For whom the whistle blows

You do not have a right to privacy. The Constitution does not provide us with a right to privacy. There is an implied right, established by the Courts, however, privacy is not one of the inalienable rights as defined. Never was, and short of a Constitutional Amendment, it never will be.

For a society that feels compelled to broadcast the most mundane thoughts via Twitter, and uploads photos of every meal, pre and post, on their facebook pages, the idea of privacy rights is laughable at best, and ridiculous at worst. Keep banking online and being surprised when your personal information gets hacked. Hacks.

Our digital footprints are almost as widespread as our carbon footprints, and both are harmful to our overall health. Anyone who thought that their online ramblings were not being monitored by both the public and private sector are fools, plain and simple. Likewise, our phone calls aren’t monitored or tapped, they are tracked in order to expose possible threats - that is a big difference. Have you called Syria, Pakistan, or Iran recently? If not, then you have nothing to fear.

 The National Security Agency is the preeminent spy agency in the world. Established in 1953, this agency’s mandate is to collect intelligence on threats to America’s security, from within and without. Specializing in cryptography and communication, the NSA headquarters has earned it’s nickname - The Puzzle Palace. Telephones and the internet are a means of communication, therefore - by law - legitimate targets for scrutiny by the NSA.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) became law in 1978. Like the creation of the NSA, these measures were put in place by the Congress, and operate under their oversight. With every new technological advancement, the NSA has had to adapt to the swiftly changing environment. FISA has had to as well, which has required the Courts to adapt accordingly, usually after the fact. This all happening up until September 11th, 2001, and beyond.

Through this period, nearly 50 years, deeply entrenched bureaucracies did their jobs to the best of their ability, generally successfully, quietly, and covertly, doing their jobs. But, September 11th, as we are constantly reminded, “changed everything”…

The attacks lead to a knee-jerked, brutal, and unrepentant offensive stance from our government, which lead us to the USA PATRIOT Act. This law reinforced the Intelligence State that we are all immersed in today. Suspect, subject, and scrutinized by the state, the existing agencies did what all bureaucracies do - they expanded and entrenched themselves further.

Our system of government is designed and functions as a bureaucracy, with redundant oversight, yet that oversight is predicated upon due diligence and asking the right questions. Unfortunately, the Congress wasn’t asking the right questions when this was egregiously exposed to the public. And that is our fault, and nobody else’s.

What these agencies were doing, and why, was never particularly secret; how they did it was. We created them in the halls of the Congress and administer them as the bureaucracies that they are. The mandate of the NSA, the FISA Courts, and the PATRIOT Act all happened on the front pages of every newspaper in the country. In plain view, and under the watchful eyes of the Congress, these laws and agencies have been with us for a very long time.

Largely, the concerns of people such as myself had been ignored by the press and our Congressional representatives, which are just now being taken seriously because of the scandal. So granted, Snowden’s “revelations” have played a significant role in opening the eyes of Congress, leading them to finally ask the right questions. But it didn’t need to be writ large, as headlines.

The NSA may or may not be off it’s leash. At this point, Congress is asking the right questions, even if their goal is simply to place blame instead of wrangling them into the corral (although assuredly some roping will go along with their wrangling). Additionally, the Courts are reviewing the legality of the NSA’s actions. This too is playing out in public, far more publicly than it should.

The problem here is that a real whistle-blower would have brought this to their attention privately, allowing them to accomplish their task of oversight, and waited patiently for the hearings to begin. This didn’t happen though. Instead, the alleged overreach of these laws and agencies were splashed across the front pages, creating an international scandal that will affect our foreign and domestic affairs for decades to come.

Let’s get this straight: Edward Snowden is no hero - he’s a fucking traitor.

He is trying to paint himself as a whistle-blower and an advocate. The papers that benefited from his treason - the Guardian and the New York Times - are seeking clemency for his actions as a self-serving effort to cover their own complicity in his treason, and their own lack of journalistic integrity and investigative reporting. As news agencies, they intentionally dropped this ball when it didn’t sell papers, back when Snowden was still in grade school, and in the case of the NSA mandate and FISA laws, before he was ever born.

Additionally, many of our ignorant, apathetic, and myopic fellow citizens buy this excuse, and believe that Snowden did the right thing. Chalk this up to the stupidity and fear of our uninformed populace, bent on taking umbrage at things that we don’t understand.

He didn’t do the right thing, and here’s why…

A whistle-blower actually blows a whistle, and alerts the proper authorities to malfeasance, whether public or private. They bring their allegations to the attention of those charged with oversight, and let the proper authorities investigate the charges, and resolve those issues.

This high school drop-out turned Constitutional scholar didn’t tell anyone but the press.

He didn’t go to the Justice Department. He didn’t go to either Intelligence Committee, in the House or the Senate. He didn’t go to the Department of Homeland Security. He didn’t contact the White House. He didn’t get in touch with any of the 535 people on Capitol Hill that could have done something about it. Instead, in his infinite wisdom, he contacted the press.

He had every opportunity to blow the whistle, but instead, the action that he chose to take was the equivalent to shouting “fire” in a crowded theater. He created a panic, not just among the American people, but across the world. A whistle-blower tells management that he smells smoke. A traitor screams “fire” and then watches the crowd trample each other running for the exits.

According to Snowden, he took his concerns to the NSA, threatening to take his allegations of overreach to the press. He didn’t go to management with his concerns; he threatened to out his boss if he didn't get his way. This is called extortion.

There was a time in this country, for better or worse, when the mere idea of threatening an intelligence agency directly would have brought about a mysterious disappearance or a tragic accident. These are spy agencies, and they keep the secrets.

I’m not advocating a firing squad, but lets be real here - thirty years ago there would have been no question about it, and that would have been the fate that he faced. Instead, he faces a microwave oven and free cable TV in his dorm room at Leavenworth, all while still getting his fifteen minutes of fame. Oh the humanity…

He stole national security secrets. Had he done the right thing, his crime would have been immunized, and he could have testified before Congress as a whistle-blower, with all of the protections that this status would have afforded him. We are a nation of laws you know.

Instead of taking his “evidence” (stolen files, held as collateral) to anyone in Congress charged with NSA oversight, he splashed it across the front pages. The House or Senate Intelligence Committees would have been interested, as well as the Justice Department. He would have given them the information necessary for Congress to begin reassessing the agency and asking the appropriate questions. The supposed overreach by these agencies could have been uncovered, quietly, and dealt with accordingly.

If Snowden were a whistle-blower, he’d have blown a whistle; instead he outed his boss, quit his job, and skipped town. Whistle-blowers take responsibility for their actions, and stand by their principles. Cowards and traitors flee and make statements to the foreign press that display malleable principles and fungible justifications.

Let’s not forget that Bradley (Chelsea) Manning had balls enough to stand trial and take responsibility for his (or her) criminal actions. This was another case of treason disguised as whistle-blowing, because people are too imbecilic to understand the difference. Snowden and the other social media addicts of the world failed to learn anything from Manning's actions.

Snowden followed through with his threat of blackmail though, and took his “story” to the press. Classified and Top Secret information leaked to the public, friend and foe alike, regardless of consequences to national security or international affairs. The ripples are still spreading outward, and the repercussions are creating a potentially dangerous wake worldwide.

He snitched on us and now we’ve been caught by everyone with our hands in the cookie jar. But let’s not be fooled, intelligence agencies worldwide spy on each other. We spy on our adversaries, and we spy on our allies. And they do the same. It’s no secret that we all have secrets, and that secret activities are no secret at all. But that’s a secret that the public can’t be trusted with because they can’t keep a secret.

Congress has been asking the right questions since the information was made public, however Snowden denied them the opportunity to inquire earlier and more discretely, instead on the front pages of the world.

Instead of being aired in the privacy of the conference rooms on Capitol Hill, or even semi-publicly within the halls of Congress or the Judiciary, he aired the NSA’s dirty laundry to the neighbors. Again, this came as no surprise to anyone in intelligence agencies throughout the world, but their governments have to save face with their own people by crying foul.

These are not the actions of a man. These are not the actions of a patriot. These are not the actions of a concerned citizen, or ethical person with unquestionable integrity. These are not the actions of an advocate or a whistle-blower.

These are the actions of an ignorant and egomaniacal sociopath with an axe to grind, wanting to play out his own Ian Fleming fantasies of international intrigue. The fugitive anti-hero, caught between the former enemy, and the sunny beaches of Brazil, threatening to continue his crusade against evil and supporting the right to “privacy”, having given up very important secrets himself.

Too bad he didn’t believe in privacy until it suited him. One cannot be taken seriously as a privacy advocate when the only reason they are known is for violating the privacy of a nation.

Privacy,... yeah right.