I visited the folks, and after the
standard maint-type duties the Mum went for a nap and the Dad and I
had a small Tequila, and he asked me ”What do you think about this
Snowden character.”
I must admit that it took me a short
while to organize my thoughts, but I came up with “what he did was
illegal and right”.
And even that's not quite right. The
guy was a contractor for a company doing contract work for the NSA,
was never vetted nor was he ever sworn to keep secrets. Big fail
NSA.
.But consider further. Had he been (as
a civilian contractor with the NSA) bound to that straitjacket of
regulation, would those regulations have been binding? Were it to
have come to light in other circumstances would he have been allowed
to plead “I was just following orders?”
I don't think so. Humiliating as it
may be, the disclosure that the US Government has been spying on all
and sundry, foreign and domestic, but mostly the other party is VERY
FUCKING IMPORTANT.
We now know that these our former
masters are not worthy of the trust we allowed, nay, forced upon
them. I use the word “masters” advisedly. We the people through
want of diligence or misguided trust made them into our masters to
save us from un-named and undescribed evil enemies. We meant well.
We had the best of intentions. We fucked up.
The problem now is what to do. Slam
the burning barn door? Allow the intercepts to trickle out at
politically expedient times? Promise double pinkie swear never to do
it again? Encourage new crypto tech? Shove the genie back into the
bottle?
Tell you the truth? I got no damn
idea. You can't know how much it hurts me to admit that. Normally I
can come up with a plan, a concept, an idea that would work, but
right here right now, I'm drawing a blank. And I weep.I
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