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Edward Snowden and Laura Poitras Win Truth-Telling Award
An anonymous reader writes with news that Snowden has received the Ridenhour Truth-Telling award. From the announcement: "We have selected Edward Snowden and Laura Poitras for their work in exposing the NSA's illegal and unconstitutional bulk collection of the communications of millions of people living in the United States. Their act of courage was undertaken at great personal risk and has sparked a critical and transformative debate about mass surveillance in a country where privacy is considered a constitutional right."
The award will be presented at the National Press Club. It is hoped that Snowden and Poitras will be able to appear remotely (Poitras is in effective exile in Berlin). In related news, the ACLU has indexed all publicly released documented leaked by Snowden. You can even full-text search them.
To tell the truth
My beard, forsooth
Craveth proper soap
E'er since me youth
Burma Shave
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
*sigh* Yes, yes, we know Obama got a Nobel Peace Price and nobody knows why, can we finally drop it? Everyone knows those things are mostly for show by now anyway.
What's it got to do with the topic, anyway?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
But as a veteran, it's really not funny.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
It would go a long way towards making up for that embarrassment of giving Obama that award before he had even done anything.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
We are in sad shape when we give awards to traitors.
Are you talking about Snowden or the many criminals in the NSA and CIA who have won awards over the years?
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Since the Supreme Court refused to rule on the latest challenge http://jurist.org/paperchase/2... we don't know if it is or isn't. In my opinion the original judge who said "that the program is likely unconstitutional" was correct, so the program continues to operate and probably faces years more worth of legal challenges.
Ok, sorry for the knee-jerk reaction. Let's try to be more level headed.
You know what's most astonishing about an award to a "traitor", given by the very same country he "betrayed", really is? That it is given. Think back through history. Can you imagine an award for Julius Rosenberg, given by any kind of US institution? Or let's be less "dramatic", any idea how a criminal of any kind would be given an award by his own country?
Can you imagine what kind of support for a "crime" it takes that the "criminal" gets an award for it? And we're not talking about a spy having backing in the country he spies from. That the Rosenbergs were seen as heroes in the USSR is a given. But we're talking about support for what he has done, without a doubt against the interests of the US government, and the support that he gets for it within the US.
That alone tells me more about the US government and how well the US people feel represented by said government than about the "criminal".
A government should represent its people, and the will of the people. That's the only reason, the only right, a government has to exist if it is supposed to be just and justified. If a government does not do that and instead prosecutes someone who does actually execute what is identified as the will of the people, then I have to admit it is kinda hard to tell for me who is the criminal here, the whistleblower or the government.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If only my mod points didn't just expire. :(
+1 funny.
that lying is the norm.
I told you before Yoda, leave poor Norm alone
What for? He hasn't even killed a single person. Why should he qualify for the Peace Prize?
I don't know who Snowden betrayed, but as an American, he certainly didn't betray me. However, those supporting the NSA's disgusting activities certainly are betraying the American people.
And he should share the credit with all those excessively preoccupied with personal adequacy, power, prestige and vanity!! Here's a salute to all those engrossed with thoughts and fantasies of great success, enormous attractiveness, power, intelligence!!!
It's not that hard to punch that into Wikipedia, is it?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Exiles my arse. Poitras and Applebaum engage in self promotion by giving themselves the artificial "street cred" of self-declared exiles. Oh how hard it must be to blog from Berlin coffee shops while on the lam from the evil US government.
My point was that if the word used has shades of meaning, you can't just grab the first thing from the dictionary and reinterpret the whole term without context. That goes as much for the MoH as for this Truth-Telling Award (I'm not sure if that's a proper name).
Ezekiel 23:20
We are in a sad shape when the whole population of the own country is considered "the enemy". And only then "helping and abedding the enemy" is a valid accusation. If you think otherwise, then any published news would be treason, because each news also helps the enemy.
Contrary to your tiny minded view of the world, not everyone at the NSA is the same.
Its amazing how you can't distinguish between an organization and the people in it.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Everyone in the US armed forces is without honor.
Is that you, Fred "Westboro Baptist Church" Phelps . . . ?
I thought you were dead.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Suppose that I am a whistleblower or leaker, and the FBI wants to discuss the matter with me. Why can't I just send a telepresence machine to talk to them? If they have questions for Assange or Snowden, can't they just use Skype?
Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
The so-called "Peace" prize is indeed badly named. Other famous war makers, H-bomb creator, mass killing authors and terrorists got it:
Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin (1994)
Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat and Menachem Begin (1978)
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (1975)
Henry A. Kissinger and Le Duc Tho (1973)
So perhaps Edward Snowden and Laura Poitras have better not to be awarded
the Nobel.
... that someone who lied and manipulated people is given a 'truth telling' award.
I guess it's OK to lie when you are getting what you want because the voices in your head are telling you it's the right thing to do.
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
The NSA spying on the rest of the world IS DOING THIER FUCKING JOB.
Snowden did not betray me by telling the world of the NSA's immoral spying. If those activities are part of their job, then their job is immoral, and I'm happy he gave us the specifics.
We should not be doing this to innocent people or allies.
If you're too naive to understand how politics work and think that our 'allies' aren't trying to do the same then you're just ignorant and small-minded
Why do you complete morons always assume that people like me think that no one else is doing this sort of thing? Rather, it's not that I think no one else is doing it, *I don't care*. That justifies *nothing*.
No doubt, they did break the law (constitution), but that doesn't justify releasing all the other crap that was ENTIRELY LEGAL AND WHAT THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING.
What is legal is not always right. What is illegal is not always wrong.
In this case, I'd say their supposedly legal activities were wrong.
That made him a traitor.
Not in my eyes.
Thanks, Snowden.
The same? Maybe not. But at this point, anyone staying at the NSA is immoral. Ignorance is no longer an excuse, because the ignorance that these things are happening does not exist.
[End Of Line]
Snowden is just as much a traitor as Obamas office is.
Which piece of furniture or office equipment do you suspect of betraying the country?
The NSA spying on the rest of the world IS DOING THIER FUCKING JOB.
Stop repeating things that aren't true. Unless that country is actively at war with the US, then no. The NSA's espionage and computer fraud (writing malware, sabotaging systems, leaving other vulnerabilities that can be abused by anyone) are an illegal act of aggression and breaks our treaties. Might I remind you that not too long ago, the very same president that is supporting the NSA right now had also called out China for illegal hacking and himself called it an "act of war."
This kind of bullshit being posted here just goes to show that shilling wins. I can't believe this kind of mindset has actually taken foot here.
Its amazing how you can't distinguish between an organization and the people in it.
Organisations are like soylent green: made of people. If "the NSA" is doing bad stuff that means people in the NSA were doing bad stuff.
not everyone at the NSA is the same.
Quite so. They have recently had at least one good, honourable person in they employ: Edward Snowden. That proves that not everyone at the NSA is necessarily bad.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
As long as you are honest about it. I.e, after Obama explains to Angela Merkel and the rest of the European politicians that Europe is the enemy (along with every other country in the rest of the world).
But that's not what's happening. What's happening is Obama is trying to convince European politicians that "the US is still your friend", while the NSA is doing their best to prove the opposite.
So, if their job is to undermine the work of the elected politicians, yes, they are doing their job.
I'm from the Eastboro Sarcastist Church. People confuse us with them all the time.
Ezekiel 23:20
Constitution. If it were there, we would not be having the problems we are currently having.
It's not the furniture, it's the room. You've got to watch those things, being all sneaky acting like they're nothing but empty space between the walls.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Risked everything. Gained nothing.
Snowden.
In fairness the creation of the H-bomb has appeared to have done a great deal for peace - witness the fact that there hasn't been an open war between nuclear powers since its invention, despite many lingering resentments and incentives. Not to mention the horror that would likely have been unleashed had only one side succeeded in their efforts - you can't reasonably argue that either side could have backed away from the project without condemning themselves to a fiery defeat.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
The NSA's job is to look out for our national security. Spying on our close allies and competitors of American corporations does not fall within that purview and violates treaties that we are a signatory to and the law in many other countries.
The old "two wrongs make a right" argument when it comes to spying is tired and pathetic.
I look at wikipedia like breathing but it won't tell you how "prestigious" this award is in literary circles without more digging...
Thank you Dave Raggett
It's funny how shrill some people get when exclaiming Snowden as a traitor, but how *very quiet* these same people are when mentioning that the US gubmint has not only violated the public trust, but also the constitution of the United States, that legal bedrock on which rests all the laws of the land - like it ain't no thing.
Yeah, but Snowden: let's focus on him.
This kind of bullshit being posted here just goes to show that shilling wins.
Oh I wouldn't say they're winning, but by god they're certainly trying.
You're a moron.
You've just told us that you think the janitors at the NSA are as responsible as people like Snowden himself ... who you know ... HELPED TO ACTUALLY IMPLEMENT THIS SHIT IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Jesus christ, you want so hard to hate the NSA that logical and thought go right out the window.
GO HOME NSA YOU ARE DRUNK.
...nothing but empty space between the walls.
For some reason I read that as "empty space between the ears." I guess it's all this talk about politicians and the NSA fapping.
You've just told us that you think the janitors at the NSA are as responsible as people like Snowden himself
No I didn't. I merely pointed out that the presence of Snowden proves beyond doubt that good people are or have worked at the NSA.
Jesus christ, you want so hard to hate the NSA that logical and thought go right out the window.
No, honestly I just like winding you up because you're a nutter.
It is funny though that Snowden (who you hate so much) proves the point (that you love so much) about having good people at the NSA.
trolololololol
SJW n. One who posts facts.
It's ironic that the H-bomb has indeed stopped war on the scale of WW2 since it's development but today the advances in missile defense could very well do the opposite. Any country sitting on a nuclear stockpile of missiles would lose their ultimate defense if the missiles are rendered useless against a robust missile defense system. The defense systems are only going to get better and it won't be long before orbital defense platforms get added to the mix regardless of any treaty about weaponizing space.
Well, ignorance is strength...
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
As someone living in that funny place called "the rest of the world" I say GET YOUR FUCKING SPYING JOB AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR FUCKING ASS.
A few billion people agree with me. They say hello.
I'm a US Citizen. I can assure you that Snowden did the exact opposite of acting as a traitor. I'm assuming you are also a US Citizen. You, however, have shown yourself incapable of determining the difference between treason and patriotism.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Weapons for Peace! Defenses for War! I think you win this weeks prize for appropriate use of the word irony, and here it is only Tuesday.
On the plus side hasn't China been doing some serious research into surface-to-orbit weapons? That should be useful for eliminating orbital defenses, and I'm sure the other Powers are stealing the technology as fast as it's developed. Regional defenses will be a separate issue, and yeah, I don't really see any way to counter them, except via the old tried-and-true missile spamming. Can you detect and destroy all ten expensive shielded warheads among the thousand simultaneously launched cheap incoming missiles?
On the other hand, I have a sinking feeling that food shortages and a changing climate are going to make WWIII virtually inevitable within the next century or so, so perhaps it's best that we have some defenses against our doomsday weapons, if only to give us added incentive to stick to mostly more conventional warfare. After all if you're hoping to invade there's not much point in irradiating enemy territory with intercepted missile debris on the off-chance of taking out your target, and if you're defending then irradiating the invader's homeland is going to largely remove their option to fall back and try to scrape by - probably a bad move unless they're in *really* bad shape to begin with.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
NSA - Just following orders, like the SS did!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
You mean like when we gave the White House to Dick Cheney after exposing our secret agent and her informants, thus rendering America blind in Iran's WMD programs?
VERY selective outrage there!
It would be more embarrassing if they gave Obama the award after he did anything.
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
How come the US has so many exiles for supporting the constitution? Shouldn't supporting the constitution be legal instead of a threat to ones life and liberty?
It's done by the same people that selected Obama for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Ever since that travesty, every single person who ever received the Nobel Peace prize has been trashed. It's a worthless trinket now.