Amidst new revelations of U.S. spying in Latin America and ongoing diplomatic tensions over the asylum efforts of Edward Snowden, Democracy Now! speaks with Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño.
Perhaps, news of the NSA spying operation will even increase public support for Snowden in Central and South America, thus raising the possibility that the rogue NSA whistle-blower might wind up receiving diplomatic refuge in the region after all.
Concerns over national security will continue to be paramount. Yet I believe that far more information about these surveillance programs can be made available to the American public without compromising sensitive intelligence.
Has the rush to apprehend Snowden sacrificed U.S. standing as champion of the politically oppressed and the rule of law?
The recent disclosure that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been tracking the Internet and phone activity of American citizens is about more than just government surveillance: It has profound implications for freedom of the press.
A Snowden accompaniment flotilla of prominent and peace-loving Americans could assemble at the Moscow airport, and fly together from Moscow to Caracas. Snowden could fly from Moscow to Caracas under the protection of our company, like the Fellowship of the Ring.
Snowden gave us a chance to stop this before the Chertoff Group, SAIC, CACI, Lockheed and the rest of them are unstoppable. Once we're into a cyberwar, it's over. The war will be invisible, secret and eternal - conducted with our tax dollars, but without our knowledge.
This past week - I found myself thinking a lot about justice and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty under U.S. law. The two cases that...
So is Edward Snowden a hero or a creepy betrayer? The fact that he is huddled in a Moscow airport waiting for some country to take him in lends credence to the betrayer view. Since September 11, 2001, a lot of queasy liberals have cut the U.S. government a fair amount of slack when it comes to surveillance of potential terrorist plots. The attacks happened, after all. And more plots followed. Al-Qaeda is no paranoid fantasy. We can't have people with top-secret information making national policy, as free-lances. But as one detail after another has emerged in the wake of Snowden's initial disclosures, the weight of evidence keeps shifting to the hero side of the scale. Put aside for the moment Snowden's motives, or character defects, or awkward international flight from Hong Kong to Russia. History is likely to record him as something of a hero for the long overdue national debate that he has forced. Since Snowden, a largely intimidated press has begun doing its job, and the revelations are not pretty.
With Obama in power, a number of MSNBC talking heads have reacted to the Snowden disclosures like Fox News hosts did when they were in hysterical damage control mode for Bush -- complete with ridiculously fact-free claims and national chauvinism that we've long come to expect from the "fair & balanced" channel.
Good luck with your exam, but don't expect USG employment until you pass the security clearance!
Most people -- those we hate, those we love and all those in between -- have at least some shades of gray. We've just got to be willing to see past the black and white to notice.
If Obama's underlying objective was to intimidate Latin American nations over the Snowden affair, his strategy has colossally backfired. Indeed, much to the chagrin of the White House, Latin nations have rallied to Snowden's defense.
The U.S. Senator who divulged the Pentagon Papers in Congress says Edward Snowden and other citizens with access to classified information should have the same immunity as members of Congress to make public secret documents exposing government wrongdoing.
Tweeting melodiously, Alexei Pushkov, of the foreign affairs committee in Russia's lower house of parliament, lets fly an observation: "He can't live ...
It is, of course, difficult to assess the performance of the FISA court, because its activities are secret. But with 30 years of experience, it is possible to offer some reflections and suggestions.