The United States Wants Edward Snowden Arrested Immediately

This past week, Edward Snowden was invited to Norway to receive the Bjornson Prize, by the Bjornstjern Bjornson Acadamy for freedom of expression. In their own words, the award is being presented for "work protecting privacy and shining a critical light on U.S. surveillance of its citizens and others." Snowden did not appear in person. Why? Because the United States sent them a memo, demanding the immediate arrest of Snowden and confiscation of his computers, cell phones, and any other electronic trappings found on his person or in his luggage.

Since a Norwegian institution has offered an award to Snowden for the very act for which the United States has issued an arrest warrant, it seems unlikely that anyone in Norway will request any of Snowden's time for anything besides getting an autograph from him. In fact, Norway's Department of Justice reassures us all that, "What Norway has done is to inform the American authorities how the Norwegian justice system works. If they request an extradition, the prosecuting authorities will decide if the case should be brought before the courts. And the court will decide if the terms for extradition are fulfilled." Imagine that! The United States does not get its own way when hounding a citizen in the civilized world! The CIA and the FBI have also pressured other countries to arrest Snowden on sight. America has even threatened to alter diplomatic relations with other countries over imminent refusals to bully and falsely arrest Snowden. He is not their problem; he is America's problem, and many people in America are not particularly troubled by Snowden.

Why hasn't the Department of Justice, here in the United States, looked a little harder at Booz, Allen, Hamilton because of the security leak involving Edward Snowden? They are, after all, the company that was responsible for the "government data" that was revealed to the public. Wasn't it their responsibility to conduct a background check and insure that everyone they trusted with the government's "private" information was worthy of a security clearance? Booz/Allen/Hamilton are really the ones who should answer for Snowden's actions. The government does, indeed, have a civil claim against them, but as other countries see it, not so much against Snowden. If Snowden were wanted for kidnapping, human trafficking, or murder; or even for nonpayment of child support, Norwegian officials might be more sympathetic. At this point, it is a surprise that the United States government even thought that asking for the arrest of Edward Snowden was worth the time it would take to make the request.

Speaking of human trafficking, the government of Guatemala has, since 2012, been demanding the return of a kidnapping victim by the name of Anyeli Hernandez Rodriguez, who was bought by Dr. Timothy Monahan and and his wife, Jennifer, from a kidnapping ring in 2008. Because the Monahans feel that the trafficked child became their personal property upon receipt of payment, they refuse to give her back to her parents and her siblings. In 2012, the State Department announced that it would not require the distinguished customers of human traffickers in Missouri to give the little girl back. "So sorry, Guatemala, we know she was trafficked; it's just that you had not yet signed the Hague Convention, so why should we care about a crime that was committed against one of your citizens?" Or something like that. The point is, if the United States government wants the respect of other governments, human trafficking victims should not be held hostage with the blessing of the State Department.

 

Anyeli Hernandez Rodgriguez, aka Karen Monahan

Whistle Blowing The Old Fashioned Way

Whistle blowing. A fun, new concept that really shouldn't represent a necessity. But yet, it does. What a shame that we do not teach history well enough in our public schools to avoid that other necessity of repeating history when we fail to learn an important lesson the first time. Or the second, third, or fourth time, as the case may be.

The subject of the expectation of privacy, and respect for the same, has been in the spotlight many times in American history. We have local and federal laws protecting privacy, and our nation's Constitution addresses it, as well. Verdicts in capital murder cases have been overturned because of governmental abuses of citizens' rights to privacy. A republican president even resigned as a result of the way his administration treated the rights of others to privacy. Anyone remember Watergate? So why was it necessary for Edward Snowden to remind the general public that we still have not learned a damn thing from our own history?

Back in the day, before the internet, we got things done the old fashioned way. A very recently published book titled The Burglary describes the actions of John and Bonnie Raines, and Keith Forsythe whistleblowing without the internet. J. Edgar Hoover, the head honcho of the FBI in 1971, was already notorious for blackmailing and threatening others. Despite American law and the Constitution, he established and sanctioned government practices of blatantly ignoring the rights of American citizens. Digging up dirt and using personal information to which he had no legal right was his most typical tool of blackmail, and it was his policy to encourage all law enforcement agencies to violate the law this way. Granted, he was FBI, not state or local police departments, but we cannot forget what rolls downhill.

Bonnie Raines cased the FBI building in Media, Pennsylvania, and one night, she and her cohorts broke in and stole a bunch of classified documents which outlined directives to snoop illegally, blackmail, threaten, and bypass the rights of anyone and everyone who found themselves at cross purposes with the government, as it concerned J. Edgar Hoover. After finding pertinent bits and pieces of information in their loot, the group anonymously gave it to a journalist for the Washington Post. The attorney general serving at the time asked the Post not to publish this information, and J. Edgar Hoover was furious.......yet, the show went on. Much of the privacy and many of the rights connected to privacy enjoyed by Americans today, along with the ability to question authority from the individual standpoint owes to this anonymous action and risk, taken by these three individuals. J. Edgar Hoover sought to become more powerful than the Truth, but alas! He was unsuccessful. The burglars were never caught, and their identities never came to light until their book was published. What did come to light was the corruption that had engulfed and swallowed all branches of the government at the time.

What isn't known is whether or not J. Edgar Hoover ever stopped to consider the irony of this particular burglary taking place in a town called "Media".

Favorite Commercial Of The Year

In 2013, I didn't really have a favorite commercial, so I dug up my favorite from 2012. It was the commercial for the Obama campaign, calling out Mitt Romney for his attack on Public Television and Sesame Street. Some of this years big headlines in the news, such as Edward Snowden and the NSA spying techniques and Obamacare's misalignment into practical use, have distracted our attention from those who have used elected and appointed position, social or judicial power, invested or borrowed money, and public trust to rob, abuse, and deceive. Any bites taken out of education or learning can only make easier victims out of members of the general population. Shame on anyone who wants to limit or control educational broadcasts for children. While Sesame Street only allowed the Obama campaign to use Big Bird for a couple of days in order to make a point, I think we all need to turn our attention back to the white collar criminals who have real potential to destroy local and national economies and ruin lives. This spoof on Romney remains my favorite commercial.

 

Charles Ponzi, inventor of Ponzi Schemes.

 

BooHooHoo! We Don't Have Time To Spy Anymore!

It seems the NSA is a bit anal retentive these days because they do not have as much time to devote to unrestrained spying, thanks to Edward Snowden and the information he released to the general public. The NSA would much rather operate in secret, allegedly gathering as much intelligence as possible about foreign targets and "protecting" the United States. That's a very nice thought, but Snowden's leaks did not actually deal very much with surveillance of foreign nationals operating in a hostile fashion; the leaks dealt with metadata collected and stored about the everyday lives and activities of average American citizens. That said, it seems plausible that those who spy for the NSA may actually be prevaricating when they express concerns that foreign targets upon whom they spy will now be forewarned and change their communication styles and mediums in an ongoing effort to frustrate information harvests.

How often has the NSA successfully averted unfortunate goings-on in the dominions and lives of everyday citizens? A look at any news network will show that if the NSA truly has any intentions of making the world a safer place for Americans and others, they've been slacking lately. What, exactly then, have they been doing with all of the data they collect? The ability to intercept Facebook and Twitter communications could stop a lot of everyday criminal activity. While the NSA can argue that those everyday criminal activities are petty crimes, and not worthy of their attention, the direction of prosecutors nationwide has been to criminalize, over-criminalize, and charge each and every defendant or police detainee with a felony whenever possible. It seems, kinda, sorta, like informing local sheriff departments about premeditated felony crime should be a priority of sorts, or at least a side interest, if the intelligence to intercept is available, which it clearly is. How many missing persons cases are still open?  How many times has the NSA offered it's help in locating missing children? Probably never. Your children are not important, everyday Americans. Now that the middle classes are not important, your children do not matter, and your tax dollars that support law enforcement do not pay anyone to protect you or your children. Don't expect anyone's intelligence gathering activities to help you in any way.

In the "Post Edward Snowden Era", the NSA is very, very unhappy about it's perceived obligation to control damage, rather than to come clean and amend it's practices. There is much ado about all of the time agents must spend tracking down that which has been revealed, and any defensive postures that must be taken. Finding out who knows what, and who is changing gears in order to compensate for lack of privacy, is much more important than treating the general population with respect. In fact, the NSA is not concerned, in the slightest way, about any murders or any missing persons cases whih could have been prevented, but for some useful information, denied, rather than shared with lower level law enforcement; and the NSA is not concerned in the slightest about the lack of respect it has shown for American citizens.
 

To Disagree With The President

Unfortunately, I cannot disagree more with Obama's assertion that America's judicial system follows it's own rules. In this video, Obama states that our government has checks and balances to prevent the abuses of overdone surveillance that has been brought to light by Edward Snowden. Obama also suggests that if Snowden takes advantage of his rights as defendant, as afforded him by our judicial system, everything will be okey-dokey for Snowden. At this point, after the recent and publicized abuses by almost every type of judicial entity from small town police departments to federal courts, I am quite inclined to look at this whole matter from Snowden's standpoint. Even if Snowden did, indeed, commit a crime; or three, as Obama claims, why is this crime a felony? Government agencies purport and publish information and misinformation against individuals all the time, with no penalties and very little oversight. Why is the same action criminalized in the case of a private citizen?

 

 

Update Shared On Facebook

An update to the situation concerning Edward Snowden and his brand new ability to exist in Russia has been shared on Facebook! The most effective thing Obama can do right now, in the interest of peace, and in the interest foreign relations, is to just pardon Snowden and move on.

 

 

Turnabout's Fair Play?

It seems that instead of making progress, since the Civil Rights Movement, America has been losing it's grip on it's understanding of the Constitution. Not only do we deliberately fail to teach children about the Constitution in school, (no joke, Kansas; the principal of the school in Frankfort, Kansas told yours truly that he purposefully did NOT teach, or allow the teachers to teach, any student about first or fourth amendment rights) we pay law enforcement to bully innocent citizens, we allow unnecessary surveillance, and now our judicial community uses the lag between the average person's understanding of the digital world and the analog world as an excuse to make examples of information "leakers", such as Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning, accusing them of treason, and attempting to punish them with sanctions that are not even imposed on serial killers. Did we threaten Nixon and et els with decades in prison, or cancel his passport? Revealing information that is contractually held in confidence is breach of contract, but generally not high treason, yet John McCain is fuming because Russia has granted a year's asylum to Edward Snowden. Has McCain forgotten how many Russians either defected, or attempted to defect, to the United States? Not that they did not have reasons for this, but McCain seems to almost deliberately overlook Snowden's perspective, Putin's possible perspective, and Russia's perspective.

If all of the increased surveillance had put a dent in human trafficking, or had actually stopped a terrorist or a school shooting, it might seem like a worthy sacrifice of Americans' rights, but instead; violence has only increased with the amplified spying. Rather than jump to punish the young people who spilled the information about NSA and Prism into collective awareness, have Americans stopped to ponder exactly with whom NSA and Prism intended to share the collected data?
 

Have You Guys Had Enough Koolaide Yet?

This is the latest from Anonymous on Edward Snowden. China would not cooperate with the United States in sending Snowden back home to face prosecutorial misconduct and judicial harassment for the act, not the crime, of informing the American population about the abuses by the American government of their fourth amendment rights. Russia would not send Snowden back to the United States, either. While Booz Allen Hamilton, Snowden's former employer, probably has a civil complaint with Snowden, the government most certainly does not. If the United States government has a complaint with anyone, it is Booz Allen Hamilton, in the form of a civil case. There is no call to charge Snowden with espionage and ruin his life. When is the Koolaide going to stop running from everyone's kitchen faucet?

 

 

 

There Are No Secrets

Remember the old days, when it was always considered prudent not to write a message on paper unless it was something one wished to proclaim from the rooftops? And we were occasionally reminded that a piece of paper can last longer than the writer who wrote on it? Can anyone remember the days before national television, when print media ruled? It seems that America has a few people in power who do not remember these things. It also seems as if some of these people either never learned about Richard Nixon, and the Watergate scandal or have forgotten about it. While Watergate wiretapping was unsophisticated compared to today's sources of information and methods of harvesting the same, it is surprising that NSA did not expect anyone to find out about their disregard for the Fourth Amendment rights of all Americans.

It may be time for our President to address the nation about this, and to learn from Nixon's mistakes. The warrantless snooping and unfounded investigations of innocent citizens since 2001 have not significantly reduced the number of occurances of any type of crime, and have not assisted in finding missing persons. In view of the glaring inefficiency of civil rights violations as a form of governance, perhaps it is time to try some transparency and honesty.

 

Prism, Privacy, And Edward Snowden

Your tax dollars at work, once again. Edward Snowden, who told us all about Prism, which can trace internet and cell phone signals in real time. While Snowden had a high level security clearance and all of the responsibility that goes with it, were his actions of divulging the information truly criminal, and if so, is he really guilty of treason? He did not go to any of our enemies with information about the fourth amendment rights of Americans getting violated, he came to the American people with it. Now that he has done that, he is the subject of an investigation, and his last known whereabouts were a hotel room in Hong Kong. He has since been offered asylum in Iceland.

Something that is rather disturbing is described in the video below, in an interview with Christiana Amanpour and Glenn Greenwood. Greenwood suggests that it is now no longer safe to be an investigative journalist, because if a journalist spends too much time with his source, he could also be considered culpable in some way, should the story covered concern a crime, and be charged as an accomplice! Also, an editor for the Washington Post, covering the story about Snowden, reportedly overheard security officials in a discussion at an airport stating that Snowden should "be disappeared", rather than extradited back to the United States to stand trial! So much for justice and due process. Perhaps it is easier, when possible, to just deny a person his day in court and skip due process!
 

As for Prism, it has always been sound advice to remember that there really are no secrets. The programs in use by NSA to store and interpret meta data stores such a large volume every day that the effort becomes counterproductive through having too much information to sort. The real invasion of privacy comes in the form of tracked computer information and cell phone data.....while one's calls are not necessarily heard, they are tracked. The trail of telephone numbers is logged, and of course, one's location, or approximate location, is also traceable. But then, there have been cameras on traffic lights for quite some time, now. Most stores have surveillance systems, decent schools have cameras, and Walmart sells cheap security cameras for homes. There really isn't much privacy to be had at this point in our history as humans. Anything that cannot be determined by studying the above mentioned methods of spying can often be divulged for free by the local Avon Lady.

 

Edward Snowden. A petition to pardon him for any crimes with which he may be charged is here.