Dally wrote:I agree. But until people stand up and be counted it'll happen. I don't see mass protests, I do not see mass expulsions of mainstream MPs at elections, I do not see direct action against the political establishment. In other words, the majority of us are content to sleep walk into totalitarianism.
Well Snowden certainly stood up to be counted and if you read about his motives one of the reasons he states is he was waiting for a leader to do so but when none came forward he decided he had to act. He thought Obama might reel in the punitive acts that allow these things to go on but he is as bad as all the rest.
Also while you may have joked about it and although I could be wrong, I am not sure you have grasped the extent of what has been going on. He reckons various acts such as the Patriot act directly undermine the US constitution in that they usurp the 4th and 5th amendments.
The 4th is to do with which guarding against unreasonable searches and seizures whereby they should only happen if there is probable cause and if given that a warrant is then obtained. So sifting through peoples emails as a matter of course is against the US constitution. The 5th is about abuse of government authority and legal procedures whereby Snowden thinks the FISA act (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ) and amendments to it (such as as the Patriot act) mean there is little due process other than rubber stamping of warrants (to get past the 4th amendment and instigate searches) by a secret court.
Now given the American public tend to be very suspicious of "big government" this kind of trampling over the constitution may well result in more people standing up to be counted. That is also one of Snowden's motives. By exposing what he sees as fundamental assaults on the constitution he hopes to motivate more than simple controversy.
This is a big issue. It's being said this is the biggest and most significant bit of whistle blowing since the 2nd world war.
Be interesting to see what transpires but reading various comments from around the net he is getting a lot of support from American citizens compared to others such as Assange. The fact he seems to have taken the moral high ground leaves the USA with a bit of a problem of how to deal with him. Going to be interesting to see what happens with this one.
