U.S. files criminal charges against Snowden
Rain
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http://news.yahoo.com/u-files-criminal-complaint-against-snowden-over-leaks-223839407.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The government has filed sealed criminal charges against former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who admitted leaking secrets about classified U.S. surveillance programs, U.S. sources said on Friday.
A U.S. Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a criminal complaint had been filed against Snowden, who disclosed documents detailing U.S. telephone and internet surveillance efforts.
Another U.S. source, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was preparing to seek Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong, where he is believed to be in hiding.
Earlier, the Washington Post reported that U.S. prosecutors have filed a sealed criminal complaint charging Snowden with espionage, theft and conversion of government property. The Post also reported that the United States has asked Hong Kong to detain Snowden on a provisional arrest warrant.
The criminal complaint was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, where Snowden's former employer, Booz Allen Hamilton, is located, the Post reported.
Documents leaked by Snowden revealed that U.S. security services had monitored data about phone calls from Verizon and Internet data from large companies such as Google and Facebook as part of counterterrorism efforts.
U.S. federal prosecutors, by filing a criminal complaint, lay claim to a legal basis to make the request of the authorities in Hong Kong, the Post reported. The prosecutors now have 60 days to file an indictment and can then take steps to secure Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong for a criminal trial in the United States, the newspaper reported.
Snowden would be able to challenge the U.S. request for his extradition in court in Hong Kong, the Post reported.
The newspaper noted the U.S. extradition treaty with Hong Kong has an exception for political offenses, and that espionage has been viewed as a political offense.
An Icelandic businessman linked to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said on Thursday he had readied a private plane in China to fly Snowden to Iceland if Iceland's government would grant asylum.
Iceland refused on Friday to say whether it would grant asylum to Snowden.
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http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/21/email-sent-by-michael-hastings-hours-before-his-death-mentions-a-big-story-and-a-need-to-go-off-the-radar/
Hero or traitor; I'll reserve judgement for later. As for the NSA it needs to be shut down. We need to have a country like Switerland. It was never invaded because there was a marksman and owner of firearms in every home. We have the ability to totally destroy our adversaries. Bring our warriors home. and promise to litterally destroy any country that sends terrorists or forces against us. Follow up with a sample of our promise. Also put an end to all overseas aid.
... but zero financial criminals
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hype and chains
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
I've been advocating studying Germany and the rise of Hitler for awhile, based on conversations I've had with people who served, under Hitler, in the German military and SS, but folks don't want to hear that. Even a couple folks here, who never served a day in the military, took me to task for that, but I'm convinced that the Devil rises where the power is. OK, enough, before I start ranting.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
And a heavily armed civilian population has rarely if ever deterred an invading force. It certainly didn't stop Bush from invading Afghanistan and Iraq. Didn't stop the Russians from invading Afghanistan. Didn't stop the U.S. from fighting in North Vietnam. Didn't stop Grant and Sherman from invading the south. Didn't stop the Israelis from fighting in the Gaza Strip.
And in terms of "destroying our enemies" the only way we can do this quickly and effectively is through nuclear war. And let's remember that a number of countries who AREN'T our friends have nuclear capabilities of their own.
We've seen over and over and over throughout our history what isolationism has done. We definitely can pull our brave and selfless soldiers out of useless wars (like Iraq and Afghanistan), but to totally disengage with the world would put us a high degree of political and economic risk that would leave us even more vulnerable to terrorist arracks.
Now, none of this has anything to do with the Snowden story, and I agree with all who say that all of these wirerapping and privacy invasion crap is reprehensible. But it's not illegal and it's not unconstitutional, because there's NOTHING in the Constitution that proclaims the right to privacy or the right not to have your rights as citizens taken away from you at the government's whim. These rights have been trampled since the Alien & Sedition Acts of 1799, continued with Lincoln's suspension of Habeus Corpus in the Civil War, lasted for over 100 years with Jim Crow laws in the south, continued with the Palmer raids, the forced imprisonment of Japanese-Americas in WWII, the McCarthy witch hunts, Nixon's "enemies list" and Watergate, the creation of the Homeland Security Department and its unlimited powers of prying into every aspect of our lives, Guantanamo Bay, and now these continued abuse of NSA powers to tap telephone calls for unspecified purposes. All bad. But all legal since they were authorized by Congress and their legality has never been tested in court. So who's to blame? WE THE PEOPLE are, for raising nary a whimper of protest against these policies. In nearly every situation except gun ownership, the government has convinced us to give away our right to privacy in the name of security. And most Americans have bought into this Faustian deal.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
What concerns me the most is the unopposed view that we must be safe. So safe that our liberties can be trampled to make it so.
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin.
Mahalo, Edward
And la-and of the circumspect
Play Ball!
I don't think anyone here is suggesting isolationism, but the solutions to our problems are not going to be found by intervening in lost cause situations on the other side of the world, or by sending all "the illegals" back to wherever. I just want us to concentrate on US, and what can WE do to maintain a dream that was set forth over 2 centuries ago, and is still in the progress of development.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
Been away for a few days and look whats happened. OK. You probably know more about history than I do. I agree about Switzerland and the mountains. Just remembering a quote from some German Officer about Switzerland. My parents came over from Germany in 1929 to NYC. They knew all about what happened to Germany after WW1 and the treaties that were signed to keep Germany in its place. I had 5 uncles who served on the side of Germany in WW2 but were not part of the **** party. One lost an arm to an American machine gun and was a POW of the Russians.
What I was getting to was the scope of our excuse for a gov't which tramples all over the constitution at will. Trys to disarm the people when the 2nd amendmant was there so the citizens could overthrow a Gov't like we have today. Thats the bottom line to their gun control. No we don't want to be isolationists but we don't want to be the world's police force either. We should be more along the lines of a 1% motorcycle club. Mess with just one of us and you are history. By the way; The United Nations needs to leave our soil.
I don't know what you are talking about when you say "disarm" the people?. Maybe certain states that I don't know about are trying to take guns away but on a national stage I don't see that happening. Whether people have access to mini guns or rpg's, I don't think any band of people would be able to over throw the govt. I mean that is a really silly argument I hear. The govt doesn't even need any armed foot soldiers to take out militants. Just use a satellite to take out a group.
The govt is trampling over our constitution though, have for some time. The NSA leaks and what they have been doing isn't anything new. They have been doing this for decades, though it has ramped up severely since the bush admin and there is nothing to show that it will end any time soon. Sadly people of this country aren't taking to the streets and protesting over this. Seems to me we are more than happy to be ruled. The TSA alone should have been stopped from doing what they are/have been doing. The media is the worst on this. If anyone should be upset over what this Snowden thing is going through it should be them. I mean most news articles I have seen or watched are all about making him look like a traitor. Let's see, he exposed massive illegal acts done by our govt and not to mention "private" companies doing these things. HELLO! What's next locking up reporters, well doubt that will happen any time soon since we have basically corporate media.
Remember about the time the constitution was written. The arms made in the US were good quality and more accurate than the English smooth bores. Arms to them meant more then what we're allowed today. We have already had the 2nd by not being able to own automatic weapons without a special permit and heavier weapons.
Indoctrination has been ongoing for years. College grads today for the most part are Zombies speaking the liberal mantra.
We may not have the arms necessary as civilians but I believe in the 80/20 rule. In other words I feel the majority of the military will not raise arms against the people. This is not Germany and therefore not as regimented. I know a lot of them and here in TX with the largest army base in the US that we are first Texicans. LOL Even a Bronx native like myself.
The media is largely conservative, if that means anything anymore. All of the major media networks never if rarely show anything that shines a negative light on the corporate structure, or anyone going against authoritarianism. I remember watching the occupy protests and seeing how the media was not reporting on the actual truth of the movement and what was going on. I remember going down to portland and being apart of the many marches and while there watching a live feed on my cell from the local news and even then it was BS. What was being reported was largely skewed against OWS. Even on the raids that were going on later in the movement OWS was shown as a mob and a menace. I watched a lot of local feeds from the OWS side along with the media reports and if one was just watching the news they would being fed a bunch of bull. Same is said of the tea party groups. Largely they were funded by corporate sponsors for the purpose of keeping themselves at the table. But the news never reported on that part. The snowden case, another example of how the media is not going after the real story which is that the govt is doing something illegal. Instead it is focusing on making this one man the story and making him look like a terrorist.
Another example is how the media, instead of focusing on what is not going on such as job creation, plasters bs trials, bickering back and forth between the dems and the gop over stupid things such as the sequestration crap months ago, or that the gop is going to shut down the govt instead of raising the debt spending. I mean why doesn't the media tell us masses why this is all happening or why not? Well because it would be news and thus people would be informed.