"I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, Internet freedom, and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building... the NSA specifically targets the communications of everyone. It ingests them by default... they are intent on making every conversation and every form of behavior in the world known to them."
– Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden might not yet be a historical figure, but he certainly is a hero. He is the whistleblower of all whistleblowers, the American who blew the lid off of Washington's spying on private citizens. But Snowden's leak revealed that it's not just the U.S. government that is spying on virtually every American – big American telecommunications companies are also helping them to spy as well.

Snowden's upbringing is largely uneventful. His maternal grandfather was a Coast Guard rear admiral and his father was also an officer in the Coast Guard. His mother was a U.S. District Court clerk. His parents divorced around the time that he would have graduated high school in 2001, but Snowden is a high school dropout. After a nine-month absence due to mononucleosis, he simply took the GED exam and then began taking community college classes. Despite a lack of a bachelor's degree, he worked at a master's online from the University of Liverpool.

Snowden had a keen interest in Japanese popular culture, and even worked for an anime company early on in his career.

Continue reading Edward Snowden: The Untold Story of How One Patriotic American Exposed NSA Surveillance on Ammo.com.

I concur, though many here still see him as a traitor.
But if not for Snowden, people would never have found out just how big and corrupt our Govt had gotten.

Bring Trump into context, and we now see just how evil our own Govt had become in it's trampling on our God given Liberties and Freedoms.

Trump had shown the light on these Commie cockroaches and their time is running out.
Who knows, before all is said and done, Snowden might just get a medal for his Patriotism.

Quote from: Solar on June 21, 2021, 06:36:32 AMI concur, though many here still see him as a traitor.

He is absolutely a traitor – specifically to the U.S. government, which illegally spies on its citizens. Whether you feel he betrayed you, however, depends entirely on whether you believe the government acts in your best interests.

Quote from: ammodotcom on June 22, 2021, 11:22:26 PMHe is absolutely a traitor – specifically to the U.S. government, which illegally spies on its citizens. Whether you feel he betrayed you, however, depends entirely on whether you believe the government acts in your best interests.

Well stated! And I absolutely agree, the govt overstepped its assigned limits and needs to be held accountable.
We either restrain our govt (nail its ass to the ground) or lose the soul of our Great Nation.

I honestly believe we're taking back the country as the DNC kills itself off in a last ditch attempt at a Kamikaze mission to destroy this wonderful country..

Quote from: ammodotcom on June 22, 2021, 11:22:26 PMHe is absolutely a traitor – specifically to the U.S. government, which illegally spies on its citizens. Whether you feel he betrayed you, however, depends entirely on whether you believe the government acts in your best interests.

If I remember right, Snowden was a CIA or FBI plant inside the NSA to discredit the NSA which is military intelligence.

I believe Q is military intelligence and that this entire thing going on in government is a proxy war between the civilian intelligence community, contorlled by globalists, and the military intelligence community full of patriots.

So I think snowden was a bad guy working for the civilian intel against military intel.

Quote from: T Hunt on June 23, 2021, 08:43:47 AMIf I remember right, Snowden was a CIA or FBI plant inside the NSA to discredit the NSA which is military intelligence.

I believe Q is military intelligence and that this entire thing going on in government is a proxy war between the civilian intelligence community, contorlled by globalists, and the military intelligence community full of patriots.

So I think snowden was a bad guy working for the civilian intel against military intel.

But was he? What is the NSA, HSA, NSA, CIA, FBI, but a bunch of extensions of the Fed bureaucracy?
Point is, we really don't know the truth, outside of what the leftist media reports.

There's a lot of speculation, but suffice it to say, he did expose what we already suspected, that our own country was illegally compiling data one every single American.

Quote from: Solar on June 23, 2021, 09:22:34 AMBut was he? What is the NSA, HSA, NSA, CIA, FBI, but a bunch of extensions of the Fed bureaucracy?
Point is, we really don't know the truth, outside of what the leftist media reports.

There's a lot of speculation, but suffice it to say, he did expose what we already suspected, that our own country was illegally compiling data one every single American.

And amongst that data is incriminating communications between members of the enemy, ie, clintons, obamas, soros, etc. and all the ones we dont know about.

Quote from: Solar on June 23, 2021, 09:22:34 AMBut was he? What is the NSA, HSA, NSA, CIA, FBI, but a bunch of extensions of the Fed bureaucracy?
Point is, we really don't know the truth, outside of what the leftist media reports.

There's a lot of speculation, but suffice it to say, he did expose what we already suspected, that our own country was illegally compiling data one every single American.

That's always the big question, "Who are you working for?"  the good of America as a whole, and the good of each individual's freedom & liberty?  The follow up question, "HOW do you know, or will you ever know if you really did help preserve our Rights & Freedom?" - or... God forbid, undermine individual liberty?

I think all whistle-blowers come to grips with the "Who are you REALLY working for?" question.  How they answer that, & deal with it, becomes a personal matter (and glad I have NOT had to ask myself).

I'm waiting for the Presidential candidate who recognizes the Right to Privacy as a winning position, and runs on it.  Donald Trump neglected it, which surprised me.  It could have drawn in many more younger voters.  Perhaps they saw Snowden as a potential hazard, and emphasizing anything related to him - as fodder for the MSM to use against himself.

Quote from: Hoofer on June 27, 2021, 09:13:50 AMThat's always the big question, "Who are you working for?"  the good of America as a whole, and the good of each individual's freedom & liberty?  The follow up question, "HOW do you know, or will you ever know if you really did help preserve our Rights & Freedom?" - or... God forbid, undermine individual liberty?

I think all whistle-blowers come to grips with the "Who are you REALLY working for?" question.  How they answer that, & deal with it, becomes a personal matter (and glad I have NOT had to ask myself).

I'm waiting for the Presidential candidate who recognizes the Right to Privacy as a winning position, and runs on it.  Donald Trump neglected it, which surprised me.  It could have drawn in many more younger voters.  Perhaps they saw Snowden as a potential hazard, and emphasizing anything related to him - as fodder for the MSM to use against himself.

Excellent observation!
These people see and know more than most people just going about their lives, voting, thinking they're making a difference.
People like Snowden went down the rabbit hole and saw the real mess, a cancer eating away at the core of American values.

He, no doubt saw both party's playing the espionage game and abusing American citizens, he knew this thing was bigger than just one man to deal with, so he exposed it.
I put myself in his place, I'd have done the same thing, the people needed to know that our govt was acting unconstitutionally, under the guise, it's to protect your freedoms.

If they really ever had our best interests in mind, they would never have gone down the commie road of banning weapons on air traffic and let us protect ourselves and loved ones, as well as other innocents.

Quote from: Solar on June 27, 2021, 09:32:33 AMExcellent observation!
These people see and know more than most people just going about their lives, voting, thinking they're making a difference.
People like Snowden went down the rabbit hole and saw the real mess, a cancer eating away at the core of American values.

He, no doubt saw both party's playing the espionage game and abusing American citizens, he knew this thing was bigger than just one man to deal with, so he exposed it.
I put myself in his place, I'd have done the same thing, the people needed to know that our govt was acting unconstitutionally, under the guise, it's to protect your freedoms.

If they really ever had our best interests in mind, they would never have gone down the commie road of banning weapons on air traffic and let us protect ourselves and loved ones, as well as other innocents.

Our Right to Privacy is easily rationalized away with, "If just ONE life is saved, in the end, we are *justified* in peeking into everyone's lives ... er... we'll just keep it amongst ourselves & not share what we see with anyone else."  So the data collection goes on, government plays God with our personal data.  The goal is to get-it, the question is "how" - by coercion (SSA), paying for it (google), demanding it (census & taxation), other agencies (banks & credit), internet data streams (AT&T, Lumen, Verizon).  For the life of me, we're all pouring so MUCH data into those servers, I don't know how they could possibly store or sort through it all...!

The poor guys who need to administer and just do a job, are fine... till they hear/read something that triggers their conscience, "Who or What are I working for here?"  From the Light ... into the gray .... towards the Black.  The grayer it gets, if they have a conscience, the real struggle begins.  In that sense - Snowden, made his decision - which I cannot really comment on, I don't know what he did, because like anyone with a clearance knows, it is against the law to access classified material you're not suppose to... all I can do is say, "He did something illegal, per what the MSM & government says - what exactly, I do not know."  That sounds stupid, crazy - we were warned & reminded, so we don't go there.  Just a poor guy, doing a job - far as I know, I'm working for the "good guys" - I don't want to know anything else, and I've gotten useto the phrase, "I don't want to know", used it many times. 

Who am I working for?  ...same question was probably pondered in many a German's heart, during WW2.
I honestly think many a missionary & pastor settles that question... with a "Yes Lord, send me".