27 Edward Snowden Quotes About U.S. Government Spying That Should Send A Chill Up Your Spine Michael Snyder: Economic Collapse June 11, 2013 Would you be willing to give up what Edward Snowden has given up? He has given up his high paying job, his home, his girlfriend, his family, his future and his freedom just to expose the monolithic spy machinery that the U.S. government has been secretly building to the world. He says that he does not want to live in a world where there isn’t any privacy. He says that he does not want to live in a world where everything that he says and does is recorded. Thanks to Snowden, we now know that the U.S. government has been spying on us to a degree that most people would have never even dared to imagine. Up until now, the general public has known very little about the U.S. government spy grid that knows almost everything about us. But making this information public is going to cost Edward Snowden everything. Essentially, his previous life is now totally over. And if the U.S. government gets their hands on him, he will be very fortunate if he only has to spend the next several decades rotting in some horrible prison somewhere. There is a reason why government whistleblowers are so rare. And most Americans are so apathetic that they wouldn’t even give up watching their favorite television show for a single evening to do something good for society. Most Americans never even try to make a difference because they do not believe that it will benefit them personally. Meanwhile, our society continues to fall apart all around us. Hopefully the great sacrifice that Edward Snowden has made will not be in vain. Hopefully people will carefully consider what he has tried to share with the world. The following are 27 quotes from Edward Snowden about U.S. government spying that should send a chill up your spine… #1 “The majority of people in developed countries spend at least some time interacting with the Internet, and Governments are abusing that necessity in secret to extend their powers beyond what is necessary and appropriate.” #2 “…I believe that at this point in history, the greatest danger to our freedom and way of life comes from the reasonable fear of omniscient State powers kept in check by nothing more than policy documents.” #3 “The government has granted itself power it is not entitled to. There is no public oversight. The result is people like myself have the latitude to go further than they are allowed to.” #4 “…I can’t in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building.” #5 “The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything.” #6 “With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your e-mails or your wife’s phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your e-mails, passwords, phone records, credit cards.” #7 “Any analyst at any time can target anyone. Any selector, anywhere… I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the President…” #8 “To do that, the NSA specifically targets the communications of everyone. It ingests them by default. It collects them in its system and it filters them and it analyzes them and it measures them and it stores them for periods of time simply because that’s the easiest, most efficient and most valuable way to achieve these ends. So while they may be intending to target someone associated with a foreign government, or someone that they suspect of terrorism, they are collecting YOUR communications to do so.” #9 “I believe that when [senator Ron] Wyden and [senator Mark] Udall asked about the scale of this, they [the NSA] said it did not have the tools to provide an answer. We do have the tools and I have maps showing where people have been scrutinized most. We collect more digital communications from America than we do from the Russians.” #10 “…they are intent on making every conversation and every form of behavior in the world known to them.” #11 “Even if you’re not doing anything wrong, you’re being watched and recorded. …it’s getting to the point where you don’t have to have done anything wrong, you simply have to eventually fall under suspicion from somebody, even by a wrong call, and then they can use this system to go back in time and scrutinize every decision you’ve ever made, every friend you’ve ever discussed something with, and attack you on that basis, to sort of derive suspicion from an innocent life.” #12 “Allowing the U.S. government to intimidate its people with threats of retaliation for revealing wrongdoing is contrary to the public interest.” #13 “Everyone everywhere now understands how bad things have gotten — and they’re talking about it. They have the power to decide for themselves whether they are willing to sacrifice their privacy to the surveillance state.” #14 “I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under.” #15 “I don’t want to live in a world where there’s no privacy, and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity.” #16 “I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong.” #17 “I had been looking for leaders, but I realized that leadership is about being the first to act.” #18 “There are more important things than money. If I were motivated by money, I could have sold these documents to any number of countries and gotten very rich.” #19 “The great fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change. [People] won’t be willing to take the risks necessary to stand up and fight to change things… And in the months ahead, the years ahead, it’s only going to get worse. [The NSA will] say that… because of the crisis, the dangers that we face in the world, some new and unpredicted threat, we need more authority, we need more power, and there will be nothing the people can do at that point to oppose it. And it will be turnkey tyranny.” #20 “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.” #21 “You can’t come up against the world’s most powerful intelligence agencies and not accept the risk.” #22 “I know the media likes to personalize political debates, and I know the government will demonize me.” #23 “We have got a CIA station just up the road – the consulate here in Hong Kong – and I am sure they are going to be busy for the next week. And that is a concern I will live with for the rest of my life, however long that happens to be.” #24 “I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions, and that the return of this information to the public marks my end.” #25 “There’s no saving me.” #26 “The only thing I fear is the harmful effects on my family, who I won’t be able to help any more. That’s what keeps me up at night.” #27 “I do not expect to see home again.” Would you make the same choice that Edward Snowden made? Most Americans would not. One CNN reporter says that he really admires Snowden because he has tried to get insiders to come forward with details about government spying for years, but none of them were ever willing to… As a digital technology writer, I have had more than one former student and colleague tell me about digital switchers they have serviced through which calls and data are diverted to government servers or the big data algorithms they’ve written to be used on our e-mails by intelligence agencies. I always begged them to write about it or to let me do so while protecting their identities. They refused to come forward and believed my efforts to shield them would be futile. “I don’t want to lose my security clearance. Or my freedom,” one told me. And if the U.S. government has anything to say about it, Snowden is most definitely going to pay for what he has done. In fact, according to the Daily Beast, a directorate known as “the Q Group” is already hunting Snowden down… The people who began chasing Snowden work for the Associate Directorate for Security and Counterintelligence, according to former U.S. intelligence officers who spoke on condition of anonymity. The directorate, sometimes known as “the Q Group,” is continuing to track Snowden now that he’s outed himself as The Guardian’s source, according to the intelligence officers. If Snowden is not already under the protection of some foreign government (such as China), it will just be a matter of time before U.S. government agents get him. And how will they treat him once they find him? Well, one reporter overheard a group of U.S. intelligence officials talking about how Edward Snowden should be “disappeared”. The following is from a Daily Mail article that was posted on Monday… A group of intelligence officials were overheard yesterday discussing how the National Security Agency worker who leaked sensitive documents to a reporter last week should be ‘disappeared.’ Foreign policy analyst and editor at large of The Atlantic, Steve Clemons, tweeted about the ‘disturbing’ conversation after listening in to four men who were sitting near him as he waited for a flight at Washington’s Dulles airport. In Dulles UAL lounge listening to 4 US intel officials saying loudly leaker & reporter on #NSA stuff should be disappeared recorded a bit,’ he tweeted at 8:42 a.m. on Saturday. According to Clemons, the men had been attending an event hosted by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance. As an American, I am deeply disturbed that the U.S. government is embarrassing itself in front of the rest of the world like this. The fact that we are collecting trillions of pieces of information on people all over the planet is a massive embarrassment and the fact that our politicians are defending this practice now that it has been exposed is a massive embarrassment. June 12, 2013 at 12:28 am Eisenhower “We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” I submit that we now have a military industrial complex on steroids and the mass surveillance is just another manifestation of it. I stand with Edward Snowden and would do the same thing if I were in his shoes. You may as well come and arrest me also bullies. June 11, 2013 at 11:28 pm This is very sad. He gambled that the American public would be so furious about this that they would rise up and he would be protected through sheer numbers. We are so complacent, so intent on “catching the terrorists” that we’re ready and willing to give up whatever freedoms and privacy it takes to keep us safe. This will not end well…for any of us. June 11, 2013 at 10:59 pm If We the people, allow our Government to punish this man, for simply being honest about our governments actions, without acting on the information he has provided….We don’t deserve too know Anything!!! June 11, 2013 at 10:37 pm I’m a little disturbed. I just saw with my own eyes that Edward Snowden’s Facebook support page was created in April. Makes me wonder who’s being screwed in all this. Every American who hates the thought of such tyranny should unite now in demanding that the GOP leaders do their duty. The cry should be “IMPEACHMENT NOW! Do your duty and leave the rest to God and the American people.” If the GOP leaders are too cowardly to act on their own, in light of the threat to the nation’s good, then we should give them reason to understand that their failure to act is the last chance for the GOP to come to the aid of their country. But because we must now suspect that some or all of them care more for their own transient power than for the perpetuation of their country’s heritage of freedom, we must also make clear, to them and to ourselves, that their action or inaction is not the last chance for America. Because there’s a God in heaven, and life in the hearts of Americans who trust in Him, there is a lasting chance for us to restore the liberty that is the special interest of all those reborn in the only liberty that will never perish, wherewith Christ has made us free. June 12, 2013 at 12:00 am This is a Brave thing Mr.Snowden has done. Lets hope it wakes some Other Government agents up, to the fact that the way they are acting, is WRONG, & Goes against EVERYTHING America Stands for!!! EVERYTHING!!! We have become a Country, that Punishes the Innocent Victims, & allows the Guilty to walk Free!!! 1) Immigration Reform…. Rewards Criminals who Cross our Boarders Illegally!!! 2) The Push for “Tougher gun laws”, Causes Innocent Gun owners to be Victimized, & Punished because a Random individual shot people, Even though the innocent gun owners broke NO Laws!!! 3) Having your Privacy RAPED, so our Government can “Catch Terrorist”, Which NEVER seems too catch Terrorist, but DOES, Compile a LOT of Private Information, on ALL Citizens, to be used as they Wish, & without oversight!!!! We Pay Cell phone companies ( A LOT of Money ) too help THEM! Many sign into Facebook,Google,Yahoo,AT&T,Verizon,Skype,ect. All have been helping the Government RAPE YOU & I!!!! These Companies are then, treated to the exact opposite of being targeted by the IRS, They get overlooked, & ignored, & Rewarded, then our Nations leaders, act surprised that the deficit is where it’s at, & lets NOT forget all the Foreign AID money, our Terrorist organization of a Government Gives away without OUR Consent!!! We have been attacked by terrorist, & Now, OUR own Government is Treating US as if WE are the Terrorist… The ONLY Reason our Government has a hard time catching Terrorist, is because,They REFUSE To Look in the Mirror. Our Government REFUSES to act on the Simplest of tasks, to prevent Terrorism, & that is to Secure OUR Boarders!!!! Our Government Allows us to be attacked by terrorists, & then punishes US, because we got attacked by terrorists!!! Hell, Our Government, is the Reason, Terrorist hate US!!! I have Done NOTHING to the Terrorist, but MY Government has. I for 1, am sick & tired of being Punished for the actions of Others.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 07:20:27 +0000
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