by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
No sooner had they learned Edward Snowden’s name, than bipartisan supporters of the National Security State proceeded to vilify him. “The congressional double cross only serves to confirm that once again there is unanimity in Washington about how best to screw the people.”
“Republican and Democratic members of Congress have
exploded in a rhetorical competition to see who can vilify Snowden the
most.”
Edward Snowden has been called a traitor, a narcissist, a
loser and a danger to national security. Reporters have questioned whether
he was friendly enough to his neighbors or why he made a good salary despite
having just a GED. He has even been criticized for leaving the military
after he broke his legs. His whereabouts are unknown because the federal
government is preparing to file charges against him.
Such extravagant and bizarre levels of
vitriol can mean only one thing. When
politicians and rich pundits all join together to deliver a very public beat
down, the victim of the beating is probably someone who did the people a
great service.
Snowden revealed the extent of the government’s levels of surveillance
conducted in America and around the world. Millions of phone and email
records are turned over to the National Security Agency (NSA) in something
ominously called operation Boundless Informant. Yes, that is the real name
of a program which gives information about millions of human beings from
Verizon, ATT, Google, Yahoo, Skype, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft to the
United States government. We are all under government surveillance and
weasel words like “metadata” should not make anyone feel better. Big brother
is watching all of us.
Worse than the government’s disregard for our constitutional rights has been
the acquiescence of Congress and the courts. The Obama administration and
the Bushites before them all made sure that their lawlessness first passed
muster with Congress. President Obama’s first line of defense after the
story broke was to announce that congress knew and approved of all his
plans.
“Raising the specter of terror has become the last refuge
of scoundrels.”
Republican and Democratic members of Congress have exploded in a rhetorical
competition to see who can vilify Snowden the most. Far from giving a
feeling of assurance, the congressional double cross only serves to confirm
that once again there is unanimity in Washington about how best to screw the
people.
The normally cool Obama and his top staffers are a bit off stride and
noticeably panicking. In his increasingly annoying and halting monotone he
assured us that wasn’t listening to our phone calls. And just in case that
less than comforting statement didn’t work for you he also claims that the
spying program has thwarted terror plots on our behalf. It wasn’t clear if
these were the plots invented by the FBI and their informants, but I
digress. Raising the specter of terror has become the last refuge of
scoundrels.
Edward Snowden worked as a contractor for Booz Allen and Dell before he
leaked the NSA information to journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras.
Most people may not have been surprised that the government spies on them,
but they don’t know that the dirty work is performed by private contractors
and not government employees.
That is one of the reasons that politicians and courtier pundits are so
angry with Snowden. Snowden opened the entire can of worms. All the levels
of corruption were revealed in one fell swoop. Private corporations make a
fortune off of work contracted out by the government which then proceeds to
spy on us all. Thanks to Snowden another dirty little secret has been
exposed.
“The Obama administration takes the sledge hammer approach
to any revelation or question and crushes anyone who dares to speak up.”
Cases such as this do serve an important purpose. They tell us who can be
trusted and who cannot. Equivocation about Snowden’s motives, or the
rightness of his decision, or the dangers he presented to the government or
to the Obama administration or the war on terror are proof of
untrustworthiness. There aren’t many clear lines of demarcation but this is
one of the rare instances where a point of view makes one politically
suspect or not.
Daniel Ellsberg recently lamented that the Nixon administration illegal acts
carried out against him are now perfectly legal. The Patriot Act and its
extensions mean that just about anything the government wants to do is
legal. They don’t need warrants to spy on us, they don’t event have to tell
us they are spying. Whistleblowers are being dealt very harsh sanctions
indeed. The Obama administration takes the sledge hammer approach to any
revelation or question and crushes anyone who dares to speak up.
Edward Snowden risks facing years in prison like Bradley Manning or life
forever on the lam like Julian Assange. Hopefully he was aware of the risks
and will elude detection until well after Obama leaves office. He will need
to be very lucky and careful if he is to avoid the long arm of United States
law. Actually that statement applies to everyone. We can tell the truth but
we shouldn’t expect anything resembling mercy.
Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is
widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well
as at
http://freedomrider.blogspot.com. Ms.
Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at
Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.
http://blackagendareport.com/content/freedom-rider-snowden-litmus-test
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