"I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country"
The last words of Nathan Hale
In the days of Nathan Hale, we had a dispute with the British which went beyond the Revolutionary War. Our young Mr. Hale spied on the British, was caught and hung. To the British, he was a traitor. To our young republic, he was (and still is) a patriot and a hero. How far have we come since those early days in knowing the difference between a traitor and a patriot? It seems not too far.
To me, a good example of a traitor is Jonathan Jay Pollard. Here is a young man of Jewish decent who wanted to work for the CIA. He did not have the "chops" to work for the Agency as during the vetting process it was disclosed he was a significant drug user while in grad school. After being turned down by the Agency, we went to the Navy and became a low level analyst with a non-SCI clearance. While working for the Navy, he decided he was more Jewish than American and decided to steal classified documents and gave them to the Israelis. Even though Israel is a close friend and ally, certain secrets of ours must "stay inside the tent". Pollard was caught and convicted under the Espionage Act. He now resides in a federal pen.
One case which is not yet adjudicated concerns Bradley Edward Manning. While serving in the Army, he had access to very classified data bases that carried strategic and tactical intelligence. Instead of being selective of what he should steal or release, he did a huge "data dump" of classified material out on WikiLeaks. He was caught and is currently awaiting trial. Some on the left consider him a hero, others in the middle and on the right consider him a traitor. We will see what the courts say on this matter.
A person that is considered a whistle blower by many is Daniel Ellsberg, who first released The Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg was an Army vet and also worked at the New York Times. He was able to obtain information on how the Viet Nam war was mismanaged and often operated outside its legal charter. He first started to leak parts of this story through the Times. To make a long story short, many of the revelations he made caused a change in how war reporting was done, as it then became for transparent to the press. Ellsberg never went to jail, and many in the country think his whistle blowing did us all a big favor.
This brings us to the most current case - Edward Snowden. Not too much is known as this case is still being revealed. However, the facts we know so far show that he is a former CIA analyst and also worked as a contractor for the NSA. It was there he became aware of PRISM. Something within him thought PRISM was wrong as it might violate the Fourth Amendment. In fact, this program is so big, so intrusive, he felt the American public should at least know data was being collected on them. Snowden knows what he did made him a "dead man walking". Not physically dead, but his freedom probably is.
One of the pundits I listened to this weekend said the Snowden case could result in the "trial of the century". Even though what the NSA did was legal, as it was done in accordance with the Patriot Act (as well as being sanctioned by the FISC Court), it could have also been unconstitutional if it violates the Fourth Amendment. We have already seen arguments for Snowden's fate being made by the press and the talking heads. Do we give him a ticker tape parade, publicly disgrace him, or throw him jail for being a traitor.
Stay tuned folks - I think history is about to be made and precedence is about to be set. The best news - we all have a front row seat.
One case which is not yet adjudicated concerns Bradley Edward Manning. While serving in the Army, he had access to very classified data bases that carried strategic and tactical intelligence. Instead of being selective of what he should steal or release, he did a huge "data dump" of classified material out on WikiLeaks. He was caught and is currently awaiting trial. Some on the left consider him a hero, others in the middle and on the right consider him a traitor. We will see what the courts say on this matter.
A person that is considered a whistle blower by many is Daniel Ellsberg, who first released The Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg was an Army vet and also worked at the New York Times. He was able to obtain information on how the Viet Nam war was mismanaged and often operated outside its legal charter. He first started to leak parts of this story through the Times. To make a long story short, many of the revelations he made caused a change in how war reporting was done, as it then became for transparent to the press. Ellsberg never went to jail, and many in the country think his whistle blowing did us all a big favor.
This brings us to the most current case - Edward Snowden. Not too much is known as this case is still being revealed. However, the facts we know so far show that he is a former CIA analyst and also worked as a contractor for the NSA. It was there he became aware of PRISM. Something within him thought PRISM was wrong as it might violate the Fourth Amendment. In fact, this program is so big, so intrusive, he felt the American public should at least know data was being collected on them. Snowden knows what he did made him a "dead man walking". Not physically dead, but his freedom probably is.
One of the pundits I listened to this weekend said the Snowden case could result in the "trial of the century". Even though what the NSA did was legal, as it was done in accordance with the Patriot Act (as well as being sanctioned by the FISC Court), it could have also been unconstitutional if it violates the Fourth Amendment. We have already seen arguments for Snowden's fate being made by the press and the talking heads. Do we give him a ticker tape parade, publicly disgrace him, or throw him jail for being a traitor.
Stay tuned folks - I think history is about to be made and precedence is about to be set. The best news - we all have a front row seat.
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