in Texas where approx. 95% of the population work for the same employer and not only do most of their grand juries lack "personal integrity," so does their city council, county commissioners and law enforcement agencies. Especially if the criminal act in question has to do with the dominant employer in their community and where prosecution could lead to the loss of the employing entity.

reply to post by ~Lucidity

No sarcasm.
You basically said no public oversight is possible which is easy to assume because only Court system oversight is built into current "laws".
However, my suggestion of the Grand Jury system adding this new role is perfectly logical because the public first and not agencies of government.

reply to post by Granite

Ah, okay. Though I'm not sure I agree it's built into anything or even needs to be or is what Snowden meant or what most people will interpret it as.

Also, my experience with grand juries is limited to being on one. Basically, the jury just did whatever the prosecution wanted them to. Maybe that's not the case at the federal level, but somehow I think it might be.

reply to post by Flatfish

"Integrity" is earned by men and women in their deeds, their work over their lifetime.
Mr. Snowden has integrity, Mr Daniel Ellsberg has integrity, many school teachers have integrity, etc.
I think most Americans have integrity. There is a large pool of Grand Jury volunteers ready to serve in this new role.
When Mr. Snowden returns he would be a good manager of this new role and implementation.

reply to post by gardener


The n.s.a is simply HIGH TECH PIRATES that have been caught stealing busness secrets in europe years ago, they are above the law and always have been. You cannot create secret organizations with unlimited funds with no oversite period, what it really is ...A monster gobbling up the constitution and desroying freedom.I am a victim many times over from out of control government.My home town of times beach mo was wiped of the map because they wanted to see what the toxin DIOXIN would do to us children, so they sprayed the steets with it. You cant find my home town any more except in wikipedia.I fear that this country is not far behind TIMES BEACH MO.

I still don't trust this guy. I still think he's still working for his former employer.

Interesting headine. It points out that if Snowden was hit by a bus, that'd leave nobody calling for this. Not the US public, in any widespread committed way, nor their elected representatives.

The last time that the houses of representatives stood up to the intel community and reigned them in, Watergate just happened. That ain't where you are right now.