Agreed. His first little bit of knowledge about PRISM and what have you was very noble and a worthwhile cause. This information is just straight up harmful, and getting more into the "traitor" category of leaking information.
Also, people will complain about what the US is doing, but sure, go ahead and tell yourself that any other country isn't doing the same. China, N. Korea, Iran, UK, France, Israel, Australia, Germany, Russia, come on, it's a spy vs. spy world out there, and information is KING.... This leak of information slightly undermines the US bargaining power.
Why is it harmful? Are you naive enough to think that the Chinese gov't is learning anything new? It's only "harmful" from a "US is such a fine upstanding freedom loving country" public relations standpoint.
^This is exactly what I meant when I said "This leak of information slightly undermines the US bargaining power." Politics and bargaining are a very sensitive game, and a very powerful game.
exactly, in the US treason carries a very specific definition.
"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."
If the US decides to characterize Snowden's actions as treason, that means they are also CHOOSING to characterize civilians of, say, China, as enemies.
So the rest of the world public is rightly pissed off knowing this information, and you still think it's a good idea to argue this would've been better kept under wraps??
There's a lot of US people coming out of the woodworks spewing their ideas that American privacy is somehow more important than everybody else's ...
Foreign governments can't oppress me except by invading my country. Which they might succeed at if my government does not have an effective intelligence network - the government which I depend on to protect me from that.
My own government shouldn't oppress me, and a big part of that is guaranteeing that we maintain appropriate rights and discretion in the surveillance of our own citizens.
This idea that any of this has anything to do with some universal right to privacy is farcical and naive.
> Foreign governments can't oppress me except by invading my country.
In the 21st century, yes they can. If America wants to make some foreign person's life extremely difficult, they can do that without invading that country. Maybe not as easily, but they'll do it. See the Pirate Bay trials, the MegaUpload raid, WikiLeaks, etc.
> This idea that any of this has anything to do with some universal right to privacy is farcical and naive.
Don't forget lawyers and juries with insoluble volumes of constantly shifting rules and regulations vs. the illiterate and economically/educationally marginalized.
Also, people will complain about what the US is doing, but sure, go ahead and tell yourself that any other country isn't doing the same. China, N. Korea, Iran, UK, France, Israel, Australia, Germany, Russia, come on, it's a spy vs. spy world out there, and information is KING.... This leak of information slightly undermines the US bargaining power.