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Indi Guy

(3,992 posts)
Thu Oct 3, 2013, 02:24 PM Oct 2013

Ex-NSA Chief Jokes About Putting Edward Snowden on Kill List...

Source: The Hill

Former National Security Agency Director Michael Hayden joked Thursday about putting Edward Snowden on a kill list. Hayden noted that Snowden has been nominated for a European human rights award.

"I must admit, in my darker moments over the past several months, I'd also thought of nominating Mr. Snowden, but it was for a different list," Hayden said during a panel discussion on cybersecurity hosted by The Washington Post.

The audience laughed, and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who was also on the panel, responded, "I can help you with that."

Both officials argued that Snowden's leaks about the scope of the NSA's surveillance programs have done serious damage to U.S. national security...



Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/326315-former-nsa-chief-jokes-about-putting-snowden-on-kill-list

66 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Ex-NSA Chief Jokes About Putting Edward Snowden on Kill List... (Original Post) Indi Guy Oct 2013 OP
Har har, assholes. nt OnyxCollie Oct 2013 #1
A War Criminal warrant46 Oct 2013 #13
Strange sense of humour dipsydoodle Oct 2013 #2
If that was one of us that said that Goalie49009 Oct 2013 #3
+1000. nt adirondacker Oct 2013 #8
No we won't. Watch..."I'd like to nominate Snowden for another list if you know what I mean." 24601 Oct 2013 #10
LOL nt Goalie49009 Oct 2013 #11
Hayden is more responsible for this NSA spying on Americans than any other individual! Dustlawyer Oct 2013 #4
"We'll put him on a parade route in Dallas, a motel balcony in Memphis, or on a small plane villager Oct 2013 #5
''Nominate him for a different list.'' Octafish Oct 2013 #20
I wonder if people are finally beginning to understand the degree these people have "intervened" villager Oct 2013 #21
It's as if their belief system won't allow them to comprehend... Octafish Oct 2013 #23
What's strange -- or shockingly sad -- is how indistinguishable these "Democratic" apologists are villager Oct 2013 #24
It reminds me of when I used to knock heads with the Koolaid drinkers on Hannity's board... Indi Guy Oct 2013 #28
You think they're kidding about that? eom leveymg Oct 2013 #6
Hayden doesn't come across to me as the 'kidding' type. n/t Indi Guy Oct 2013 #9
Chilling. n/t dgibby Oct 2013 #7
OGG! Cue the manufactured outrage machine...... TheDebbieDee Oct 2013 #12
Really. As if it were Terror Tuesday. Octafish Oct 2013 #17
You mean like all the outrage... Indi Guy Oct 2013 #19
OGG! Cue the reflexive head-in-sand snark responses! villager Oct 2013 #22
poor poor Hayden fascisthunter Oct 2013 #26
This is my third day home without a paycheck! TheDebbieDee Oct 2013 #27
So it's all about you, then. last1standing Oct 2013 #30
You're darned skippy. It is all about me, as far as I'm concerned! TheDebbieDee Oct 2013 #31
I'm someone who thinks the selfish are rather disgusting. last1standing Oct 2013 #32
I didn't ask you for any sympathy, did I? TheDebbieDee Oct 2013 #33
"...Edward Snowden is alive and well and spilling our secrets at will..."??? Indi Guy Oct 2013 #34
Edward Snowden is alive and well and spilling our secrets at will..."??? ehcross Oct 2013 #62
...Yet another 9/11 boogie man argument. Indi Guy Oct 2013 #65
You poor thing. last1standing Oct 2013 #35
Please, let's all stick to the issues & be kind enough to avoid... Indi Guy Oct 2013 #39
So when he's killed it will be okay to resent it then? JackRiddler Oct 2013 #37
People who kill joke about killing someone... JackRiddler Oct 2013 #36
PS If you think you are helping Obama JackRiddler Oct 2013 #38
Your apology is accepted. TheDebbieDee Oct 2013 #40
Interesting, so that means... JackRiddler Oct 2013 #46
Cue the manufactured outrage machine......that abhors murder Ichingcarpenter Oct 2013 #41
I'm not at all sure that it was a "joke"... Indi Guy Oct 2013 #43
There are things said and things unsaid but implied Ichingcarpenter Oct 2013 #44
Yeah I get that... Indi Guy Oct 2013 #48
I'm bored now with this thread and I'm moving on...... TheDebbieDee Oct 2013 #42
Then post somewhere else.... this is not about the shutdown FOOL Ichingcarpenter Oct 2013 #45
Edward Snowden kinda put a few kinks in their long term plans for a prison planet. RC Oct 2013 #14
Or accelerated it, maybe. AverageJoe90 Oct 2013 #49
Bull Shit. Your post is nothing but a list of discredited talking points. RC Oct 2013 #50
If Edward Snowden had not fled, the U.S. would not be exposed to another catastrophe. ehcross Oct 2013 #56
Really? How can we more secure when our own government spy's on us as if we are the enemy? RC Oct 2013 #57
Why is it so hard to get people to understand the cloak of "national security" is commonly used... Indi Guy Oct 2013 #58
most understand it pretty well reddread Oct 2013 #60
Americans have had it too easy.Do some traveling and you will appreciate the value of what you have ehcross Oct 2013 #61
pure, unmitigated right wing extremism reddread Oct 2013 #63
I have traveled to other countries. RC Oct 2013 #64
Americans are bitter about their government. So bitter that they blindly reject everything American ehcross Oct 2013 #59
thats a mighty big shovel reddread Oct 2013 #66
Ellsberg disagrees with you. former9thward Oct 2013 #51
That WAS unfortunate, TBH. AverageJoe90 Oct 2013 #52
You keep saying that without any proof. Indi Guy Oct 2013 #53
Well, it sure as HELL is blatantly obvious he wasn't doing this outta altruism. AverageJoe90 Oct 2013 #54
You may be right - but still no proof. Indi Guy Oct 2013 #55
Another Republican lacky valiantly defended by 'Democrats' on DU Ash_F Oct 2013 #15
*LOL* Hydra Oct 2013 #16
Ha ha. It is to laugh at Fascism. Octafish Oct 2013 #18
Ha, Ha Steviehh Oct 2013 #25
IT cowboy with a would-be cowboy (warning - some memories are disturbing)... Indi Guy Oct 2013 #29
Hahah: I suppose he's referencing the work of graduates that learned how to kill from the KUBARK bobthedrummer Oct 2013 #47

24601

(4,021 posts)
10. No we won't. Watch..."I'd like to nominate Snowden for another list if you know what I mean."
Thu Oct 3, 2013, 03:00 PM
Oct 2013

See, nothing....

[sotto voce] Honey, see who is at the door.

Dustlawyer

(10,518 posts)
4. Hayden is more responsible for this NSA spying on Americans than any other individual!
Thu Oct 3, 2013, 02:43 PM
Oct 2013

He is the traitor to the U.S., not the whistle blower Snowden. Notice how it is fading from the spotlight w/o anyone actually doing anything? They will never give up ground as long as we let ourselves get distracted with their rapid fire BS!
Other examples:
Wall Street reform;
Gun legislation;
Voter I.D.;
Electronic voting machines...

I am sure there are many more but I got distracted!

 

villager

(26,001 posts)
5. "We'll put him on a parade route in Dallas, a motel balcony in Memphis, or on a small plane
Thu Oct 3, 2013, 02:44 PM
Oct 2013

...in Minnesota."

Heh heh heh.

Hilarious, I tell ya.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
20. ''Nominate him for a different list.''
Thu Oct 3, 2013, 03:37 PM
Oct 2013

The "Intervention" List.

DU2 no longer opens the OP, but enough remains on my DU2 Journal to provide details.

 

villager

(26,001 posts)
21. I wonder if people are finally beginning to understand the degree these people have "intervened"
Thu Oct 3, 2013, 03:39 PM
Oct 2013

...since the second World War?

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
23. It's as if their belief system won't allow them to comprehend...
Thu Oct 3, 2013, 03:49 PM
Oct 2013

Please let me know your thoughts on this and the connected responses on an LBN thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=608640

 

villager

(26,001 posts)
24. What's strange -- or shockingly sad -- is how indistinguishable these "Democratic" apologists are
Thu Oct 3, 2013, 03:53 PM
Oct 2013

...from the most rabid of head-in-sand Nixon/Reagan defenders.

So little difference between them it's... pathetic.

Indi Guy

(3,992 posts)
28. It reminds me of when I used to knock heads with the Koolaid drinkers on Hannity's board...
Thu Oct 3, 2013, 07:49 PM
Oct 2013

...during the Bush years.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
17. Really. As if it were Terror Tuesday.
Thu Oct 3, 2013, 03:31 PM
Oct 2013
Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will

By JO BECKER and SCOTT SHANE
Published: May 29, 2012 1208 Comments

WASHINGTON — This was the enemy, served up in the latest chart from the intelligence agencies: 15 Qaeda suspects in Yemen with Western ties. The mug shots and brief biographies resembled a high school yearbook layout. Several were Americans. Two were teenagers, including a girl who looked even younger than her 17 years.

President Obama, overseeing the regular Tuesday counterterrorism meeting of two dozen security officials in the White House Situation Room, took a moment to study the faces. It was Jan. 19, 2010, the end of a first year in office punctuated by terrorist plots and culminating in a brush with catastrophe over Detroit on Christmas Day, a reminder that a successful attack could derail his presidency. Yet he faced adversaries without uniforms, often indistinguishable from the civilians around them.

“How old are these people?” he asked, according to two officials present. “If they are starting to use children,” he said of Al Qaeda, “we are moving into a whole different phase.”

It was not a theoretical question: Mr. Obama has placed himself at the helm of a top secret “nominations” process to designate terrorists for kill or capture, of which the capture part has become largely theoretical. He had vowed to align the fight against Al Qaeda with American values; the chart, introducing people whose deaths he might soon be asked to order, underscored just what a moral and legal conundrum this could be.

Mr. Obama is the liberal law professor who campaigned against the Iraq war and torture, and then insisted on approving every new name on an expanding “kill list,” poring over terrorist suspects’ biographies on what one official calls the macabre “baseball cards” of an unconventional war. When a rare opportunity for a drone strike at a top terrorist arises — but his family is with him — it is the president who has reserved to himself the final moral calculation.

CONTINUED...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/world/obamas-leadership-in-war-on-al-qaeda.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

This is one of the programs exempt from the government shut-down.

Indi Guy

(3,992 posts)
19. You mean like all the outrage...
Thu Oct 3, 2013, 03:34 PM
Oct 2013

...ginned up about how Snowden single handedly severely damaged our global foreign relations & our national security?

 

TheDebbieDee

(11,119 posts)
27. This is my third day home without a paycheck!
Thu Oct 3, 2013, 06:35 PM
Oct 2013

I give less than a damn if Hayden told a joke about kill lists and Eric Effin-Snowden........

Now if Hayden had some dish on Boehner that would persuade him to bring a clean bill to the floor and he wouldn't use it - then I'd give two phucks!

last1standing

(11,709 posts)
30. So it's all about you, then.
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 01:23 AM
Oct 2013

I'm not used to actual Democrats judging every situation by how it affects them personally. That's usually reserved for republicans.

Maybe you're one of those "New Democrats" I keep hearing about. I can't say I like the revised model.

last1standing

(11,709 posts)
32. I'm someone who thinks the selfish are rather disgusting.
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 01:41 AM
Oct 2013

Don't expect sympathy for losing pay when you can't be bothered to give it in return.

 

TheDebbieDee

(11,119 posts)
33. I didn't ask you for any sympathy, did I?
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 02:01 AM
Oct 2013

I merely stated that I didn't get all the outrage over a joke about kill lists and Edward Snowden when Edward Snowden is alive and well and spilling our secrets at will.......

"Don't expect sympathy for losing pay when you can't be bothered to give it in return." Give sympathy in return to whom? WTH are you talking about? Are you sleep typing or something?

Last1standing - you should take some Ambien and be the next1layingdown. You make about as much sense as the republicants.

I'm bored now and thru with you......

Indi Guy

(3,992 posts)
34. "...Edward Snowden is alive and well and spilling our secrets at will..."???
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 02:34 AM
Oct 2013

So you resent Snowden revealing that our government has been secretly breaking the law on a massive scale -- and eviscerating our Constitutionally guaranteed rights as citizens under the profoundly ironical guise of "national security?"

I am in awe of some of the attitudes expressed here on this board, on this subject.

 

ehcross

(166 posts)
62. Edward Snowden is alive and well and spilling our secrets at will..."???
Sat Oct 12, 2013, 03:11 PM
Oct 2013

Perhaps what the U.S. needs is another 9/11 as a reminder of the things that can happen to Americans.
Edward Snowden is alive and well and spilling our secrets at will. Good for him, for he will have nowhere to run when the next 9/11 comes. His whereabouts are known and planes can hit anywhere.

Americans should not praise Snowden so much. He was trusted too much and his king-size ego got the best of him. Nobody in America knew, nor suspected, that Snowden was a Russian asset under control by no less than Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.
Now he will probably install his super-sophisticated listening devices to allow Putin to monitor the White House cook.





Indi Guy

(3,992 posts)
65. ...Yet another 9/11 boogie man argument.
Sun Oct 13, 2013, 01:04 AM
Oct 2013

We Americans have far more to fear from our own government than from any would-be bin Laden.

Our founding fathers faced far worse than 9/11, and our soldiers and citizenry bore their casualties very well, thank you.

All this fear mongering is an insult to freedom loving Americans.

Sure we need a robust surveillance system, [font color="red"]but it must obey the law and not undermine our Constitution![/font] What's so difficult to understand about that?

last1standing

(11,709 posts)
35. You poor thing.
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 07:45 AM
Oct 2013

Yes you asked for sympathy when you whined about being out of work as some sort of lame excuse for dismissing a sick joke on the part of a former NSA chief (like one has anything to do with the other).

Of course when called out for posting such a childish comment you doubled down with a spiteful tantrum. I expected nothing less from you, and certainly nothing better.

Indi Guy

(3,992 posts)
39. Please, let's all stick to the issues & be kind enough to avoid...
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 11:02 AM
Oct 2013

...ad hominem swipes. I believe we've all had bad days & said some fairly questionable things from time to time.

 

JackRiddler

(24,979 posts)
37. So when he's killed it will be okay to resent it then?
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 08:15 AM
Oct 2013

Snowden is not spilling "our" secrets.

I am not a part of the total surveillance state.

The only "we" in this equation is the people. Snowden is giving us the information that we are entitled to know, information that was hidden from us in violation of the constitution.

 

JackRiddler

(24,979 posts)
36. People who kill joke about killing someone...
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 08:12 AM
Oct 2013

Someone whom the world assumes already is on a kill list.

Totally harmless, you think?

If it's a joke, is this how this government or its officials should be representing itself to a world that already thinks of it as a pack of killers?

Shame on you "TheDebbieDee"

 

JackRiddler

(24,979 posts)
38. PS If you think you are helping Obama
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 08:20 AM
Oct 2013

With that picture and the blind loyalty of an attack dog, think again. I'm just mentioning this because you make the impression you think that's what you are doing. Apologies if that's not your purpose.

People like you who defend public musings on murdering dissidents by former Bush state officials are a P.R. nightmare for the Obama administration. You are objectively damaging this administration.

But wait, maybe that is your purpose in the first place? You want to highlight the most breathaking horrible things the administration does so as to damage it?

 

JackRiddler

(24,979 posts)
46. Interesting, so that means...
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 12:54 PM
Oct 2013

Your purpose, is not to help Obama. Well in that case carry on, you're doing a great job of making bad PR for this admin.

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
41. Cue the manufactured outrage machine......that abhors murder
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 11:25 AM
Oct 2013

Really? ..... I mean really? Two high level republicans joking about murdering a US citizen in the halls of Congress witnessed by the world press.

I think you are more like 'manufacturing consent" on illegal and immoral behavior..... shame on you.

The US hit list and the NSA's role will come out soon.

Indi Guy

(3,992 posts)
43. I'm not at all sure that it was a "joke"...
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 11:40 AM
Oct 2013

...given kind of power wielded by this man. I'm inclined to take a person like that seriously.

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
44. There are things said and things unsaid but implied
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 11:58 AM
Oct 2013

This Bush appointee was on board during the worse
of abuses. He has lied to congress repeatably. He sees himself above the law and able to disregard the Constitution at will if he can get away with it.
It wasn't a joke..... it was a warning to others and to Snowden.

The Republican replied ..''Maybe I can help you with that'' assassination

Sick, pathological and dangerous talk even in private ears but this was before congress.

I think the next Snowden release on NSA's assassination tapes will blow us away. Its coming soon.

Manufactured outrage?......... that statement
was an outrage

Indi Guy

(3,992 posts)
48. Yeah I get that...
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 02:29 PM
Oct 2013

...and as I asked earlier, what about the outrage manufactured against Snowden for "single handedly" crippling our foreign relations along with our national security?

If the billions of dollars we spend on diplomacy & national security can be compromised by a single individual (which I'm not averring) -- wherein lies the problem???

 

TheDebbieDee

(11,119 posts)
42. I'm bored now with this thread and I'm moving on......
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 11:36 AM
Oct 2013

Thanks for the distracting entertainment(?) that many of the responses to my original post in this thread have provided.

Some of you mind-readers have shown that you are in desperate need of some of the mental hygiene services that may have been provided by our government before it was SHUTDOWN. For your sake, for all of our sake's, I hope that you get back on your meds soon. Bye now.

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
45. Then post somewhere else.... this is not about the shutdown FOOL
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 12:03 PM
Oct 2013

Its about the NSA, not you and your lack of medications or rantings about something not pertaining to this thread.

Try to focus...... I can give you links on your issues if you wish.

 

RC

(25,592 posts)
14. Edward Snowden kinda put a few kinks in their long term plans for a prison planet.
Thu Oct 3, 2013, 03:17 PM
Oct 2013

How are they gonna do that if too many people know too much about what they are doing? You know like the US Government for starts.

 

AverageJoe90

(10,745 posts)
49. Or accelerated it, maybe.
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 04:24 PM
Oct 2013

Eddie Snowden really did a LOT of harm to the credibility of whistleblowers as a whole when he decided to flee to China, then Russia, with the info that he'd stolen. Come on, folks, he's no Ellsberg.....Ellsberg actually exposed stuff that had never been made public, and stuff that was actually posing a real and present danger to the public! Not to mention that Ellsberg never put any innocent parties in danger, either. Snowden, however, did the exact opposite, and not even for any altruistic reasons. He did it for the sheer hell of it at the very least....or worse....did it perhaps to screw over the Obama administration; and given that he's a Ron/Rand Paul fanatic I can't help but suspect that it was the latter.

 

RC

(25,592 posts)
50. Bull Shit. Your post is nothing but a list of discredited talking points.
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 05:07 PM
Oct 2013

If Edward (not Eddy) Snowden had not fled, he would be facing the same ordeal as Manning did. The NSA would still be continuing on as if nothing had happened and we would not be much wiser as to the extent of the criminally of our increasingly unconstitutional spying network. Snowden would have been just another blip in the Friday news dump. Snowden did us and the world a favor in exposing the extent of the illegal spying on American citizens.
The NSA is less concerned with terrorist and such, as it is with gathering information on American citizens for the purpose of blackmail and control. You are chugalugging the koolaid here.

 

ehcross

(166 posts)
56. If Edward Snowden had not fled, the U.S. would not be exposed to another catastrophe.
Sun Oct 6, 2013, 10:10 PM
Oct 2013

The country's security is at stake here. Yet no one dares to point out that Edward Snowden, all by himself, was able to destroy a super sophisticated system that allowed his country a level of security never dreamed of.

Everyone is angrily accusing the NSA of breaching their rights to privacy. Not one cares about how U.S. Security had been upgraded to allow better capacity to detect threats on time.

Snowden destroyed years of high technology work leaving the U.S. exposed to danger again.

People don't seem to see farther than their nose, without realizing that THE U.S. IS NOW CONSIDERABLY LESS SECURE THAN IT WAS LAST YEAR.

Lastly, Brazil's president evidently has no need for the degree of security the U.S. evidently needs. Hence, she should not resent the U.S. need for hi-grade communications monitoring, one which might become very handy if her country is ever threatened.

 

RC

(25,592 posts)
57. Really? How can we more secure when our own government spy's on us as if we are the enemy?
Sun Oct 6, 2013, 10:47 PM
Oct 2013

When our private communications are being gathered wholesale and combed for possible subversive intent? Name one, just one terrorist, they exposed? Other than by FBI stings that is.
As far as the NSA is concerned, "We the people..." are the enemy. Ever hear of the 4th Amendment? The spying the NSA is doing on American citizens, is in violation of the Constitution. The do it anyway, under cover of their own secret court, set up for just that purpose, to make it appear legal.

“Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
― Benjamin Franklin


Are you sure you are in the correct site? Your paranoia says no. The United Stated has enemies mainly because too many people in high places depend on those enemies for their pay check. Ever hear of the Military Industrial Complex - MIC? The NSA is a part of that mentality.

BTY, Snowden did the world a favor by what he did. We need more Snowden's. We need more Manning's also.

Indi Guy

(3,992 posts)
58. Why is it so hard to get people to understand the cloak of "national security" is commonly used...
Mon Oct 7, 2013, 12:06 PM
Oct 2013

...as cover for the MIC's protection racket, perpetrated upon the American people. The operative phrase here is "plausible deniability."

 

ehcross

(166 posts)
61. Americans have had it too easy.Do some traveling and you will appreciate the value of what you have
Sat Oct 12, 2013, 02:24 PM
Oct 2013

Americans live in their own world. They don't want to know about the rest of the world. But a little bit of curiousity would show them how lucky they are, and how unlucky most other countries are. That would make them appreciate their luck of having been born in the United States. Do some travelling, you will be surprised at the poverty and chaos most of the world lives in. Perhaps you will also stop complaining and start helping other people follow suit.

No, Edward Snowden is no hero. He could have done a lot to help the U.S. restore some credibiity by supporting the security effort
rather than boicotting it. It is always easy to destroy, but extremely difficult to reconstruct, particularly when prople are indifferent .

You need more Snowdens? More Mannings?

What you need is another 9/11, that will make you feel very, very little, and appreciate the values thay only your country has.


 

reddread

(6,896 posts)
63. pure, unmitigated right wing extremism
Sat Oct 12, 2013, 03:20 PM
Oct 2013

the exact same garbage I have heard from AM radio whackjobs.
go choke on something before you wish terrorism on anyone.

 

RC

(25,592 posts)
64. I have traveled to other countries.
Sat Oct 12, 2013, 06:17 PM
Oct 2013

But it doesn't sound like you have done much travailing yourself, though. Take off your rose colored glasses and look around you.
A lot of that poverty you mentioned is our doings because of our meddling in the internal affairs of other countries, mainly in South America and the Middle East. How many free Democracies have we toppled and installed Right-wing dictatorships? That is where a lot of the poverty is. We have, right here in this country, some of the same hopeless poverty as can be found in any 3rd world country. Bet cha didn't know that, didcha?
There are plenty of people in other countries that are glad they do not live here. They enjoy greater freedom, Universal Health Care, no government spying on them. Better and less expensive education, through university. Faster and better Internet. Much better gun control. Free and honest elections. And have a real voice in what their government goes.
We do need more Snowdens and more Mannings to expose the illegal activities and war crimes our government have been and are still doing.

William Jefferson Clinton, when he was leaving office, gave the incoming bu$h administration a 2½ inch think report about the coming attach. So they knew to within a week of when the attack would be. What was not known, was where. So, the bu$h administration did know about what we now call 9/11 because the previous administration (Clinton) told then about it. The report was shelved, unread. There is no need for another 9/11, because the neo-cons got their wars.

What enemies do we have, that we have not made ourselves? China? If China stopped trading with us, this nation would be on it knees within weeks. We have outsourced way too much of our manufacturing to them, that we used to make here and now can't.
Russia? They are not communist anymore. We were helping Russia dismantle their nuclear armament, until the bu$h II administration was appointed by the Supreme Court. So that came to a screeching halt.
Also Bill Clinton had Israel and Palestine within weeks of signing a peace agreement. He simply ran out of time to get the process done. Bu$h ignored them and all the negotiations fell through.

So, yeah Snowden and Manning are heros. They honored their oath to uphold the Constitution. The NSA spying has not stopped one attack. Not one. They find the culprits after the fact, yes. But they have never stopped anyone before they did their deed, even when they knew what was happening. The ones we hear about, every single one, was a sting operation, usually by the FBI.

 

ehcross

(166 posts)
59. Americans are bitter about their government. So bitter that they blindly reject everything American
Sat Oct 12, 2013, 01:23 PM
Oct 2013

If Edward Snowden had not betrayed his country by exposing classified information which is vital for his country's security, he could have been of inmense value to, not only the United States, but to the world.

It is of great concern how some Americans deliberately reject every measure that is taken to enhance security, unde the pretext that it violates their freedom.

Such attitude clearly shows how little Americans appreciate security, and it is simply because in their country security is assumed, and credible, ever since 9/11.

 

AverageJoe90

(10,745 posts)
52. That WAS unfortunate, TBH.
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 05:45 PM
Oct 2013

I guess Ellsberg was fooled, BIG TIME, by this guy. Because these two men really have nothing in common: Ellsberg was a patriot genuinely concerned about corruption in the gov't. Snowden? He did this shit for the hell of it, at the very least.....and maybe worse.

 

AverageJoe90

(10,745 posts)
54. Well, it sure as HELL is blatantly obvious he wasn't doing this outta altruism.
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 06:29 PM
Oct 2013

Hell, his support of Ron Paul, his past comments about hackers, and the fact that he fled straight to Russia and China with this info, our two biggest rivals, mind you, are all MAJOR red flags. And yet some people still don't get it, because they've been fucking hoodwinked by what is an obvious con game.

Indi Guy

(3,992 posts)
55. You may be right - but still no proof.
Sat Oct 5, 2013, 07:52 AM
Oct 2013

This is my greater concern -- that our government has been secretly breaking the law on a massive scale -- and eviscerating our Constitutionally guaranteed rights as citizens under the profoundly ironical guise of "national security."

Does this concern you at all, or is your outrage only at the messenger of this bad news???

Ash_F

(5,861 posts)
15. Another Republican lacky valiantly defended by 'Democrats' on DU
Thu Oct 3, 2013, 03:23 PM
Oct 2013

Posts in this thread are examples of the feeble sycophancy that has emboldened them into what they are today.

Edit - I guess just one post. Maybe the government shutdown has been embarrassing enough such that the usual suspects have acquired some shame.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
18. Ha ha. It is to laugh at Fascism.
Thu Oct 3, 2013, 03:33 PM
Oct 2013
NPR reporter mockingly said Snowden thought CIA might send the MAFIA after him.



"He actually suggested in that interview that the CIA might send the Mafia after him. That seems probably a little far-fetched." -- Tom Gjelten to Linda Wertheimer

It's no joke. Doesn't anyone at NPR remember how the CIA hired the Mafia to kill Castro?

FTR: That was 1960 when Ike was president, Nixon was veep, and Dulles headed CIA.
 

bobthedrummer

(26,083 posts)
47. Hahah: I suppose he's referencing the work of graduates that learned how to kill from the KUBARK
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 01:23 PM
Oct 2013

manuals or the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation instructors in Georgia. K&R.

Some links to ponder-hahaha
School of the Americas/WHINSEC Wikipedia entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_of_the_Americas

School of the Americas Watch
http://www.soaw.org/about-the-soawhinsec/soa-manuals

National Security Archive KUBARK docs
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB122/index.htm

Or maybe he means the WETWORK taken on from various domestic enemies lists that are part of the history of many former/current leaders of the United States of America?

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