Edward Snowden defends decision to reveal NSA spying in NBC interview <\/p>\n
30 May 2014 <\/p>\n
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden provided a clear and articulate defense of his actions in an interview with NBC News on Wednesday. In his first television interview with the American media, Snowden denounced the criminal activities of the American government, saying, The Constitution of the United States had been violated on a massive scale. <\/p>\n
It is now nearly one year since the first of Snowdens revelations was made public in a June 5, 2013 article in the Guardian. Since then, Snowden has been hounded by the US government, forced into exile in Russia, vilified as a traitor, charged with violations of the Espionage Act, and threatened with violence or death. <\/p>\n
Typical of the lying of the Obama administration were statements Wednesday from US Secretary of State John Kerry, repeated in different forms by various government officials on Thursday. Kerry denounced the whistleblower as a traitor and called him a coward for not coming back to the US to face a show trial for the public service he has carried out. Snowdens defense of his actions was, the head of the State Department declared in prose equal to the power of his arguments, dumb. <\/p>\n
Snowden has maintained a principled stand throughout this yearlong campaign of threats and calumny. His ability to do so is a reflection not only of personal courage, but also the widespread popular support he continues to have. Despite their best efforts, the Obama administration and its accomplices in the media and other governments have failed to shift public opinion. <\/p>\n
What Snowden has revealed in a series of leaks is the very advanced framework of a police state, both illegal and unconstitutional. The National Security Agency (NSA) and the US spy network are engaged in the collection of virtually all communications and the assembling of vast databases for the purpose of monitoring the personal, social and political activities of the entire population. <\/p>\n
While attacking Snowden, the Obama administration and the NSA have sought to cover up their own crimes with lies, including the claim that American citizens are not spied on indiscriminately. <\/p>\n
Now all of our data can be collected without any suspicion of wrongdoing on our part, without any underlying justification, Snowden said in the interview, refuting these claims. All of your private records, all of your private communications, all of your transactions, all of your associations, who you talk to, who you love, what you buy, what you readall of those things can be seized and held by the government and then searched later for any reason, hardly, without any justification, without any real oversight, without any real accountability for those who do wrong. <\/p>\n
Snowden added, Now we have a system of pervasive pre-criminal surveillance, where the government wants to watch what youre doing just to see what youre up to, to see what youre thinking even behind closed doors. He described the ability of the state, on the basis of knowing the pattern of phone calls, to construct a pattern of life for anyone it wants. <\/p>\n
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