The Espionage Act finds anyone guilty who provides any information to the public, regardless of whether it is right or wrong, you aren't even allowed to explain to a jury what your motivations were for revealing this information. It is simply a question of 'did you reveal information?' If yes, you go to prison for the rest of your life.

Edward Snowden

Categorized in : Top News

There's a real danger in the way our representative government functions today. It functions properly only when paired with accountability.

Edward Snowden

accountability government real

We watch our own people more closely than anyone else in the world.

Edward Snowden

nsa watches people

When Clapper raised his hand and lied to the American public, was anyone tried? Were any charges brought? Within 24 hours of going public, I had three charges against me.

Edward Snowden

nsa three hands

It's clear the CIA was trying to play 'keep away' with documents relevant to an investigation by their overseers in Congress, and that's a serious constitutional concern. But it's equally if not more concerning that we're seeing another 'Merkel Effect,' where an elected official does not care at all that the rights of millions of ordinary citizens are violated by our spies, but suddenly it's a scandal when a politician finds out the same thing happens to them.

Edward Snowden

nsa rights play

I've been recognized every now and then. It's always in computer stores. It's something like brain associations, because I'll be in the grocery store and nobody will recognize me. Even in my glasses, looking exactly like my picture, nobody will recognize me. But I could be totally clean-shaven, hat on, looking nothing like myself in a computer store, and they're like, "Snowden?!"

Edward Snowden

glasses association brain

All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say in how they are governed. That is a milestone we left a long time ago.

Edward Snowden

nsa able long

Let's put it this way. The United States government has assembled a massive investigation team into me personally, into my work with the journalists, and they still have no idea what documents were provided to the journalist, what they have, what they don't have, because encryption works.

Edward Snowden

nsa team government

As a technologist, I see the trends, and I see that automation inevitably is going to mean fewer and fewer jobs. And if we do not find a way to provide a basic income for people who have no work, or no meaningful work, we’re going to have social unrest that could get people killed. When we have increasing production - year after year after year - some of that needs to be reinvested in society.

Edward Snowden

social-unrest meaningful jobs

My case clearly demonstrates the need for comprehensive whistleblower protection act reform. If we had had a real process in place, and reports of wrongdoing could be taken to real, independent arbiters rather than captured officials, I might not have had to sacrifice so much to do what at this point even the President seems to agree needed to be done.

Edward Snowden

independent taken real

We can plant bugs in machines. Once you go on the network, I can identify your machine. You will never be safe whatever protections you put in place.

Edward Snowden

machines safe goes-on

Do you check it when you travel, do you check it when you're just at home? They'd be able to tell something called your 'pattern of life.' When are you doing these kind of activities? When do you wake up? When do you go to sleep? What other phones are around you when you wake up and go to sleep? Are you with someone who's not your wife?

Edward Snowden

memorable home sleep

The definition of a security state is one that prioritizes security over all other considerations.

Edward Snowden

consideration definitions memorable

I'm not a spy, which is the real question

Edward Snowden

spy real memorable

I have no relationship with the Russian government at all.

Edward Snowden

russian-government government memorable

The NSA routinely lies in response to congressional inquiries about the scope of surveillance in America.

Edward Snowden

nsa lying america

My intention is to ask the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate.

Edward Snowden

hong-kong fate people

Most of the secrets the CIA has are about people, not machines and systems, so I didn't feel comfortable with disclosures that I thought could endanger anyone.

Edward Snowden

machines secret people

When you think about the abolition of slavery for example, for the ruling class with the rich white people owning plantations and states, and things like that, slavery was to their benefit. To oppose it didn't make any sense at all on a rational basis. But on a rights basis, on a principle basis, it made obvious, overwhelming sense.

Edward Snowden

white class thinking

We have the means and we have the technology to end mass surveillance without any legislative action at all, without any policy changes.

Edward Snowden

surveillance technology mean

These activities can be misconstrued, misinterpreted, and used to harm you as an individual even without the government having any intent to do you wrong.

Edward Snowden

individual government memorable