Complicit or Equally Astounded? Hero or Traitor?

Last week, a bombshell was dropped on the American people – our government has been gathering information on our phone records and Internet activity through a program called PRISM. PRISM apparently began under President Bush in 2007. 

I know, all together…it’s Boooshes fault! 

However, as President Obama stated, he and his team reviewed the program, deemed it valuable to national security, and enhanced it.

Given that Obama vilified Bush for tactics like this, I wonder if his apology was in person or in writing. Sorry, I digress...

Back on topic…

Edward Snowden gave information about PRISM to the British paper, The Guardian. 

In the latest breaking news of our government mining for information about our daily activities, let’s first look at who is allegedly involved…

Full details are still hazy, but we now know companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple are suspected of cooperating because they are listed in the PowerPoint presentation that Edward Snowden provided to The Guardian. They deny involvement so far, but I have to question this with basic knowledge Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Eric Schmidt were big Obama supporters. Eric Schmidt helped with the technical side of Obama’s reelection campaign and has since hired many of what he calls “people scientists” who worked on the campaign to work for Google. Hmmm…

Sorry, I am not a believer in coincidence. The degrees of separation on this are very slim. I find it hard to believe they learned about this, along with all of us, as the news hit the papers. However, that seems to be how this Administration learns about most of the scandals it is ensnared in, so it could be the case. You will have to decide for yourself whether these companies were complicit, or equally astounded as most Americans by this revelation.

Now, let’s look at the man who provided the information about PRISM to The Guardian…

Edward Snowden is a 29-year-old consultant from Booz Allen. He has a GED, claims to have worked for the CIA, and we now hear left a girlfriend behind to uncover this attack on our constitutional rights. In seeking a safe place to reside after revealing this information, he chose Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China. Another hmmm.

Over the past few days, pundits, experts and politicians have argued both sides of Snowden being a hero versus a traitor.

Personally, I turn to the questions running through my mind:

• Does this knowledge help our enemies know the lengths the American government will take to find them? 

 

• If my government is mining data of Americans in a larger effort to smoke out terrorists, do I have a right to know so I can give my consent OR is it okay for the government to keep programs like this secret?

 

• Are these “encroachments” on our constitutional rights worth it?  

 

We all want to be safe, but we also want our constitutional rights protected. Too many Americans have died, or currently stand in harms way, making sure we have the freedom intended by our founders. You will have to answer these questions for yourself in determining whether Edward Snowden is a hero or a traitor.

I will leave you with this to help you ponder the issue…

*special note – there are lots of links to very interesting articles. Take some time to click on them and read about this information yourself, especially the hypothetical apology letter from Obama to Bush.

By SB

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