Snowden’s Guardian Transcript A Chilling Read
On Monday, June 17, former National Security Agency contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden conducted a live question and answer session hosted by Britain’s Guardian newspaper about his leaking of information on the US government’s warrantless surveillance programs.
Snowden’s articulate rendering of the facts, including the truth about covert government intelligence operations against the American people carried out with corporate complicity, makes for a chilling transcript read.
Snowden lays blame squarely at President Obama’s feet:
“Obama’s campaign promises and election gave me faith that he would lead us toward fixing the problems he outlined in his quest for votes. Many Americans felt similarly. Unfortunately, shortly after assuming power, he closed the door on investigating systemic violations of law, deepened and expanded several abusive programs, and refused to spend the political capital to end the kind of human rights violations like we see in Guantanamo, where men still sit without charge.”
And he soberly lays out the choice before Obama and the American public:
“This disclosure provides Obama an opportunity to appeal for a return to sanity, constitutional policy, and the rule of law rather than men. He still has plenty of time to go down in history as the President who looked into the abyss and stepped back, rather than leaping forward into it.”
Sen. Mark Udall, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had raised questions about the scale of the surveillance program even before Snowden’s leak. Udall said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he doesn’t believe the program is making Americans any safer, “and I think it’s ultimately, perhaps, a violation of the Fourth Amendment.”
Our global communications networks unite the world, provide abundant access to education and information, and give a voice to Earth’s multitudes so we can move forward with greater planetary consciousness. We must protect these networks from government and corporate hijacking that advance their own interests and agendas over the greater good for all.
Think you can hide in this crowd? Click on the image and then use your cursor to zoom in and zero in on any face with amazing surveillance technology available at your fingertips!
Carol Bedrosian is the publisher of Spirit of Change, New England’s largest holistic magazine.
