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it you know if you really need to know if this in the pantheon of american
politics
edwards snowden
is the little boy who said that the emperor has no clothes
right he has forced us
to acknowledge and have a conversation
about something we should have known all along and then
minimum many of us in some ways did or suspected
that ever since congress approved the patriot act in the first year the bush
cheney administration
our national security and intelligence apparatus has become increasingly large
and dangerously invasive
we first got wind of the brave new world of the surveillance st and two thousand
six with the new york times revealed the bush administration's n_s_a_ operated
warrantless wiretapping program
right back
remember senator obama
promised it and and and it's a what he called the failed policies
of mark potter so sir of don't george w_ bush transfers presidential campaign
yet many of us but what that meant is that he was going to reining in those
holes in giant security machine whatever
we did do some dairy very positive i stop the torture
although it hasn't been legislatively stopped it could be restarted if a new
president were to come in and just
sign a difference i could have order
now you can lay that it'll bounce fee i mean this is
no problem with congress right now
but you know he he's done some good days statues in the war on terror as a phrase
he gave a very good speech a national security within israel has changed our
policies but by and large
this giant national security
institution
changed the surveillance state has continued to grow in fact under the
obama administration
congress passed and the president signed
a renewed paid react in two thousand one
and december twenty twelve reauthorized amended version fries at the foreign
intelligence surveillance act
that essentially legalized
wishes illegal wiretapping operations
and now we know
at the obon administration the nest an essay have used these laws
to justify invasive spine programs in ways that even hard cornmeal conflict
jim sensenbrenner
republican right winger extraordinaire and author
or inaugural delivers the racial patriot act
find a story
some politicians like organ senator ron widen back in two thousand love it
have been for some time
try to warn us about this alarming and top-secret trend is ron wyden
american people find out
how their government had secretly interpreted the patriot act
they are going to be stunned
and they're going to be angry
and some former intelligence agency workers like whistleblower thomas drake
have gone so far as to expose certain parts of the essays operations
for that drake is now in jail
but so far all these warnings of falling on deaf ears
which is apparently why edward snowden step forward
to show once and for how massive and powerful and corporate ized and
privatized
this so-called national security industry
has grown under the past two administrations
snowden was uh... interviewed this morning and
the charter was at the south china sea paper it was live
one of the hongkong newspapers
and he said that he was
neither traitor nor hero i'm an american
this was
the quote from snowden
i would say the guy is easier
you know i would die with different lasik the guys to hear
and in fact we need more heroes like him and and and it goes beyond that i mean
here here's
here's an even bigger problem
and that is that
when people like smoking
work for the c_i_a_ or the n_s_a_
there are actually at law whistleblower protections
there be modernists
but they're there
that would cover them
so if their government employees
and the blown the whistle
and they do it you know the
quote appropriate way there is some protection for the num those protections
need to be radically expanded my amplified
along with the any press them i participate with the whistleblower being
empowered as well
but here's the uh... here's the giant loophole
while there are even catalog whistleblower protections for some
people in some industries
intelligence industry specifically carved out
from the whistleblower protection laws
so whistleblowers in the intelligence industry
they are nothing
this is why snowed when to hong kong
i mean he's if if he actually is a whistleblower arrived i believe he is
and he was still working for the c_i_a_ or the n_s_a_
and
daryon where some protections for the united states
but working for about a contractor and now there's over a thousand of these
giant contractors with billions hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts
to spy on us
and others
working for these private corporations totally unaccountable
there's something fundamentally wrong about this
you can have a functioning republic
whatever you want to call this country a constitutional unlimited democratic
republic
a cut you know like us
a a constitutional monarchy with the supreme court job whatever
you can have a nation that functions
without some level of transparency
without the ability of people who are inside the machine
to speak to us outside the machine
and say
hate this part of the machine is a rotten it's corrupt
it's dangerous it's doing things they shouldn't be doing
it's breaking the law
it's violating the constitution whatever it may be
we can have a functioning republic
if we don't have that
you know i find myself in the odd company
of glen back
and barry sanders
in calling edwards tony hero
only bernie's art company but i just think it's you know it's it's
interesting that this that that across the spectrum
there are people who are acknowledging i mean of course you've got you know
you've got that uh... the people who are gonna run in you know
wonder kamran
uh... or a microphone and diagonally death battle a tortured for aid from
trees and traitor perinatal
the the need your mashable lists i would call
but thoughtful people on both sides of the aisle
for more and baltimore he sanders thoughtful commentators
even hard right conservative commentators
like that
are saying
this guy's a hero
and
we need to make sure
quick one back here and this is me
or did poor bernie sanders or anybody else this is what i had to sit we now
know we have to
to our what's known as dot
really difficult legal
you know we need to build in these parts
he has not revealed state secrets
he hasn't told us what he knows he is simply told us
what is inhabited
which is what ron wyden was trying to say before the senate two years
hartman
the national security state
needs to be range and defend most importantly the industry itself
be put on a prisoner