I have grown weary of seeing people adulate and cheer Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who stole classified documents and fled to Russia. Mr. Snowden lied to everyone about what he was trying to accomplish with his treason. He claims he is only defending the American constitution but how do his leaks about classified intelligence operations with Israel, in China, and other countries protect the American constitution? Edward Snowden also claims he is trying to protect the privacy of Americans who use the Internet but we have never had any Internet privacy. Everything we do is recorded by the Internet service providers and they share this information with each other and any company that buys their data. Our privacy is invaded every minute that we are on the Internet and there are no constitutional protections against those intrusions.
The US constitution provides guarantees that the government will not cease our personal property or search it without appropriate due process. But since the Internet service providers collect this information and sell it for their own profit Edward Snowden's claims that the fourth amendment is being violated are simply false.
And I have been disturbed, deeply so, by the way many Americans have ignored the truth that has been published about Edward Snowden in the news media. He has been caught lying to us on so many points it amazes me that anyone would applaud him or praise him. Here are a few examples of the lies from Edward Snowden.
He claimed he was earning more than $200,000 while working for Booz Allen Hamilton, the NSA contractor he sought employment with so that he could conduct his spy operation against the US government. Booz Allen Hamilton says that Mister Snowden earned about half of what he says he did.
He claimed he was given special CIA authority while in Switzerland. The CIA has denied this.
He claimed he was trained by the US Special Forces. The US Army denies this and says his lack of a proper college education would have prevented him from being considered for their program.
He claimed that he did not use anyone else's passwords to steal the classified information he took. We have since learned that he tricked several co-workers into giving up their passwords to him so that he could use their access privileges to steal more classified information.
He claimed that he took no computers or classified information to Russia. But it emerged that he took two computers with him and that he keeps classified information on thumb drives he has in his possession.
I don't see why people feel they can trust anything that Edward Snowden says. He betrayed the people he was supposed to serve and gave their secrets over to anarchists like Glenn Greenwald (an American who lives in self-imposed exile in Brazil). Greenwald and other anarchists have been using Edward Snowden's stolen information to uncover secret US operations that have nothing to do with "spying on US citizens" -- such as the secret operation with Israel, the NSA's hacking into Chinese computers, and the US government spying on allied nations' leaders' telephone conversations.
In light of these and many other facts about Edward Snowden's deception, I shake my head at the poor, silly people who call him a hero and want him to be rewarded for his crimes. Edward Snowden is a liar, a coward, a thief, and a traitor who should stand trial for his crimes and face his punishment like a man. It will take many years for the American people to recover from the harm he has caused us.
Here is a video where NSA Deputy Director Richard Ledgett exposes some of Edward Snowden's lies at a recent TED conference. Notice how the host is sympathetic to Mister Snowden. This is clear evidence of just how effective Edward Snowden and Gleen Greenwald's deceits have proven to be.
