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comment by paxprose
paxprose  ·  3399 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: White House response to Edward Snowden petition

    "Since taking office, President Obama has worked with Congress to secure appropriate reforms that balance the protection of civil liberties with the ability of national security professionals to secure information vital to keep Americans safe.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) hack as well as the intrusion to Interior Business Center makes me feel safe as an American /s.

    Instead of constructively addressing these issues, Mr. Snowden's dangerous decision to steal and disclose classified information had severe consequences for the security of our country and the people who work day in and day out to protect it.

Snowden reported that he attempted to do his due diligence and escalate matters through the proper channels, but had no channels to do so. The "danger" as reported by the DoD is that some organizations will alter their behavior making it more difficult to eavesdrop on them. As well, having our allies realize we've been unethically spying on them has caused relationships to go through tension. The former being "unprovable" without classified resources and the latter being common sense.

Unfortunately for the American government, vilifying Snowden won't make anything he revealed go away. Finding him guilty in a kangaroo court won't lessen the impact of the government's blatant abuse technology against its own citizens nor will it fix any of these issues moving forward.

One course of action could be to restructure the NSA's primary objective to auditing and securing existing federal infrastructure. At the same time, hold every single director, congressmen, and senator responsible for contributing to the delinquency of American's privacy; much in the same way they wish to hold Snowden accountable for his actions. Until that happens, I have no qualms about him hiding out in Russia, we're not doing anything to solve the problems he has brought to our attention.