Snowden had already decided to leak classified information before he had access to any of it - Polidicks

[quote] WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is assisting Snowden's run from U.S. authorities, told reporters Monday that Snowden is "healthy and safe" in an undisclosed location awaiting word on his request for asylum by Ecuador. But no word has come on his location since he arrived in Moscow from Hong Kong on Sunday. Russian media have said he may still be at the airport or been whisked away by diplomats. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday that it is the administration's assumption "that he is in Russia." Carney also criticized Hong Kong and China for claiming the U.S. extradition request for Snowden was not done correctly. The events in the Snowden saga happened on a day when a Hong Kong newspaper revealed that the fugitive told the paper he took his job with a contractor for the National Security Agency for the sole purpose of obtaining evidence on Washington's cyberspying networks. The South China Morning Post reported Monday that Snowden told it in an interview that he sought a position as an analyst with the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton so he could collect proof about the NSA's secret surveillance program and make them public. "My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA hacked," he told the Morning Post in a June 12 interview that was published Monday. "That is why I accepted that position about three months ago." Asked by the Post if he specifically went to Booz Allen Hamilton as a computer systems administrator in Hawaii to gather evidence of surveillance, he replied: "Correct on Booz." Booz Allen spokesman James Fisher declined to comment on the report. Snowden fled to the Chinese territory of Hong Kong last month with top-secret documents and court orders on government surveillance operations. [/quote] [url=http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/06/24/edward-snowden-nsa-leaker-russia-cuba-flight-asylum-ecuador/2451403/]USA Today Source[/url]

Sounds like a traitor to me. [quote]The events in the Snowden saga happened on a day when a Hong Kong newspaper revealed that the fugitive told the paper he took his job with a contractor for the National Security Agency for the sole purpose of obtaining evidence on Washington's cyberspying networks.[/quote]

Not really sure why he would say something like this to a chinese newspaper. Sounds like a load of shit without any proof. Either way it still doesn't invalidate the severity of the issue.

[QUOTE=Emperorconor;41202986]Sounds like a traitor to me.[/QUOTE] Just because he knew ahead of time that there was something fishy and decided to do something about it doesn't make him a traitor. I don't care what the government says or any logical reasoning as to why this man should be considered a traitor. Regardless of whether they could use or did use even the relatively small amount of data they gathered to stop terrorists, I don't care. In this case, and this case alone, I feel as though I should be pulling on the slippery slope fallacy. So they can stop terrorists. That's great. Fantastic. If they look a bit deeper, I'll bet they can stop that murder on 5th next week. A little more and that 7-11 on the corner won't be robbed. Maybe just a little more and that rape or those abusers could be stopped. At what cost though? Eventually I'll be getting talked to by the FBI because I told my buddy three weeks ago in a joke that I knew of a bomb threat to the White House. I know it seems far fetched, but our current reality isn't that far detached from it.

[QUOTE=Vodkavia;41203122]The Nation Security Agency are the traitors you want to be worried about.[/QUOTE] Yes they are secretly trying to waste money in capturing and prosecuting random innocent people. Wake up. People think Snowden could be a traitor because he is assumingly committing treason and telling other superpowers even more secrets of our system. People who think he is a 'Hero' should reconsider.

[QUOTE=valkery;41203105]Just because he knew ahead of time that there was something fishy and decided to do something about it doesn't make him a traitor. [/QUOTE] If he had come across just the NSA information in the course of his work, and then tried to carry it up the chain but got blocked by his superiors, and turned to the media as a last resort and faced the US government in public, I would call him a hero. But as more and more facts come out, it's starting to paint a very different picture of his motivations and his actions. He took a job specifically so that he could leak classified data. He stole, and has now leaked, classified data completely unrelated to the issues he was supposedly whistleblowing. What do cyberattacks against China have to do with domestic surveillance? And now he's been working with our biggest intelligence enemies- China, Russia, and Cuba. But the worst part of all this is that he planned it so far in advance. He didn't even try to follow whistleblowing procedure- he had decided before he even took the job that he was going to steal classified information and flee to China of all places. He literally plotted to commit espionage. He wasn't forced into this by the US government's reaction, he set it up well in advance and knew [I]exactly[/I] what he was doing. Think of it this way: If you were going to defect from the United States to another country, would you be telling the world that you're a traitor? Or would you find some juicy detail in all the info available, release and focus on that in particular, and paint yourself as someone standing up for the rights of the people against the Big Bad Government? If he gives the info he brought with him to Russia it'll seal it.

[QUOTE=Ice Tea;41203173]Yes they are secretly trying to waste money in capturing and prosecuting random innocent people. Wake up. People think Snowden could be a traitor because he is assumingly committing treason and telling other superpowers even more secrets of our system. People who think he is a 'Hero' should reconsider.[/QUOTE] I don't necessarily think he should lose the hero title. I think people are glorifying him for bad reasons, though. He had a goal. He went for it. He just did it in a cowardly, damaging way. But he did it.

Before today, I felt a slight amount of sympathy for him, but now it's becoming more painfully clear that he doesn't really deserve that. The cynic inside me tells me that he is not doing this for good and freedom, but for his own selfish purposes.

[QUOTE=Emperorconor;41203265]Before today, I felt a slight amount of sympathy for him, but now it's becoming more painfully clear that he doesn't really deserve that. The cynic inside me tells me that he is not doing this for good and freedom, but for his own selfish purposes.[/QUOTE] As if that isn't enough, he truly believes he is above the law just because he's a "whistleblower" on programs that were perfectly legal.

[QUOTE=Emperorconor;41203265]Before today, I felt a slight amount of sympathy for him, but now it's becoming more painfully clear that he doesn't really deserve that. The cynic inside me tells me that he is not doing this for good and freedom, but for his own selfish purposes.[/QUOTE] Selfish or Altruistic. Both intentions lead to the same result.

[QUOTE=Emperorconor;41203265]Before today, I felt a slight amount of sympathy for him, but now it's becoming more painfully clear that he doesn't really deserve that. The cynic inside me tells me that he is not doing this for good and freedom, but for his own selfish purposes.[/QUOTE] So far he's done a fantastic job of smearing his own image. A shame there can't be someone to leak something out of wanting nothing more but to reduce corruption. It's even worse that legitimately bad countries will probably use his information to increase the effectiveness of their own programs. Russia and China aren't helping this guy out of the kindness in their hearts.

[QUOTE=Emperorconor;41203265]The cynic inside me tells me that he is not doing this for good and freedom, but for his own selfish purposes.[/QUOTE] But why?

[QUOTE=galenmarek;41203316]So far he's done a fantastic job of smearing his own image. A shame there can't be someone to leak something out of wanting nothing more but to reduce corruption. It's even worse that legitimately bad countries will probably use his information to increase the effectiveness of their own programs. Russia and China aren't helping this guy out of the kindness in their hearts.[/QUOTE] I think you belong to a minority who believe that. It does go to show that the government can do wonders to discredit people who have made sacrifices for the sake of your freedoms, though. Like we've said before, this guy's image and his motives don't mean a damn. Nor do I understand how knowing the government was spying on people and taking on a job with them to expose them to the American public constitutes treachery. He's still a hero. Keep in mind this guy can probably never see his friends and family again. He could easily have turned a blind eye and had a comfortable six-figure salary, lived in financial security for the rest of his life. Instead, he decided to piss off the US government because what they were doing was wrong. One hell of a traitor, eh?

[QUOTE=archangel125;41203409]I think you belong to a minority who believe that. It does go to show that the government can do wonders to discredit people who have made sacrifices for the sake of your freedoms, though. Like we've said before, this guy's image and his motives don't mean a damn. Nor do I understand how knowing the government was spying on people and taking on a job with them to expose them to the American public constitutes treachery. He's still a hero. Keep in mind this guy can probably never see his friends and family again. He could easily have turned a blind eye and had a comfortable six-figure salary, lived in financial security for the rest of his life. Instead, he decided to piss off the US government because what they were doing was wrong. One hell of a traitor, eh?[/QUOTE] Aren't you Canadian? How would you know what the everyday person generally thinks of him aside from the internet and an occasional trip across the border? This is by no means a minority opinion. It's not even a situation where America is the only country that does this. I wouldn't even be surprised if your own country had a similar program seeing how Canada has behind the helm on some downright evil stuff as well. A bad person doing a good deed does not suddenly make a person good. In short I support the act but have disagreements with the man.

[QUOTE=SPESSMEHREN;41203290]As if that isn't enough, he truly believes he is above the law just because he's a "whistleblower" [B]on programs that were perfectly legal.[/B][/QUOTE] I am protesting in my states capital. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution[/url]

[QUOTE=SPESSMEHREN;41203290]As if that isn't enough, he truly believes he is above the law just because he's a "whistleblower" on programs that were perfectly legal.[/QUOTE] Yes, but they were made legal without any consent from the population of America.

[QUOTE=matt000024;41203682]Yes, but they were made legal without any consent from the population of America.[/QUOTE] Because people as a whole are irrational and formulate opinions with half-truths, incorrect, and biased information. If you were to ask for the whole country's input do you seriously expect the government to ever accomplish anything? Especially seeing as you have a significant amount of people who believe Obama is a socialist....

He's still a hero in my eyes. I don't give a damn what his motivations are, he's telling the American public important information about government programs that infringe on our civil liberties and, unsurprisingly, aren't very effective.

[QUOTE=Reimu;41203714]He's still a hero in my eyes. I don't give a damn what his motivations are, he's telling the American public important information about government programs that infringe on our civil liberties and, unsurprisingly, aren't very effective.[/QUOTE] What do you mean not effective

Uhm, excuse me? Where the fuck has all this anti-Snowden sentiment come from? I could understand if he'd gone into the task specifically to be some agent provocateur, deliberately trying to stir up shit by falsifying. However, so far, I have no reason to believe anything he's said is false. Why does it matter that he already knew there was bad stuff there? Does he have to somehow be trusting first and have that naivety broken to be "legit"? I don't get you guys at all.

You can't snow in the Snowden.

It's funny how we always end up focusing more on the guy who leaked the information than the information itself.

Just because he planned this beforehand doesn't really change my opinion on it. Think about it, before this happened did you honestly think the US wasn't up to something sleazy? The way I figure our country is always involved in grey work. Even besides all the well known horrific things our country did this past century, who even knows the what sort of stuff was done in secret. I still love my country, but isn't this the general opinion most people have? I don't think anyone I know will outright say that everything we're doing is legal and decent.

[QUOTE=demoguy08;41203771]It's funny how we always end up focusing more on the guy who leaked the information than the information itself.[/QUOTE] Perhaps because this story is about the person? Things are still being found out about the person but the information isn't going to change.

There's too much we don't know, it's not time to judge. Hero or not, he revealed something worrying and you guys should start be more open minded towards the fact that we are now in an era where information is the greatest weapon, and we carry bullets in our pockets.

ok now he's a felon, not a whistleblower...

[QUOTE=Emperorconor;41203265]Before today, I felt a slight amount of sympathy for him, but now it's becoming more painfully clear that he doesn't really deserve that. The cynic inside me tells me that he is not doing this for good and freedom, but for his own selfish purposes.[/QUOTE] Yeaa he decided to lose his $100,000k+ job and be hunted from the most powerful country in the world because of some selfish want.

[QUOTE=DoctorSalt;41203791]Just because he planned this beforehand doesn't really change my opinion on it. Think about it, before this happened did you honestly think the US wasn't up to something sleazy? The way I figure our country is always involved in grey work. Even besides all the well known horrific things our country did this past century, who even knows the what sort of stuff was done in secret. I still love my country, but isn't this the general opinion most people have? I don't think anyone I know will outright say that everything we're doing is legal and decent.[/QUOTE] You should know 99.99% of what this nation has done. All of it has been declassified.

Every anti-US nation Snowden hops to destroys his image slightly. It will add up if he goes to Cuba and then Ecuador.

[QUOTE=MoarFunz;41203818] and we carry [B]bombs[/B] in our pockets.[/QUOTE] corrected, if stuxnet showed anything, its that a phone can cause a lot of damage just by walking into a room [editline]26th June 2013[/editline] it was able to jump from machine to machine using any form of communications, and phones these days have gazillions of different ways to communicate with machines, through blutooth, wifi, NFC, and a few other ways too