The Guardian reports: The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell.
The Guardian, after several days of interviews, is revealing his identity at his request. From the moment he decided to disclose numerous top-secret documents to the public, he was determined not to opt for the protection of anonymity. “I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong,” he said.
Snowden will go down in history as one of America’s most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning. He is responsible for handing over material from one of the world’s most secretive organisations – the NSA.
In a note accompanying the first set of documents he provided, he wrote: “I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions,” but “I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant.” [Continue reading…]
Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden are heroes in a very real war, the war of oligarchic, technological imperialism against all the people. In wars, people are injured, imprisoned, adn die. These men are very brave.
In a world soon to die (or something very close) due to climate change – -which oligarchic, technological imperialism refuses to figth — perhaps we should all regard ourselves as soldiers adn all be willing to die, even if merely to lighten the burden that humanity places on the world.
I have never been that brave. I thank these young men who have stood up against the the American oligarchic imperialist juggernaut like those young Chinese in TienAnMen Square stood against the Chinese Army and the Party Leadership.
I admire the man. We need more like him.
No wonder *Person of Interest* doesn’t get billed as a science fiction program.
Two blog posts of the many pieces I’ve read over the last couple days strike me as especially useful, if anyone’s interested:
Stephen Walt’s “The Tangled Web of Empire” puts the events in context:
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/06/07/the_tangled_web_of_empire
Ethan Casey’s “You Have No Privacy. So what?” is quite insightful too:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ethan-casey/you-have-no-privacy-so-wh_b_3403601.html?view=screen