As I continue reading the thoughts of those who blindly follow Snowden, there’s very little discussion about balancing our national security interests with the rights to privacy. This deficiency makes Progressives look unconcerned about protecting the Country and that troubles me deeply. Nancy Pelosi obviously understood that strain when she said this:
“Snowden “did violate the law in terms of releasing those documents,” she said during a luncheon Q-and-A on the closing day of Netroots Nation, an annual gathering of thousands of liberal activists and bloggers.
The crowd erupted in boos.
“I understand, but he did violate the law. And the fact is, again, we have to have the balance between security and privacy and we don’t know what sources and methods may been revealed, which is a tough thing,” said Pelosi, a Democrat from San Francisco.”
I believe progressives are severely deficient in discussing the national security concerns Snowden created…it’s hardly ever mentioned. All of the polls are dismissed, facts are ignored and even progressive heroes are booed. I also applaud Pelosi for saying this in the belly-of-the beast:
“I feel sad that this had to come down to this,” she said. “I know some of you attribute heroic status to that action, but you don’t have the responsibility for the security of the United States. Those of us who do have to strike a different balance.”
That is the most profound thing I’ve heard thus far!!
The responsibility of keeping over 315-million people safe both here and abroad has to be such a daunting task and we progressives need to consider this.
The other thing that has me troubled is how quickly some of us have “bought” Snowden’s flawed version of the NSA program. I suggest that if one really wants to know what’s going on, it is imperative to read investigative reporter Kurt Eichenwald’s work. He’s studied the NSA for decades and has made these conclusions:
I can’t stand it.
A few days ago, I wrote in some detail about the National Security Agency’s data-mining program in hopes of calming the hysteria that has been whipped up in the last number of days by incorrect and misleading reports, as well as by plenty of ill-informed commentary based on those errors. At this point, I’ve decided that I need to tell a little bit more.
Some explanation up front: I spent seven years investigating the national-security systems and policies established in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks for my book 500 Days. I learned a fair amount about the data-mining programs of the N.S.A. and wrote about it. I summarized those findings in my last post. However, now it has become obvious to me that I need to go further than I did in my book, at least in hopes of calming things down. When discussing errors, I’m going to mention “reports” regarding news articles, but I’m not going to identify them—the last thing I want is for this to become a back-and-forth between reporters.
First, the much-ballyhooed PRISM program is not a program and not a secret, and anyone who says it is should not be trusted because they don’t know what they’re talking about. PRISM is the name for the government computer system that is used to handle the foreign-intelligence data collected under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act..
Check out more of his argument in this Vanity Fair piece:
PRISM Isn’t Data Mining and Other Falsehoods in the N.S.A. “Scandal”
http://www.vanityfair.com/...
So progressives, I honestly believe we are making a mistake to lock shoulders with this man Pelosi calls a criminal, while Feinstein was
saying this:
“I don’t look at this as being a whistle-blower, I think it’s an act of treason.”
Snowden is not worth this fight. We still have so many battles concerning gun-control, immigration, crumbling infrastructure, jobs, ballooning student loans, leaving Afghanistan and climate control to name a few.
Snowden is not a hero, he’s a common criminal who stole government secrets and cowardly ran to the worst defenders of civil liberties in the world.
We should treat him as such.