Edward Snowden: NSA isn’t like East German Stasi, but still dangerous

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/11/edward-snowden-nsa-isnt-like-east-german-stasi-but-still-dangerous/



Edward Snowden: NSA isn’t like East German Stasi, but still dangerous
By Agence France-Presse
Wednesday, December 11, 2013 12:38 EST

Former US national security contractor Edward Snowden hopes his leaks of classified documents will lead to greater transparency by governments, he said in rare comments published Wednesday.

The fugitive Snowden, Time’s runner-up behind the pope for its person of the year, told the magazine he chose to defy his obligations when he learned the scope of surveillance programs conducted without being disclosed.

“What we recoil most strongly against is not that such surveillance can theoretically occur, but that it was done without a majority of society even being aware it was possible,” he told Time in an email interview.

~snip~

“The NSA is surely not the (East German) Stasi, but we should always remember that the danger to societies from security services is not that they will spontaneously decide to embrace mustache twirling and jackboots to bear us bodily into dark places, but that the slowly shifting foundation of policy will make it such that mustaches and jackboots are discovered to prove an operational advantage toward a necessary purpose,” he told Time.

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

1. No offense to Francis,

but Snowden had my vote.

[cantbeserious]

2. Agreed

eom