Turn-key Tyranny

The source of the largest cache of classified materials released in US history has come forward. His name is Edward Snowden, a 29 year old privately contracted NSA technical analyst living in Hawaii, making a comfortable $200,000 a year. Now he's hold up in an undisclosed Hong Kong hotel. I just read the UK Guardian exclusive interview with him, available HERE. Just the preparation of leaving Hawaii in favor of Hong Kong is a fascinating read. He seemed authentically concerned about the growth of electronic surveillance, "turn-key tyranny" as he phrased it.

He also mentions that while he was growing more concerned by the year, with the targeting of foreign communications coming and going out of the US, that in 2007 he had great hope Obama's election would mark the reigning in of these programs. He laments that the opposite occurred. The domestic surveillance ramp up when into overdrive. So distraught was he, that he decided America could no longer wait on its leaders, quote "Sometimes being the first to act, is leadership." So he decided to be a whistleblower.

He goes on to address what is always my biggest concern about national security leaks - real people getting clipped. As a technical analyst (he put up firewalls to guard the secrets collected) he had access to asset names, locations, operations, and most of all the way these Intel collecting computer programs worked - how else would he be able to build systems to protect them, right? Well, he notes that he purposely released only the programs - how they worked, etc - and not actionable Intel so that no one got hurt. No specific names or locations. And he notes that's the difference between himself and other military leaks - these are systems that can be killed, not people.

The article contains within it a 12 minute video interview, which is also worth watching. In addition is his explanation on "Why Hong Kong?", something that piqued my curiosity as well. He does have a fatalistic attitude. He seems to have resigned himself to the fact that he doesn't ride off into the sunset on this one. He mentions the CIA station in Hong Kong, their ability to contract Triads, the possibilities and ways to get to him are endless, and he adds, "In the end if they want you, they will get you. You can not oppose them in any meaningful way." I realize that Hong Kong, in function if not in name, is independent of mainland China. It ranked #1 the last 7 years (by Forbes, if I remember that source right) in the world's best places to do business (read: least restrictive bureaucracy). However, with his treasure trove of information - from assets to programs - were I him, my biggest concern would not be the US. It would be being snatched up by the PLA (China) or FSB (Russia). I'm sure squeezing him for information would be enough to get some colonel promoted to general in either of those outfits.

What he describes, in a nut shell, is that the NSA is intent on collecting all communications, of every kind, and storing them. Then when and if an individual is flagged during an investigation (or mission) they can go back and reconstruct every aspect of his life. So technically the POTUS is correct in saying, "No one is listening to your phone calls or reading your emails." It's true. But all the info is there if they desired to. He hasn't addressed that.

Now here's my concern, philosophically, with this.  There are many, Sen. Lindsay Graham (R) NC among them, who say "I'm not doing any thing wrong, so I don't mind for a minute that the NSA has my Verizon phone number." I'll pass on lamenting what an absolute rube this guy is and focus on what any first year philosophy student worth his salt would ask - who decides what is "wrong?" Who decides what behavior gets you "flagged?" The IRS certainly had ideas on that, didn't they? What about an administration from now? Two administrations from now? Five? At some point could simply reading the wrong book get you flagged? It seems teaching the Constitution was enough to get you flagged with the IRS. And I say this as someone who vehemently defended the Patriot Act at its' inception. My only solace in looking back is that at no time did I ever (nor would I) agree to the NSA simply capturing the communications of every single American. "PRISM" can actually capture your "deletes." In other words, as I type this occasionally I decide to "backspace" and rewrite a sentence, as do we all, right? PRISM can produce the backspaced lines and words! I never argued for that on the back dock of the Grand, I can tell you that.

At any rate, I recommend the article, a fascinating read. Not to mention, given the high opinion we all have of our own IQ's, we're clearly in the wrong business - $200k at 29 years old, living in Hawaii??? Holy crap. Giving up that life, if nothing else, lends credence to his claims.