He Leaked Info.
But What and
Why?
Yes, we now understand that Edward Snowden has gone through many trials and
tribulations after his bold and what some may call courageous actions. Despite this,
not many understand what Mr. Snowden leaked or why he did it in the first place.
Analyzing a multitude of the documents will reveal a consistency in one broad topic,
surveillance. It may be said that every common man with any sort of ability to
watch media coverage on him would know it is all about the NSA spying on
everyday Americans. Although true, there is much more to the documents that have
been leaked.
Espionage committed by the NSA does not just stop within the borders of the
nation. The certification of Affidavit Docket Number 702(i)-10-02 signed by Judge
John D. Bates originating from the Foreign Intelligence Security Court states that the
targeting and minimizing procedures in accordance with 50 USC 1881a(d)-(e) are
consistent with the requirements of the subsections and the Fourth Amendment of
the U.S. Constitution. This was signed on the 19 th of August in the year of 2010.
By statin0g so, and approving, the authority to spy and gather metadata of foreign,
international countries and businesses along with all communications. Ellen
Nakashima writes in an article in the Washington Post on June 30 th of 2014 and
states The NSA is not necessarily targeting all the countries or organizations
identified in the certification, the affidavits and an accompanying exhibit; it has only
been given authority to do so.
Looking at other pieces of information, we find that it is not only the United States
that is involved in the top secret information released. Leaked information also
shows that New Zealand has implemented mass surveillance systems and the
government has lied to its public and denied of any such acts being taken place.
Prime Minister John Key explains the situation and claims that the law for
surveillance was simply made to fix an ambiguous legal framework.
Now with all this information it leaves one to think about the necessity of the
leakage of information. What inspired Snowden to commit this act some may call
treason? Going from company to company working in the computer science and
networking security field, Snowden was introduced to many high level security
points. Top-secret files were at his discretion and lies were spread like confetti
throughout the work place.
Three events that took place and should be focused on are as follows: Snowdens
testimony to the European Parliament, the 20,000 Vanity Fair story about Snowden,
and his first US television interview on NBC with Brian Williams.
In all three occasions Snowden insisted that he repeatedly raised concerns while at
the NSA, and that his concerns were repeatedly ignored. (Vice News)
In his first US television interview with Brian Williams on NBC he mentions that the
NSA has records. They have copies if emails right now to their Office of General
Counsel, to their oversight and compliance folks, from me raising concerns about
the NSAs interpretations of its legal authorities, (NBC Interview)
It seems that there have been multiple times where Snowden has attempted to
raise his concerns about acts taking place around him which he thought were
unconstitutional or just morally wrong. He took his concerns elsewhere after his
superiors would not listen.
In comes Glenn Greenwald a simple journalist writing articles for the Independent.
Snowdens attention was caught by Greenwalds articles as they were long
sentenced and excessively large paragraphs which no one was a fan of. Aside from
the excessive wording and size of the blogs and articles, he wrote about topics that
really touched the public.
While blogging, Greenwald formed a group of people with similar interests. There
was a side that already going along with and supported mainstream media and
Bush during the attack of 9/11 and the War in Iraq. A new side was formed and
during this process of blogging and a new community arising in support of
Greenwald, he caught Snowdens attention.
After much convincing and encrypting emails Greenwald began to receive more and
more information from Snowden. Greenwald and his partner and film maker Laura
Poitras originally said that they had received nearly 10,000 files of leaked
information. Advancements of information led NSA Chief Keith Alexander to say that
there were nearly 200,000 that were stolen.
The last record of the NSA speaking about the files being leaked estimated 2.7
million classified documents that were stolen with 200,000 leaked to journalists in
Hong Kong and still has access to 1.5 million.
