Repeat after me: Edward Snowden is not the story. The story is what he has revealed about the hidden

[NorthCarolina]

By John Naughton, The Observer

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/28/repeat-after-me-edward-snowden-is-not-the-story/

The story is what he has revealed about the hidden wiring of our networked world. This insight seems to have escaped most of the world’s mainstream media, for reasons that escape me but would not have surprised Evelyn Waugh, whose contempt for journalists was one of his few endearing characteristics. The obvious explanations are: incorrigible ignorance; the imperative to personalise stories; or gullibility in swallowing US government spin, which brands Snowden as a spy rather than a whistleblower.

In a way, it doesn’t matter why the media lost the scent. What matters is that they did. So as a public service, let us summarise what Snowden has achieved thus far.

Without him, we would not know how the National Security Agency (NSA) had been able to access the emails, Facebook accounts and videos of citizens across the world; or how it had secretly acquired the phone records of millions of Americans; or how, through a secret court, it has been able to bend nine US internet companies to its demands for access to their users’ data.

Similarly, without Snowden, we would not be debating whether the US government should have turned surveillance into a huge, privatised business, offering data-mining contracts to private contractors such as Booz Allen Hamilton and, in the process, high-level security clearance to thousands of people who shouldn’t have it. <---snip--->

Well worth clicking the link to give the complete piece a read. The issue we should be discussing here on DU is the NSA spying of all American citizens, and whether that fits into what we as citizens have come to expect in a free society. The debate of Snowden, whistleblower or Paul-bot traitor is IMO nothing but a deflection from what should truly concern us as citizens.

[msongs]

1. anything that reveals the true nature of our "leader" must be suppressed nt

[NorthCarolina]

2. OIC. Then is "leader" really correct, or should we now be replacing it with "Dear Leader"? nt

[cascadiance]

3. Snowden has given us the ability to sue the government to find out what it is doing!

When he's given us standing with his "leaks". THAT is really the whole thing in a nutshell and what they are scared of! They can try now to use "state secrets privilege" to try and plug the dam with the slew of lawsuits from EFF, ACLU, EPIC, and many other organizations, but that isn't going to work now with standing working for so many people now that can document they've been spied upon if they can simply show they are Verizon customers and nothing else now.

The media and the PTB are trying to complicate this issue so we don't see it in simple terms like this, but they are failing. Just keep this in mind as the trials start and the ugly details start coming out or the public outrage starts getting livid as soon as people understand more what the state secrets privilege is really doing now. We'll have Snowden to thank for us being able to know the truth about what they've been doing to us for so many years without accountability.

[bemildred]

4. Yep, they are screwed. Pretty much globally, too. nt

[jeff47]

5. I'm afraid he is part of the story

Because he decided what to leak, and what not to leak. So he and Greenwald are inherently part of the story.

The only good thing about the massive document dump Manning did was he didn't hold anything back. Thus his personal foibles weren't relevant to the information he leaked.

In Snowden's case, it's Snowden who decided what was important and was was not important. He decided what to tell the world, and what to keep secret. That means Snowden is extremely important to the story.

[cascadiance]

6. And the government has failed by not allowing ANY "leaking" of what WE are entitled to know...

... as THEIR FUCKING BOSSES, "the people"!

When you have many other whistleblowers trying to let the government "watchdogs" decide what should be and what shouldn't be released, they've failed us, and the whistleblowers have paid increasingly high personal prices for "following the rules"! Snowden's a human being. Manning's a human being. Sibel Edmonds is a human being! And on and on... They may not be perfect, and have their own opinions on things, many of which I don't necessarily agree with either. But, the REAL failure is our government's NOT providing them and us the ability to provide information on what is going on and for us to have access to it through "proper channels" as there are in effect NO CHANNELS for this to happen. THAT is why you have these problems!

[h1]STOP KILLING THE MESSENGER FOLKS![/h1]

You'll regret doing so later if we lose any ability to fix the system if criminals are allowed to continue to their agenda in private against our interests behind the scenes in these agencies!

[jeff47]

7. Again, Snowden and his life are relevant

Because he decided what was important to leak in his opinion.

We don't have all the facts. We have the facts Snowden wanted us to know.

[bemildred]

8. You think he should have just dumped it all out? No discrimination at all? nt

[jeff47]

11. No, but it also means he's an inherent part of the story. (nt)

[bemildred]

13. Thank you. nt

[cascadiance]

9. Is it his job to 'leak" everything? His decision to provide a document that gives us standing...

... IS what we need from him at this moment.

I'm glad he decided to choose those documents released. As that AGAIN, will lead to court cases (and a SLEW of them have just been filed) that will allow us to find out more what we need to know without him being the focal point of other information coming out. It will give us a chance to hopefully have other forces of democracy put in proper restraints as well as proper scrutiny about what we should subsequently release to give us a full story. I'm sure he's holding back to see what will happen in terms of hearing before he releases anything else to see if the cogs of the machine of democracy can actually work to expose wrongdoing he feels he's perceived (as so many other whistleblowers have echoed i supporting him as well).

[jeff47]

12. Again, all I'm saying is the situation makes Snowden part of the story.

I'm not saying it would be better for him to dump everything. I'm saying he is inherently part of the story.

[struggle4progress]

10. He said: "Any analyst at any time can target anyone ... I, sitting at my desk, certainly have

the authorities to wiretap anyone — from you or your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the President."
29-Year Old NSA Whistleblower Makes Mindblowing Claims About The Power He Had
Joe Weisenthal, provided by
Published 12:14 pm, Sunday, June 9, 2013
http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/29-Year-Old-NSA-Whistleblower-Makes-Mindblowing-4590125.php

It is important to know whether or not this claim is true -- and if the claim is not true, that fact certainly has implications regarding Snowden's credibility. And the question of Snowden's credibility is certainly relevant to the entire story