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Edward Snowden Reminds Americans About Origins of the Fourth of July Holiday: ‘Shooting at the Government’

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Whistleblower Edward Snowden’s Fourth of July social media post reminds Americans of the revolutionary origins of the holiday, sparking a deeper conversation about government power.

. . .On Thursday, Snowden, former NSA contractor, took to X to share a thought-provoking message. He urged his followers to remember the historical context of Independence Day, stating, “As you celebrate the Fourth with your family, remember what it is that the holiday commemorates: shooting at the government. 🇺🇸🎆”.

This post follows a series of comments made by Snowden earlier this year, where he expressed concerns over the erosion of civil liberties and the increasing power of the government. . .

In January, Snowden expressed his views on the perceived decline of the ‘American Century,’ attributing it to factors such as the abandonment of the gold standard, union busting, and the erosion of liberties post-9/11. His tweet on Independence Day seems to be a continuation of his commentary on the state of American democracy.

In February, Snowden voiced his concerns over the misuse of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, arguing that software engineers were being “henpecked” by an aggressively ignorant crowd’s “agenda.” (Read more from “Edward Snowden Reminds Americans About Origins of the Fourth of July Holiday: ‘Shooting at the Government'” HERE)

Elon Musk Asks if Snowden, Assange Should Be Pardoned, This Is What Twitter Followers Say

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Former Central Intelligence Agency contractor Edward Snowden, a self-proclaimed whistleblower, as well as Wikileaks founder Julian Assange have been pursued by the U.S. government for years over accusations they leaked confidential and sensitive information.

What Happened: Elon Musk on Saturday ran a poll on whether Assange and Snowden should be pardoned. He said the survey was not an expression of an opinion, but was meant to honor a promise he had made earlier. . .

Snowden Responds: Quote-tweeting the poll, Snowden said he and Assange were charged under a law designed to prevent fair trials. This law was originally aimed at suppressing an old, anti-war movement, he noted.

“Defendants are forbidden from mounting a public interest defense, juries prohibited from hearing it,” he added. (Read more from “Elon Musk Asks if Snowden, Assange Should Be Pardoned, This Is What Twitter Followers Say” HERE)

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Putin Grants Russian Citizenship to Edward Snowden

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President Vladimir Putin on Monday granted Russian citizenship to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, nine years after he exposed the scale of secret surveillance operations by the National Security Agency (NSA).

Snowden, 39, fled the United States and was given asylum in Russia after leaking secret files in 2013 that revealed vast domestic and international surveillance operations carried out by the NSA, where he worked.

U.S. authorities have for years wanted him returned to the United States to face a criminal trial on espionage charges.

Snowden’s name appeared without Kremlin comment in a Putin decree conferring citizenship on 72 foreign-born individuals.

Snowden later issued a message, essentially an updated version of a November 2020 tweet, saying he wanted his family to remain together and asking for privacy. (Read more from “Putin Grants Russian Citizenship to Edward Snowden” HERE)

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Watch Edward Snowden Detail How Phones Are Used to Spy on You

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Smartphones are an important way for governments, tech companies and bad actors to snoop on you, as you leave a digital paper trail. But how does this happen?

. . .The whistleblower said that carriers are able to track your device and therefore figure out your identity via cellular towers. Snowden adds that the movements of your phone are the movements of you as a person and are unique, as you go to your home and workplace every day.

“What this means is that whenever you’re carrying a phone, whenever the phone is turned on, there’s a record of your presence at that place that is made and being created by companies. It does not need to be kept forever, and in fact there’s no good argument for it to be kept forever. But these companies see that as valuable information,” Snowden explains.

The former NSA contractor says all of this data is stored as part of bulk collection or mass surveillance, regardless of whether you did anything wrong. “And that was just talking about how you connect to the phone network. That’s not talking about all those apps on your phone that are contacting the network even more frequently.”

Snowden says that shutting your phone off does work in some ways, but questioned how you would know that your modern, sealed smartphone is actually turned off.

(Read more from “Watch Edward Snowden Detail How Phones Are Used to Spy on You” HERE)

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Edward Snowden Says He Will Return to United States on One Condition

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Controversial whistleblower Edward Snowden, living in exile in Russia, said Monday he would like to return to the United States — but only if he can get a fair jury trial.

“That is the ultimate goal, but if I’m going to spend the rest of my life in prison then my one, bottom-line demand that we all have to agree to is that at least I get a fair trial,” Snowden said Monday on “CBS This Morning.”

Snowden told CBS’ morning show that the U.S. government has “refused” to guarantee a fair trial. . .

Snowden fired back: “I’m not different. Again, I’m not asking for a parade. I’m not asking for a pardon. I’m not asking for a pass. What I’m asking for is a fair trial.”

Snowden explained to the “CBS This Morning” panel that a jury would consider whether his actions were lawful or unlawful, as opposed to right or wrong. (Read more from “Edward Snowden Says He Will Return to United States on One Condition” HERE)

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Snowden Tweets: Microsoft Confirms Cyberattack Spawned From NSA

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National Security Agency (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden, currently living in exile in Russia, issued a tweet on Sunday explaining computer giant Microsoft “officially confirms” Friday’s cyberattack was spawned from exploits originally created by the NSA.

The alleged theft of the NSA hacking tools was originally published in April. An article by CNN last month said the NSA’s press office did not respond to an email at that time to confirm the information originated at the agency.

Snowden provided a link to an article on Microsoft’s blog written by the company’s President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith where he detailed information about the cyberattack that spread through malicious “Wannacrypt” software on Friday affecting computer users worldwide. . . . The software blocked users from their data unless they paid a ransom thin bitcoin. (Read more from “Snowden Tweets: Microsoft Confirms Cyberattack Spawned From NSA” HERE)

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NSA Pins Another ‘Badge of Honor’ on Snowden

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hqdefaultIf the Director of National Intelligence “’blames” you for something, is that bad, or is it a badge of honor?

That would be the latter for Edward Snowden… again.

This time, he’s not getting the blame for a massive data dump proving that nefarious governments have been using computer technology to invade individuals’ privacy.

The director doesn’t like that Snowden’s recent revelations were an impetus for speeding up encryption technology. I would have praised Snowden, but Director James Clapper said in The Intercept recently:

“As a result of the Snowden revelations, the onset of commercial encryption has accelerated by seven years,” James Clapper said during a breakfast for journalists hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. (Read more from “NSA Pins Another ‘Badge of Honor’ on Snowden” HERE)

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Secret US Flight Flew Over Scottish Airspace ‘to Capture Snowden’

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The UK government is facing demands to reveal the details of a secret flight through Scottish airspace which was at the centre of a plot to capture whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The plane, which passed above the Outer Hebrides, the Highlands and Aberdeenshire, was dispatched from the American east coast on June 24 2013, the day after Snowden left Hong Kong for Moscow. The craft was used in controversial US ‘rendition’ missions.

Reports by Scottish journalist Duncan Campbell claim the flight, travelling well above the standard aviation height at 45,000 feet and without a filed flight plan, was part of a mission to capture Snowden following his release of documents revealing mass surveillance by US and UK secret services.

That the flight passed over Scotland, airspace regulated by the UK, has raised questions over UK complicity in a covert mission to arrest Snowden and whether any police, aviation or political authorities in Scotland were made aware of the flight path.

Alex Salmond, the SNP foreign affairs spokesman and Scotland’s First Minister when the flight took place, has called for full transparency from the UK Government over the case. (Read more from “Secret US Flight Flew Over Scottish Airspace ‘to Capture Snowden'” HERE)

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Intelligence Officials Are Blaming Snowden for Paris

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Even as the hunt continues for suspects in the Paris terror bombings, some Western intelligence officials have already identified their culprit: Edward Snowden.

London Mayor Boris Johnson says the former National Security Agency contractor, who two years ago outed the U.S. government’s program of telephone and Internet surveillance, effectively taught terrorists “how to avoid being caught.” CIA Director John Brennan complained Monday that “a number of unauthorized disclosures” in recent years about the extent of federal snooping has made tracking terrorists “much more challenging.” Snowden also drew a borderline-profane slam on Twitter over the weekend from former George W. Bush press secretary Dana Perino.

No evidence has surfaced yet that Snowden’s revelations made a difference in this case, or that the perpetrators of Friday’s attacks used encrypted communications to conceal their activities. Many private-sector computer specialists surveyed by POLITICO were skeptical about those arguments, which if true would mesh with more than a year of warnings from intelligence officials about the growing ability of terrorists and criminals to hide their tracks online.

Still, there’s no denying the political context. The criticism of Snowden comes as intelligence officials seek to reopen a debate over the balance between security and privacy — a balance that seemed, before the deaths of 129 individuals in Paris, to have been settled firmly in favor of civil liberties. U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials have complained publicly that encryption tools — in iPhones, laptops and mobile software like Facebook-owned WhatsApp — allow terrorists, drug dealers and other criminals to “go dark” and avoid monitoring.

“We’ve had a public debate. That debate was defined by Edward Snowden, right, and the concern about privacy,” former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell said Sunday on “Face the Nation.” “I think we’re now going to have another debate about that. It’s going to be defined by what happened in Paris.” (Read more from “Intelligence Officials Are Blaming Snowden for Paris” HERE)

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Edward Snowden: Clinton Made ‘False Claim’ About Whistleblower Protection

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Edward Snowden has accused Hillary Clinton of “a lack of political courage” for her assertion during the Democratic presidential debate this week that the whistleblower had bypassed options for disclosing illegal government spying programs that would have protected him and not violated the law.

Speaking via satellite at a privacy conference at New York’s Bard College on Friday, Snowden said: “Hillary Clinton’s claims are false here.”

“This is important, right?” Snowden told an audience at the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. “Truth should matter in politics, and courage should matter in politics, because we need change. Everyone knows we need change. And we have been aggrieved and in many ways misled by political leaders in the past.”

Before Snowden spoke, Clinton repeated the claim on Friday, at a campaign appearance in New Hampshire. After a voter said Snowden was “close to a patriot,” BuzzFeed reported, Clinton disagreed and said he could have received whistleblower protections but instead chose to break the law.

“He broke the laws of the United States,” Clinton said at the debate on Tuesday. “He could have been a whistleblower. He could have gotten all of the protections of being a whistleblower. He could have raised all the issues that he has raised. And I think there would have been a positive response to that.” (Read more from “Edward Snowden: Clinton Made ‘False Claim’ About Whistleblower Protection” HERE)

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