Edward
Snowden: patriot or traitor?
I asked on Facebook this morning. I received an interesting reply from Otto Gross, who himself had a security clearance. I asked Otto for permission to post his reply here, and he granted permission.
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The question is not whether the government did anything wrong or not. I'm no fan of the current administration but they seem to have followed due process in getting Prism setup. If Snowden knew of wrongdoing, then he should have followed the chain of command to report it. If that didn't work, there's a Congressional committee that deals with secret issues. He should have gone down those roads.
When I received my clearance I not only had to sign and initial each page of the regulations governing my top secret clearance, but people asked specific questions about whether I would have a problem with the nature of the work being done. The document is the thickness of the Manhattan phone book and there's no ambiguity in any of the wording. If you divulge secrets during a time of war, they can kill you. If it's not a time of war, they will more than likely stick you in prison, but they have the option of killing you. I spent two weeks straight signing each page of that book, and initialing the two lines present on each page stating what could happen to me if I divulged secrets.
We live in a republic. For better or for worse, the numbskulls were elected and they determine policy. It is not up to some high-school drop-out who thinks he knows better than the people duly elected after three months of working in this type of environment. The coup d'état mentality is counter-productive to a functional society. We're a nation of laws, and if he did have some earth-shattering knowledge of wrongdoing then he should have followed the rules and laws that are in place.
He's a traitor. I know they have the legal right to shoot him because I read every one of those pages. I keep hearing him spoken of as a hero and that he should get a metal. If they do pin a metal on his chest, I hope it's a 9 mm.
I asked on Facebook this morning. I received an interesting reply from Otto Gross, who himself had a security clearance. I asked Otto for permission to post his reply here, and he granted permission.
***
The question is not whether the government did anything wrong or not. I'm no fan of the current administration but they seem to have followed due process in getting Prism setup. If Snowden knew of wrongdoing, then he should have followed the chain of command to report it. If that didn't work, there's a Congressional committee that deals with secret issues. He should have gone down those roads.
When I received my clearance I not only had to sign and initial each page of the regulations governing my top secret clearance, but people asked specific questions about whether I would have a problem with the nature of the work being done. The document is the thickness of the Manhattan phone book and there's no ambiguity in any of the wording. If you divulge secrets during a time of war, they can kill you. If it's not a time of war, they will more than likely stick you in prison, but they have the option of killing you. I spent two weeks straight signing each page of that book, and initialing the two lines present on each page stating what could happen to me if I divulged secrets.
We live in a republic. For better or for worse, the numbskulls were elected and they determine policy. It is not up to some high-school drop-out who thinks he knows better than the people duly elected after three months of working in this type of environment. The coup d'état mentality is counter-productive to a functional society. We're a nation of laws, and if he did have some earth-shattering knowledge of wrongdoing then he should have followed the rules and laws that are in place.
He's a traitor. I know they have the legal right to shoot him because I read every one of those pages. I keep hearing him spoken of as a hero and that he should get a metal. If they do pin a metal on his chest, I hope it's a 9 mm.
Mrs. Goska,
ReplyDeleteI noticed that your post doesn't address whether or not Snowden's actions were moral, but whether or not they were lawfully justifiable. As you know, there's a big difference.
No matter how much rhetoric is thrown into the post-hand-in-the-cookie-jar back peddling our government is frantically committing, you simply cannot justify a government not notifying the public that they are being monitored. That "greater good" benefit is simply not worth the trade-off of deception.
I suppose an argument could be made, but only if made in Newspeak, if you catch my drift.
Mrs. Goska, I respect your devotion to your duty and your nation, but it is clear that Snowden is expressing loyalty to an even deeper, truer form of American ideals, and willing to risk his life to do it.
No, the realization that your government is a lot more like Big Brother than you'd like to imagine is not in any way comforting, but complacent acceptance that the goings-on of the government (at this level) are "necessary" will surely grant us a highly "functional society". But what kind of "functional" are able to be and still consider ourselves the land of the free?