The whistleblower who leaked the NSA surveillance program to the press has gone public.
The whistleblower who leaked the NSA surveillance program to the press has gone public and is talking. Key quote:
Q: Does your family know you are planning this?
A: “No. My family does not know what is happening … My primary fear is that they will come after my family, my friends, my partner. Anyone I have a relationship with …
I will have to live with that for the rest of my life. I am not going to be able to communicate with them. They [the authorities] will act aggressively against anyone who has known me. That keeps me up at night.” [emphasis mine]
It tells us how far the United States has fallen if this man fears our government so much he thinks that government will go after his family.
Read the whole interview. It is quite horrifying, especially now that we know there are federal agents willing to use their power to target specific people solely because of their politics.
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The whistleblower who leaked the NSA surveillance program to the press has gone public and is talking. Key quote:
Q: Does your family know you are planning this?
A: “No. My family does not know what is happening … My primary fear is that they will come after my family, my friends, my partner. Anyone I have a relationship with …
I will have to live with that for the rest of my life. I am not going to be able to communicate with them. They [the authorities] will act aggressively against anyone who has known me. That keeps me up at night.” [emphasis mine]
It tells us how far the United States has fallen if this man fears our government so much he thinks that government will go after his family.
Read the whole interview. It is quite horrifying, especially now that we know there are federal agents willing to use their power to target specific people solely because of their politics.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
They read our e-mail, they probably could listen to our phone calls, they trample all over the constitution, what is to stop them from showing up at your door to take your guns and freedoms? low level academia( and high level) censor graduation speeches and indoctrinate instead of educate, I think Eric Blair had it right all along.
There might be one small glimmer in all of this. It should cause us to rethink all of the powers we accede to the federal government, even with all the best intentions, because this administration has shown it cannot be trusted with those powers, and therefore future administrations may follow suit. As I keep pointing out to liberals — so far without cogent response — if you acquiesce to what this administration is doing, then you invite conservative administrations to turn tables. And this is just the beginning of the revelations. What we are seeing is a portrait of the most corrupt federal government this country has ever had. The conclusion is obvious, if only half of the public would shake themselves out of their five-year stupor and confront what is right in front of their eyes.
Please think to remember that this is not just a result of the Obama administration, this goes deep into the modern past and all of the previous past administrations for about 50 years. The nature of power is for it to be abused, Americans must choose, if that is even a possibility now, we may all be captive by our own size and power and don’t even know it.
How valid is this man’s concern that the government will go after his family? What evidence do we have that the US government goes after the family members of someone that they oppose? For example, I have heard nothing about Assange’s family being targeted. I’m not necessarily calling into doubt the premise, just honestly asking.
Also, I think that there is an asymmetry between liberals and conservatives. Liberals often use the “the ends justify the means” approach to justify actions which they wouldn’t want conservatives to do if they had the power. But when conservatives actually get the power, they restrain themselves from doing the same things because their own morals prevent themselves from taking advantage. For example, it has been claimed that liberals reinterpreting the Constitution in their liberal direction is dangerous because, if conservatives get power, they will likewise abuse the intent of the framers. The thing is, the conservatives couldn’t live with themselves if they violated their own principles and so they use their power to limit the power of government rather than taking advantage of their power.
I don’t expect the government to come after this man’s family. However, that he even thinks it possible tells us how far our government’s reputation, and our country, has fallen.
I also do not think this problem is a conservative or liberal one. Anyone who has read this website for the past three years knows I dislike Obama intensively. However, I consider George Bush just as bad.
Bush was an utter failure as a president. He allowed the federal debt to skyrocket. He did not fight the war on Islamofacism with steady determination. And he allowed the power of the federal government to grow uncontrolled. Worse, he did this after coming to power with a Republican Congress.
As I said, an utter failure.
“Edward Snowden: I mistakenly believed in Obama’s promises”
This statement by Snowden reflects the naïve interpretation by the young of the Marxist ideologue Obama. Obama and his handlers depended on this ignorance and need it to be perpetuated to continue their reinterpretation of America and the Constitution.
Is it reasonable for him to be concerned for others? Its reasonable I suppose.
As far as the asymmetry between the party’s, yes there are fundamental differences in their philosophies, but both party’s have become what they are because they both have chosen to push and test the parameters of the Constitution beyond where they know it should be pushed.
The Constitution is designed to be stressed in this way but the people must express their extreme displeasure with how things are through their representatives for it to properly work. And if they do not respond to their displeasure they need to be removed and replaced without hesitation.
I think the real question might be: Has the machine been allowed to get too big and powerful and are we just here to now serve it?
And; Will the people do their part as they are required?
> What evidence do we have that the US government goes after the family members of someone that they oppose?
As an example: James Rosen’s family was targeted after he angered the Obama administration.
Will they do that to Snowden’s family? I don’t know, but based upon recent history, they could be reviewing their phone records or there could already be an IRS audit notice in the mail to them even as you read this comment. Do we trust, anymore, that today’s government would not do this?
A friend of a friend of mine – a liberal, posted on Facebook that she doesn’t mind the government listening on her phone calls, it makes her feel safe. This is a BIG problem for our republic when the average citizen makes statements like this. It demonstrates how bad our education system has been corrupted and how willfully people overlook the criminal activities of their liberal politicians.
The FISA courts need to be shut down and the Justice Department reined in immediately. Add the IRS, the EPA, and the Department of Health to the list as well. Obviously, the power and scope of the Federal Government has expanded at an alarming rate, for political purposes. The TSA in another great example of the abuse of our liberties.
It’s both parties…it’s unchecked growing government…
SUBSIDIARITY
It not just the fact that he thinks the US government will come after his family and friends that is disturbing.
The thing that is more disturbing to me is that he didn’t think he would get anything out of following the normal channels like reporting his beliefs to the FISA court or even his elected representatives in Washington.
The different government offices give out and post the legal and legally protected ways to inform on fellow workers and bosses. He must have believed that going that rout would have produced nothing but trouble for him and not resulted in changed behavior in the office or government.
You could have all the laws and oversight committees in the world but if you do not believe them to be free of politics and or corruption then you have no place left to go but the public.
As evidenced by the IRS. Even when standards are written out to not be political or partisan and to not favor one group over another. If the workforce is entirely made up of either partisan members or members who are cowed into staying quiet then you have no place to go to stop corruption other than the public.
If a republican was in power now these programs would never had been in effect a week before politicians and government employees were spilling the beans to the MSM. Just look at the hue and cry when Bush pushed for the Patriot Act. The man couldn’t pass gas in private without someone passing it off to the MSM as a government conspiracy.
He could NEVER have taking things this far. No matter what you think of Bush he never could have gone this far. He was watched like a strange mole by a hypochondriac.
This administration is covered by the MSM like a babies butt in soft diaper. They will not even let the thought of stink out, let alone, let people even think it poops.
This administrations evil has not just been allowed to grow but been fertilized into full blossom.