What it Boils Down To: Where do Transparency Begins?

        Edward Snowden, 29, may spend decades in prison for leaking information on government activities involving violating the public interest in privacy. The wide open disclosures includes U.S. Goverment gathering billions of phone calls and internet activities. Snowden says his only motive to come forward was to "inform the public". Currently he has taken refuge in Hong Kong until the U.S. can legally extradite him back.

         When he spoke to the reporters from the Guardian and the Washington Post, He said. "Any analyst at any time can target anyone. Any selector. Anywhere". He continued," I, sitting at my desk, had the authority to wiretap anyone, from you to your accountant to a Federal Judge, to even the President if I had a personal e-mail.." Snowden could be looking at charges as serious as Treason(Betrayal of the U.S. Government). But according to the Associated Press, Mark Zaid, a National Security Attorney for whistle blowers said that intent would have to be proven. Where Snowden will remain consistent that his "sole motive" was to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.

          Snowden, a former techn
ical assistant for the CIA and a current employee of defense contractor, had access to classified information that he felt he was compelled to release for the sake of public interest. In a note accompanying this first set of documents he provided to the newspaper, Snowden wrote: "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions, but I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant."

           The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on Snowden's disclosure, saying the issue has been referred to the Justice Department. However, the Agency said: "Any person who has a security clearance knows that he or she has an obligation to protect classified information and abide by the law." The Justice Department has commenced an initiate to investigate unauthorized disclosure of classified information by an individual with authorized access according to Justice Department spokeswoman Nanda Chitre late Sunday, June 9. Furthermore, New York Republican Representative Peter King, chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence and Terrorism said: "If Edward Snowden did in fact leak the NSA data as he claims, the United States government must prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law and begin extradition proceedings at the earliest date. The United States must make it clear that no country should be granting this individual asylum. This is a matter of extraordinary consequence to American intelligence." Though the Federal Court has ruled that a number of provisions of the Patriot Act are considered unconstitutional, the FBI and other "security agents" continue to intrude on personal records and communications without a court order. Isn't that a direct violation of the 4th Amendment???? What happen to the transparency acts Obama put in place. President Bush believed that the emergency created by the Sept. 11 attacks allowed the government to spy on anyone without a warrant. He was "free from the constraints of the Fourth Amendment" when it came to unleashing the NSA. The agency is a military-intelligence service, and "the Fourth Amendment would not apply to military operations the President ordered within the United States to deter and prevent acts of terrorism." Of course this is an opinion of a man that commenced the plummet of the American Economy and started an illegal war in Iraq when he was suppose to be going after Bin Laden after the 9/11 attack. Wouldn't it only be right to keep the public informed on the terrorist that has been apprehended, so the public would have a sense of justification for the violation of our constitutional rights. I mean, how would informing the public on terrorists after their capture harm their operations. We all know that their is corruption in the government, how can we trust them to hold secret court? Yesterday, Obama defended NSA wiretapping, Saying that NSA cannot wiretap our communications, but we all know that's a lie. The purpose of the Patriot Act is to violate out 4th Amendment rights, with no intent of Transparency. The underlining intent of everything we hear in Conspiracy Theory is the Great and Very Possible Threat of Regimes that we have witness in the Soviet Union. Remember the Iron Curtain, the Cold War? The citizens of Russia virtually had no freedoms. No property rights and no privacy rights. At any given time The Russian Government could easedrop, search your home randomly with no warrant, arrest you or detain you with little suspicion. Attempt to contact anyone outside the Regime was seen as a threat and betrayal to the Soviet Nation. Much land was confiscated and Many execution were done during this time.

     Sounds similar? Look at the real estate bubble, how property been taken away through subprime mortgaging with Government backing. Patriot Act mandated because of some threat from Osama Bin Laden.  And just as Snowden says in the video, the government will continue to increase pressure through "terroristic threats" from above, so the public will demand protection from below. A vicious cycle of fear and increase of  government power until we have inadvertently given up all our rights to the Government, beginning with the 4th Amendment right to our privacy.