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Snowden

burnt

Well-known member
While his actions were "illegal", were they necessarily wrong?

At what point do we become willing to do the "illegal" in order to preserve the "ethical"?

Or to maintain morality?

Is a thumbs up from the ALCU ever something you would want to acknowledge? :gag:

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/01/10/tide-shifts-on-snowden-revelations
 

Steve

Well-known member
He insisted that his main purpose was to reveal to Americans — and citizens of other countries — the extent to which their governments routinely engage in surveillance that, at best, is highly questionable and, at worst, is illegal and unconstitutional.


legally this is a tough question.. in my view one exposing illegal unconstitutional activity isn't breaking the law.. but the problem is the NSA is authorized, but is totally lacking credible oversight. leaving US to define the law..

there have been several rulings both for and against the NSA data mining, my view is that it is un-Constitutional. but not illegal yet as the final ruling has not been made.

so legally the guy is a traitor.

but on this issue legality can't be the deciding factor,.. two wrongs don't make a right.. and saying nothing is just another wrong on that pile..


so we have to judge him by his actions and each of US will make a different choice.. I believe history will be kind to him..

I don't like the guy, I think he is a bit like Bradly Manning, he wasn't thinking about the consequences of "dumping" all the data.

it is easy to release the data and let people see what was going on.. a harder road would have been to expose them,.. and selectively release enough proof to back up all his claims..

and I do give him credit for at least trying the harder approach, ... as he was much more selective then Manning.. and the national security damage is more manageable, because he made some effort.

and I think he had good intentions from the start, sometimes the best intentions don't turn out as planned and things go incredibly wrong..

beyond that,.. morally it was his duty as a citizen to expose the activities..
 
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