And you think Edward Snowden is the traitor?
 

The more I read the more I'm convinced that Edward Snowden did the right thing for the right reasons. These other pieces of shit need some jail time if not just for lying to the American people....
Just keep nodding your heads north and south believing everything the "government" tells you until your "Freedoms" are gone.




The intelligence community's secrets and lies
BY STEVE CHAPMAN | AUGUST 7, 2014 | 11:00 AM
TOPICS: CIA NATIONAL SECURITY NSA JAMES CLAPPER

A diplomat was once defined as someone whose job is to lie for his country. That's apparently what makes them different from intelligence officers, whose function is to lie to their country.

How else can you explain why CIA Director John Brennan hasn't been shown the door? Or how Director of National Intelligence James Clapper remains on the federal payroll? Or why Keith Alexander stepped down as head of the National Security Agency only when he was good and ready?

Each of them lied flagrantly to the American people about vital matters of public concern. None paid a price.

The latest example erupted last week, when the CIA's inspector general confirmed that the agency had hacked into Senate Intelligence Committee computers and read emails sent by staffers. The investigation came after Sen. Dianne Feinstein revealed the surreptitious search, charging that the CIA had violated federal law and the Constitution.

At the time, Brennan rejected Feinstein's accusation, insisting that "nothing could be further from the truth." Places far from the truth are his native land. Only after the inspector general delivered his report was Brennan forced to admit he was wrong about Feinstein's complaint — without revealing whether the falsehood was the result of dishonesty or of ignorance.

Yet President Obama shrugged it all off. "I have full confidence in John Brennan," he said, raising the question of what the CIA director would have to do to forfeit his trust. Kill Zooey Deschanel with his bare hands on national TV?

The committee's mistake was looking into something the CIA really didn't want examined: how it interrogated detainees and what it got from them. What the still-classified committee report says, according to the Associated Press, is that the methods "were far more brutal than previously understood" and "failed to produce life-saving intelligence" — and that the agency deceived Congress and the State Department about them.

The assessment is supposed to be made public at some point, but the fight with the committee isn't over. On Tuesday, Feinstein said the CIA is insisting on redactions that would deprive the public of "key facts that support the report's findings and conclusions."

It's no surprise that Brennan finds transparency unappealing. In using waterboarding and other vicious techniques, the agency shredded a 1994 federal law that bans torture. It violated international treaties ratified by the United States.

It even killed people: Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell during the Bush administration, testified that 108 detainees had died in the custody of the CIA or the U.S. military, including at least 25 homicides. The CIA destroyed hundreds of hours' worth of video footage documenting what it had done.

Lying to the people they are supposed to serve is just part of the job description for top intelligence officials. At a 2013 Senate hearing, Clapper was asked, "Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?" He said it didn't — despite the agency's massive collection of domestic phone records.

Clapper delivered that reply even though he had been given the question in advance, and he stuck to it even after the committee offered him the chance to change it. He gave it because he figured he could get away with lying. And he might have, if Edward Snowden hadn't exposed the truth.

cont:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/the-in...rticle/2551781

The bad acts of Brennan and Clapper or anyone else do not justify the actions of Lil' Eddie or at least not in my mind. We will just have to agree to disagree on this one TS. :p

A modest proposal: Hang Clapper and Brennan and confine Lil' Eddie to be Putin's Bitch. Works for me. :D

TS ~ I'm along the same feeling as you. I do feel there are tons, and I mean TONS of people within our Goverment that should be going to Jail over these Problems. I will say that I feel that Snowden, IMO, didn't "Try hard enough" to get the word out. I do still feel he was handled by "SOMEONE." Done very well TO!!!

Have yo read No Place to Hide? Pick it up, very EYE OPENING!!

http://www.amazon.com/No-Place-Hide-.../dp/162779073X

No doubt he was "handled". IMO the lead candidate is Julian Assange. Still does not exonerate him though.

Yes he was by Julian Assange, but you have to look two or three levels out to see who it really was/is.

What a relief
 

It's good to know I'm not alone in this view of issues. No wonder the gvrnmt is afraid of vets...

OK, now you have me curious MG. Your skills in this area are way beyond mine. Care to share your speculation of who or what beyond Assange. Inquiring minds want to know. :D

No doubt Assange is not a sole operator and something or someone is pulling his strings. Probably and institution or government. What's your assessment?

After a discussion based on the conflict of opinions on whether Snowden was a traitor or hero (or pawn), I was reviewing several threads on the subject to include this one....

Is there any chance Trapper John's question could be answered or elaborated on? Just for the sake of becoming better informed? :D

Sorry Trapper John,

Julian Assange is an awful weak candidate to be put forward as a "handler" for anyone.

If you had posited that he was also being handled, and at the end was one of the Boffins at Langley /Meade who was, late in life, cleansing his sins, I might agree.
SnT

Concur.

Sounds like a story line from "Blacklist".....It must be the nefarious Cabol (spelling??) :D

Assange is still the next in-line as the handler and probably is a "cut-out". Remember, it was his attorneys that were accompanying Lil' Eddie on his big adventure to and from China and on into Russia.

I can believe that Assange is handled too by someone or some institution (foreign or domestic). I think we can safely rule out the Chinese. They were getting all the SIGINT they needed through hacking. BTW, the China asylum attempt just showed how uninformed the "Handler" really is.

Unless that was a Red Herring to brilliantly throw everyone off track. Then I am guessing the Russians were pulling the strings and are the ultimate Handlers.

Or maybe the Clinton Foundation is behind it all?? :D

And One More Thing
 

I am taking an unpopular view point, but I say that NSAs collection of metadata is a very useful tool for monitoring (mapping) suspected terrorists their networks and their activities.

When 100,000 Syrian "refugees" are resettled CONUS we may be wishing that we weren't so quick to condemn this program. Then we will see the true damage caused by Lil' Eddie and just how far ahead his Handlers were thinking.

The Russian handler scenario begins to fit.

Very good points! So that leaves us with one option - we turn the whole NSA surveillance program over to MtnGoat! :D

Then again, it's entirely possible that it's as simple as previously thought, including the circuitous route (geographically-speaking) he took to end up in Russia. Given his more recent actions vis a vis his respect for the current US administration, Putin had nothing to lose by granting Snowden a place to chill out. (Sitting back after stirring the pot & watching a few national pots boil over in indignation might be a perk for him....)