YES

You first statement says it all for me. That is exactly why we can't allow everyone to make their own judgement call.

 

Again, blanket statements do not work

I do not recall the source, but shortly after 911 I heard about a surveillance system that was in place to monitor ALL phone and internet traffic, and that a large file of trigger words was in place, that when any of these words were used by ANYONE, the monitoring system alerted the human monitors to take a closer look to rule or rule out any threat from the speaker or writer of such trigger words.

 

I won't mention the trigger words here, but I'm assuming everyone can use their imagination to get the idea of what kind of words I'm referring to.

 

I've known about this for years to be very conscious while yacking on the phone to never even jokingly say anything that could be misconstrued. I always thought that I have no way of keeping the spies away, but I certainly wasn't going to give them any reason to pay closer attention to me. It wasn't like I used the phone in a constant state of paranoia, I just made it a firm rule for myself to never within conversations say anything stupid.

 

The reason I'm pointing this out is that if I knew about this years ago, why does it now seem like it's startling new news to the world? That's why when news of Snowden broke, I already thought that this was common knowledge.

 

I wish that I could recall the source, be it a news item from the televsion, a casual conversation with someone passing along what they heard, a magazine article, an alternative news site, I'm not sure, but this is not new news to me.

 

Am I missing something here within the present story that is suggesting that this has been common knowledge all along, and it's just Snowden's involvement with giving more details about it, or is this being delivered as if we didn't know anything about it at all?

 

If so, I'm puzzled because with me being a nobody with no inside information, I don't know how it would be possible that I was aware of this so long ago before the general public was.

 

Whenever I've heard Coldplay's song "Spies" I never knew exactly what Chris was talking about, and since it was released in 2000 it certainly wasn't specifically about this unless he's just a downright visionary, but it always made me think of this kind of stuff. Sorta chilling too when listening in this context.

 

Love this song...

 

B-bal-fan, you may be referring to Thomas Drake who was a whistleblower over a post-9/11 program that in his mind was violating the Constitution.

 

Snowden has released docs showing similar activities but to a greater degree. For example, the NSA hired a British firm to hack into Google/Yahoo/Microsoft/etc to gather data on its users. Their logic was "hey, we're in Great Britain so it's not US spying on US."

 

In 2013 Snowden released a doc showing that there was a secret court order COMPELLING Verizon to hand over consumer data to the NSA.

 

Snowden took it from a program name that Drake mentioned to actual documentation of specific acts.

 

The other difference is the actual documentation provided by Snowden. Drake even says today that the difference between then and now is that "the whole system has become institutionalized" in it's thinking about collecting info.

B-bal-fan, you may be referring to Thomas Drake who was a whistleblower over a post-9/11 program that in his mind was violating the Constitution.

 

Snowden has released docs showing similar activities but to a greater degree. For example, the NSA hired a British firm to hack into Google/Yahoo/Microsoft/etc to gather data on its users. Their logic was "hey, we're in Great Britain so it's not US spying on US."

 

In 2013 Snowden released a doc showing that there was a secret court order COMPELLING Verizon to hand over consumer data to the NSA.

 

Snowden took it from a program name that Drake mentioned to actual documentation of specific acts.

 

The other difference is the actual documentation provided by Snowden. Drake even says today that the difference between then and now is that "the whole system has become institutionalized" in it's thinking about collecting info.

 

O.K. I get it now. Thanks for clearing that up. In researching Drake it lead me to the "Trailblazer Project" which undoubtedly is the surveillance project that I originally heard about 10 years ago.

 

That certainly makes WAY more sense than little old me being in the know about something so secretive that the general public wasn't. :sssh: :wacky:

Again, blanket statements do not work

Disagree.

Snowden's first interview since June: Snowden 'an indoor cat' in Moscow, says he's 'won'

 

"For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission's already accomplished," he said in the interview, which was published online Monday night. "I already won."

Disagree.

 

Who in the world disagrees with "blanket statements do not work?" It defies logic. It's never that black and white.

Snowden's first interview since June: Snowden 'an indoor cat' in Moscow, says he's 'won'

 

"For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission's already accomplished," he said in the interview, which was published online Monday night. "I already won."

 

He says he won because he got debate going. Is that bad?

Terrorist or freedom fighter?? Traitor or patriot ?? I guess it depends on who's ideology one chooses to cast his allegiance with.. Actually Reagan was just one of the several presidents I thought of..

 

I was thinking in terms of arms to Iran. Hard to see freedom fighter in that one.

I was thinking more in terms of arms to Al Qaeda ut I see what you mean..

My guess is the intelligence community breaks the law everyday in order to protect the country. What if someone disagreed with us going into Pakistan to get Bin Laden and they blew the whistle in it?

 

I don't care about breaking the rights of citizens of other nations. The government should never infringe on mine or any other Americans rights.

Patriot : someone who exposes government corruption, overreach, infringement of rights, etc.

Traitor : someone who aids and arms our enemies..

Which one describes Snowden ? Which one describes some of our Presidents both current and past ??

Patriot | Define Patriot at Dictionary.com

 

Traitor - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Patriot : someone who exposes government corruption, overreach, infringement of rights, etc.

Traitor : someone who aids and arms our enemies..

Which one describes Snowden ? Which one describes some of our Presidents both current and past ??

 

I can't compare Snowden's actions to any current or past president's actions. Two entirely different worlds.