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| DATE | 2017-06-07 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Snowden
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RT News - not a great source but not a bad article
‘I’m comfortable with my choices’: Snowden on CIA torture, ISIS and
surveillance
Published time: 6 Nov, 2015 20:16
Edited time: 6 Nov, 2015 20:22
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‘I’m comfortable with my choices’: Snowden on CIA torture, ISIS and
surveillance
Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. © Svein
Ove Ekornesvaag / NTB Scanpix / Reuters
In an interview with Swedish media, whistleblower Edward Snowden opened
up about CIA torture, ISIS, and mass surveillance. Two-and-a-half years
after revealing the NSA’s mass surveillance tactics, he says he’s “very
comfortable” with his choices.
The interview, conducted by journalists Lena Sundström and Lotta
Härdelin for Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter newspaper, took place at a Moscow
hotel. Just as you might expect at the beginning of an interview, the
two reporters began by asking Snowden how he’s doing.
“It’s hard for me to talk about what it’s like, because anything I say
is going to be used by US critics. If I say good things about Russia,
you know, like ‘it’s not hell,’ then they’ll be like ‘he fell in love
with the Kremlin’ or something like that. If I say something terrible,
then it’s the same thing. Then they’ll go ‘oh, he hates it in Russia,
you know he’s miserable,’” Snowden told the journalists.
Look at how well -at-Snowden has learned the tricks of the
Kremlin-obsessed US press https://t.co/ECun3y9QVvpic.twitter.com/1fkWImHlhK
— Glenn Greenwald (-at-ggreenwald) November 6, 2015
The whistleblower was, however, willing to speak about what he misses
the most – his family.
“But I’m very comfortable with the choices I’ve made. I can still see my
family when they come here to visit. I can still communicate with anyone
anywhere,” he said, adding that the conditions of exile have changed
with today’s modern world.
“It used to be, when people were pressed into exile, they’d lose their
connections, they’d lose their significance, they’d lose their influence
in the political debate...but technology is changing that. Exile as a
strategy is beginning to fail,” Snowden said.
On CIA torture
Snowden said it is “really just crazy, the way that the US government
has handled the issue of torture.”
“...There were indications that there were people in the CIA, who wanted
to talk about these things, but who felt stressed. Some even asked to be
moved, because they couldn’t cope with the things they were witnessing
and they wanted to do something about it. But instead of providing some
path for these individuals to report the wrongdoings that they were
witnessing, the CIA actually asked them to stop documenting the abuse,”
he stated.
Read more
American whistleblower Edward Snowden © Andrew Kelly Denmark could vote
on Snowden asylum, as MPs get inspired by European Parliament resolution
He accused the US government of choosing to avoid embarrassment by
hiding wrongdoing, rather than actually trying to fix problems – even if
that approach could lead to greater, more entrenched threats.
When asked about foreign countries that host black sites and torture
centers, Snowden said they set a bad precedent for the entire world.
“These countries begin to think we’re okay with that, these are things
we’re willing to do, because if America does it, it must be alright...”
“...But ultimately, these things come out. You can’t keep a secret
that’s so horrendous forever. You can keep it for years; you may be able
to keep it for decades. But eventually it will come out. And you pay a
moral cost. We actually spend money to shoot ourselves in the foot,”
Snowden said.
When explaining why he thinks the rest of the world turns a blind eye to
such arrangements, the whistleblower said it is “legitimized by the
threat of terrorism.”
On US drone attacks and ISIS
Referring to the so-called ‘Drone Papers’ – classified documents about
US drone strikes published by The Intercept in October revealing that
nine out of ten people killed by drones weren’t the intended targets –
Snowden stressed that Washington doesn’t target individuals with its
drones, but rather phones.
“And they don’t know whether the terrorist is holding the phone or
whether his mother is holding it. And this is why so many drone strikes
go wrong, why so many wedding parties get hit,” he said.
READ MORE: Leaked: 'New Snowden' releases Obama's drone program papers
“When I saw the Drone Papers, there wasn’t a question in my mind that
this was the most important security story of the year,” he said.
He added that the drone program “creates more terrorists than it kills.”
Snowden had a similar view on ISIS, saying there was “no Islamic State
until we started bombing these states. The biggest threat we face in the
region was born from our own policies.”
He accused the US of “thinking on an emotional level, not a smart
level,” as it launches an “immediate response that doesn’t make sense.”
On US mass surveillance
Referring to the US mass surveillance tactics that made him a household
name, Snowden said that even those who think they have “nothing to hide”
should be against the methods used by the National Security Agency (NSA).
Read more
Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. © Andrew
Kelly ‘Big move in the right direction’: Snowden may see travel
restrictions ease after EU vote
“It’s not about not having something to hide; it’s about having
something to lose. What we lose when we’re under observation is our
humanity. What shapes us, what makes us individuals, is the fact that we
can think, we can develop,” he said.
He went on to state that “arguing that you don’t care about the right to
privacy because you have nothing to hide, is no different than saying
you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say, or the
freedom of press because you’re not a journalist, or the freedom of
religion because you’re not a Christian. Rights in societies are
collective, and individual. You can’t give away the rights of a
minority, even if you vote as a majority. Rights are inherent to our
nature, they’re not granted by governments, they’re guaranteed by
governments. They’re protected by governments.”
Snowden, a former contractor for the NSA, made international headlines
in 2013 when he exposed the US government’s secret mass surveillance
program. He now resides in Russia, where he was granted asylum after
Washington charged him with theft and espionage.
Regarding his whistleblower status, Snowden stressed during the
interview that “being a whistleblower is not about who you are; it’s
about what you’ve seen. Whistleblowers are elected by circumstance,
anybody can do it. It’s about people who watch, who think, and who
eventually respond.”
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/resources - Unpublished Archive
http://www.coinhangout.com - coins!
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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