Snowden patriot or patsy?

For those that were quick to call Snowden a hero, freedom fighter and patriotic whistle blower, I did not. I don’t hold it against anyone if they see it differently.

It’s possible he is a Leftist or Marxist rebel too. And his dealing with China press is propelling that possibility. So I reserve those terms for true patriots. He seems to be attracting the same cult following as Manning as well. Given his youth, I’m also skeptical.

Was the info helpful to confirm what most of us had already surmised anyway? Sure, but he comes with some extra baggage. He did expose the lies to the unanswered questions by unelected, bureaucratic elites.

Snowden’s U.S. hacking claim captures Chinese attention

By Jia Lynn Yang, Published: June 13 — Washington Post

HONG KONG —For days the reaction in mainland China to the presence in this city of Edward Snowden, who has confessed to leaking information about secret U.S. surveillance programs, was almost total indifference. Now, with his claim that the U.S. government has been hacking Chinese institutions for years, he has the country’s attention.

His decision to talk about U.S. espionage operations in other countries marked an apparent turn from earlier statements that his primary motive was to expose his government’s abuse of civil liberties. The South China Morning Post said Snowden had showed them “unverified documents” corroborating his claims about U.S. cyberattacks against China and Hong Kong.

Snowden said: “My intention is to ask the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate. I have been given no reason to doubt your system.’’

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/snowdens-us-hacking-claim-captures-chinese-attention/2013/06/13/e8303ffa-d417-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_story.html

Greenwald: We Have List of NSA Targets

Lawmakers Deny Knowing About Cell Phone, Internet Tracking

Newsmax

Saturday, 08 Jun 2013 10:07 AM

By Sandy Fitzgerald

Congressional intelligence briefing sessions have not included details about President Barack Obama’s data-gathering programs, despite claims by the president that Congress approved the measures and “every member” knew about them, Republican Rep. Aaron Schock said.

“I can assure you the phone number tracking of non-criminal, non-terrorist suspects was not discussed,” the Illinois lawmaker told Politico. “Most members have stopped going to their classified briefings because they rarely tell us anything we don’t already know in the news. It really has become a charade.”

Responding to the furor over the National Security Agency’s data monitoring programs, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky introduced legislation Friday that requires a warrant be issued before any government agency can search phone records of Americans.

Paul calls the revelation of the program to collect phone records of millions of Verizon customers “an astounding assault on the Constitution.”

But meanwhile, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle deny Obama’s claims that they knew about plans to monitor cell phone and Internet use of Americans, and many said they either learned of the programs through the news or after asking specifically to be briefed.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said that the average member of Congress doesn’t receive such briefings, and would not have know about programs to monitor cell phone records and Internet use unless they were on an intelligence committee, like Schock, were in special sessions in 2011 or asked to be briefed.

Durbin said he only learned about the two programs after asking for a briefing after being urged by Democratic Sen Ron Wyden of Oregon.

And while Obama said members of Congress “could raise those issues very aggressively,” Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland told Attorney General Eric Holder Thursday that the news that Congress was “fully briefed” came as a surprise to her and other lawmakers.

“This ‘fully briefed’ is something that drives us up the wall, because often ‘fully briefed’ means a group of eight leadership; it does not necessarily mean relevant committees,” Mikulski said.

Briefings were made available, and regularly given to those on House and Senate intelligence committees, but weren’t offered — except by request — to other lawmakers.
The Senate Intelligence Committee has in the past invited all 100 senators to read a classified report concerning “roving authority for electronic surveillance” in a secure location in the Hart Senate Office Building, but Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she does not know how many actually read the report.

In addition, nine senators and 61 congressmen have taken office after the 2010 and 2011 briefings, and new members like Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas say they were not informed of either program without asking about it.

“Americans trusted President Obama when he came to office promising the most transparent administration in history,” Cruz said Friday. “But that trust has been broken and the only way to earn it back is to tell the truth.”

http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/congress-obama-surveillance-tracking/2013/06/08/id/508783?s=al&promo_code=13C51-1

H/T to Dave for article

Do we have anyone in Washington who does know anything. Naturally, there are a lot of new members. For Obama to claim everyone was briefed was yet another lie. What’s one more when you’re on a roll?