The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
12 Jun 2013
Ex-CIA intelligence analyst, Edward Snowden, joins Bradley Manning to become another whistle blower exposing the egregious overreach of the American surveillance state. Snowden leaked documents to the Guardian newspaper, which revealed worldwide surveillance of the Internet and online communication by the US National Security Agency (NSA) that has developed sophisticated technology, allowing it to spy not just on US citizens, but also on ordinary people all over the world.
The Obama administration is defending the NSA’s motives for stockpiling the communications of people globally citing it as a necessary measure for the War on Terror, but the US is transgressing its own constitutional laws, and likely a whole host of laws pertaining to other countries, not to mention violating the right to privacy of every citizen around the world.
Snowden is in hiding somewhere in Hong Kong. He hopes to get asylum in Iceland.
Watch this Democracy Now! interview with Glenn Greenwald, Guardian columnist who helped Snowden break the story and find part two of the interview here.
Editor’s Note: There's a global campaign that has emerged in support of Snowden – 30,000 people have signed a thank you note to Edward Snowden. You can ddd your name to it here: SupportEdwardSnowden.org
You can also watch Greenwald interview Snowden in Hong Kong here.
In a Real News Network programme, former CIA analyst, Ray McGovern argues that Snowden did the right thing.
Not many governments appear to be expressing concern about this NSA surveillance programme, but the Merckel government of Germany has raised questions about its citizens' rights being “impaired”. Read about it on Der Spiegel here.
Moreover, Russia has said that it would consider an asylum request from Snowden. Read about it on the Guardian's website.
For more information about the private industry that has developed around the surveillance state, read Tim Shorrock’ s “Digital Blackwater”: Meet the Contractors Who Analyze Your Personal Data on Alternet.
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