The Creep, Assange, speaks

Seven whistleblowers, and that description is used very lightly here, have been prosecuted under the Espionage Act during Obama's presidency.

According to ABC News, "Since Mr Obama took office in 2009, charges have been laid against seven current or former federal government employees or contractors. This is one area of agreement with Obama.

1. Edward Snowden, 2013
2. John Kiriakou, 2012
3. Jeffrey Sterling, 2010
4. Bradley Manning, 2010
5. Thomas Drake, 2010
6. Stephen Kim, 2010
7. Shamai Leibowitz, 2009

In each case, the charges were brought under the Espionage Act of 1917."

On November 28, 2010, Julian Assange's WikiLeaks began releasing some of the 251,000 U.S. diplomatic cables in their possession given to them by Manning, of which over 53 percent are listed as unclassified, 40 percent are "Confidential" and just over six percent are classified "Secret.

NSA Phone Surveillance ruled Legal

New York federal judge rules NSA phone surveillance is legal.

Perhaps now the ACLU and traitor Ed Snowden will shut-up.

Jerk of the Day - Michael V. Hayden

We're in trouble!  Former National Security Agency Chief Michael V. Hayden got eavesdropped!   He was also once the head of the CIA. Read about it here.

Just shows how a punk like Ed Snowden can drive rings around spy chiefs who should know better.

Looking obliquely sideways

China is known to be targeting U.S. missile defenses and is also developing its own missile defenses. China is now capable of jamming our communications defenses information of which was given to them by a US spy who was convicted of passing intelligence and now in prison for four years...not long enough. In another case, millions in trade secrets were handed over to Chinese.

Read more... and then draw your own conclusions why a Bradley Manning/Julian Assange or an Ed Snowden are no heroes for exposing American secrets. These are not some non-essential "leakers" or "whistleblowers."  Snowden leaked a secret NSA program and in the Manning/Assange affair, top secret videos, incident reports from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, information on detainees at Guantanamo and thousands of State Department cables were leaked to the enemy.

What in hell is going on with some people who live in the greatest country on Earth?  Where did all these skewed moralists come from?

Another Cold War?

Russia formally rejects Attorney General Eric Holder's request for Ed Snowden's extradition back to the United States. It's really remarkable how the U.S. is being jerked around by the world.

Read more... at the Free Beacon.

Read where Russia has given Snowden temporary asylum.

Ed Snowden wants to join KGB Group

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Renegade National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has applied to join a group of former Russian intelligence and security officials, according to the group’s director.

If this is the case, it is curtains for snowden if he is ever back in the good ole U.S. of A. He should have listened to his Dad.

Read more...

Venezuela to harbor Snowden?

Venezuela might shelter Ed Snowden.  Read about it.  Snowden just keeps digging his grave.

Trivia:  Venezuela currently is not receiving any major foreign aid from the United States. Since the discovery of oil in the early 20th century, Venezuela has been one of the world's leading exporters of oil and has the largest oil reserves. Currently, Venezuela's economy is in a steady state of decline and the crime rate has sharply increased and is among the highest in the world. Source: Wikipedia.

Snowden's "background" check

Do we ever get what we pay for today?  Do we ever get what we expect from elected officials?  What about from those we hire?  We have found out firsthand, right here in Lake Worth, that we have had staff problems of a magnitude that would blow the ordinary guy's mind. Now we find out that Ed Snowden's  background check was inadequate.  It is difficult to imagine that this could happen with a prospective employee who was to be placed in a highly sensitive position allowing him access to government secrets. This country is "losing it" on a daily basis.

Federal investigators have told lawmakers they have evidence that USIS, the contractor that screened Edward Snowden for his top-secret clearance, repeatedly misled the government about the thoroughness of its background checks, according to people familiar with the matter.

Read more... at the Washington Post.

Edward Snowden

The Empty Seat

With his passport annulled, Snowden is doing a lot of traveling lately-- Hong Kong and then to Russia, and is awaiting word from Ecuador.  He failed to board a flight to Cuba today and rumor has it that Russia might hand him over to us afterall.  Julian Assange is living in the  Ecuadorian Embassy in London after committing acts against the interests of the United States of America.

All amounts in U.S. dollars. Numbers are estimates, usually based on the closest year for which data are available.

All Grant Aid to Ecuador, All Programs, 2009-2014

2009--$64,348,540
2010--$60,541,684
2011--$35,003,155
2012--$35,690,155
2013--$35,690,155
2014--$25,849,155

TOTAL:  $257,122,844

Hopefully Russia will turn him over to us and we won't have to consider Ecuador  even contemplating accepting Edward Snowden. What's with Ecuador? Was it because we decreased our foreign aid?

Poll Results on Ed Snowden

Is Ed Snowden a Hero or a Traitor--Poll Results Hero of the 4th Amendment...28%
Dirty rotten traitor...46%
Julian Assange in disguise...6%
Love this guy...3%
Not sure...21%

James Clapper and Ed Snowden

Comment Up

James Clapper

Director of National Intelligence

I have been thinking about Snowden for days wondering how anyone could be that brave, or that stupid, or that evil or that moral. Our own intelligence "slipped up" when it came to Ed Snowden. How did a lower level employee garner so much intelligence information and gain access to millions of secret files?  Ed Snowden who "escaped" to Hong Kong, says of himself, "People who think I made a mistake in picking Hong Kong as a location misunderstand my intentions. I am not here to hide from justice; I am here to reveal criminality."

The Director of National Intelligence says, "Among the most important and valuable foreign intelligence information we collect, and is used to protect our nation from a wide variety of threats, ... The unauthorized disclosure of information about this important and entirely legal program is reprehensible and risks important protections for the security of Americans."

Former CIA and Pentagon Chief of Staff Jeremy Bash says, "Snowden’s brain – his knowledge of how our intelligence systems work – would be more dangerous in the hands of a foreign government than any documents he has leaked." And of course Snowden is in Hong Kong pussy footing with the Chinese, a country that the U.S. doesn't even realize is its enemy. Whoever is footing his bill is also the enemy.

Joel Brenner, a former NSA inspector general, said any investigation needs to focus on how Snowden “had access to such a startling range of information. The spy you want in an organization may not be the executive assistant to the secretary of state; it may be the guy in the bowels of the IT department because he has system-administrator privileges and because that person is also in a position to insert malware into your system to facilitate remote access.”

We have all seen the James Bond movies through the years and we know that a lot of "dishonest" methods are used to gather intelligence. This is an erratic world. Half the countries on the globe want to take our money first and then annihilate us. Employees such as Snowden who believe that whistleblowing and revealing intelligence secrets are A-Okay based on their own sense of morality,  put the intelligence community in tailspins as well as our country. The honorable thing for Mr. Snowden to have done was to resign. Isn't what he did "criminal" and a betrayal of his country?

It's still all a mystery and I still have to wonder if he really thought that the greater good of this country was not being served and that our country had stepped on the Constitution when he decided to become a whistleblower. In some strange and fascinating way, I have to admire him.

Julian Assange calls Ed Snowden a hero

What do you think about Ed? Traitor or hero? Are the circumstances the same for Assange and Snowden? Take the poll.

Ed Snowden's girlfriend

Ed Snowden, NSA Whistleblower

Daniel Ellsberg speaks out on Edward Snowden

In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden's release of NSA material – and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago. The Pentagon Papers said that the Lyndon Baines Johnson Administration had systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress, about a subject of transcendent national interest and significance.

"Snowden's whistleblowing gives us the possibility to roll back a key part of what has amounted to an 'executive coup' against the US Constitution," said Daniel Ellsberg.