Edward Snowden.
Saint or sinner? Hero or traitor?
Let’s follow the actual trajectory of his life. Down the road to notoriety. Hailed by some, hated by others, let’s see if we can determine which reaction we ought to have.
Well, depending of course on where you reside along the political spectrum that marks the critical juncture between embracing national security at all cost and loathing big brother.
After all, in this day and age, one in which the terrorists have become the new bogeyman – the new Commies – can there really ever be too much government snooping?
Against the bad guys.
And now, with increasingly intrusive technology that comes straight out of the brave new world, the government has the capacity to know practically everything there is to know about practically anyone who needs to be kept track of.
Again, if they’re bad guys.
Some of course will view all of this from from a considerably more radical point of view than others. They will see the national secuity state as part and parcel of a political economy that is owned and operated by those who sustain the military industrial complex, the war economy, a corporate media and a crony capitalism that intertwines Wall Street, the Congress and the White House. And in a way that even folks like Rachel Madow won’t examine.
One more peek into how the world is really run.
In a sense though this story is much like the Trump/Putin story today. It outrages those who will always be outraged by the folks who run governments from behind the curtains. But for the preponderance of those citizens who reside out in the “Heartland”, they really don’t see what the fuss is all about.
And for what it’s worth: "This [film] is a dramatization of actual events that occured between 2004 and 2013. "
IMDb
[b]To make sure the screenplay was not hacked or leaked, Oliver Stone wrote the script on a single computer with no Internet connection.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt pledged to donate his entire salary from the film to “help facilitate the conversation” about the relationship between technology and democracy.
The real Edward Snowden advised Oliver Stone that the NSA’s command centers are actually run on tight budgets and are far less glamorous than they appear in movies and TV shows. [/b]
trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt3774114/tri … =ttqu_sa_1
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowden_(film
trailer: youtu.be/QlSAiI3xMh4
SNOWDEN [2016]
Written in part and directed by Oliver Stone
[b]Doctor [to Snowden: If you ever again land on your feet again, airborne or not, your bones will turn to powder. I’m going to authorize an administrative discharge. Plenty of other ways to serve your country.
…
Examiner: Have you committed a crime that you have not been caught?
Snowden: No.
Examiner: Have you ever cheated on an exam?
Snowden: No.
Examiner: Do you believe the United States is the greatest country in the world?
Snowden: Yes.
Examiner: Why do you want to join the CIA?
…
Interviewer [Corbin O’brian]: What has been the most important day of your life?
Snowden: 9/11. We thought my grandfather was inside the Pentagon. Turned out he was off-site that day.
Interviewer: You wanted to be Special Forces?
Snowden: Yes, sir. I loved their motto: De Oppresso Liber.
Interviewer: Is that what you hope to do with us? Free people from oppression?
Snowden: I’d like to help my country make a difference in the world.
…
Interviewer: Any other influences?
Snowden: I’d say Joseph Campbell, Star Wars, Thoreau, Ayn Rand…
Interviewer: One man can stop the motor of the world. Atlas Shrugged.
Snowden: Yes, sir. I believe that.
…
Snowden: Is that a Cray-1?
Hank: Why, yes. Yes, it is. The first supercomputer. You can get all of this on a cell phone now.
Snowden: So, you’re, um, an engineer?
Hank: Am I an engineer? Instructor and counselor, too. I’m supposed to keep an eye on you CTs, make sure you don’t buckle under the pressure. Turn to drugs and booze.
Snowden: Well, you won’t have that problem with me. I don’t drink or do drugs.
Hank: What is your sin of choice?
Snowden: Uh, computers.
Hank: Well, then, Snowden, you’ve come to the right little whorehouse.
…
Snowden: Mr. O’brian. I’m done.
O’brian: You don’t have to tell me when you’ve completed a stage.
Snowden: No, I finished the whole thing.
O’brian: It’s been 40 minutes.
Snowden: 38. 38 minutes.
O’brian: Okay, let’s see where you screwed up.
[O’brian walks to Snowden’s computer to confirm it…only to confirm Snowden’s accomplishment instead]
Snowden: You didn’t say we had to do it in order, sir. So I, uh, broke the sequence to save time, and I automated the backup processes to run as I built the site.
…
Lindsay: I’m not talking about the troops. I’m talking about the moron sending them to war.
Snowden: Moron? Do you mean our Commander-in-Chief?
Lindsay: Yeah, whatever you want to call him, he’s still wrong.
Snowden: How do you know he’s wrong? You’re just lashing out…How about questioning the liberal media? I mean, you’re just buying into what one side is saying.
Lindsay: Maybe I am, 'cause my side is right.
Snowden: You see that’s funny 'cause my side’s right.
Lindsay: Why is it that smart conservatives make me so mad?
Snowden: Probably because you don’t like hearing the truth. [/b]
Of course, that’s where I come in. Snowden meets Lindsay, has discussions with folks like Hank and Gabriel. His frame of mind begins shifting…
[b]Hank: Do you want to know what really sets the agenda. Military Industrial happiness management. You keep the coffers open in Congress, you keep the money flowing to the contractors. Efficiency? Results? They go out the window.
Snowden: Did you ever say anything to anybody?
Hank: Yeah. I went to legal. We filed complaints. Now here I am, tucked away, teaching you.
…
O’Brian [to Snowden]: In 20 years, Iraq will be a hellhole nobody cares about. Terrorism’s a short-term threat. The real threats will come from China, Russia, Iran. And they’ll come as SQL injections and malware. Without minds like yours, this country will be torn apart in cyberspace. I don’t want to risk losing you for some horseshit war over sand and oil.[/b]
Cue [among others] Vladimir Putin.
[b]Ewen MacAskill [of the Guardian newspaper]: You want to tell people your identity. How do you think the government will react?
Snowden: The government will charge me under the Espionage Act. They’ll say I endangered national security, and they’ll demonize me, and my friends and family. And they’ll throw me in jail. That’s the best case scenario.
Ewen: And the worst?
Snowden: Well, if I don’t have any media cover, then I’ll be rendered by the CIA and interrogate “outside” the law…Mr MacAskill, this isn’t about money or anything for me. There’s no hidden agenda. I just want to get this data to established journalists like yourselves, so that you can present it to the world, and people can decide either I’m wrong or there’s something going on inside the government that’s really wrong.
…
Snowden [first becoming aware of the breadth of the NSA program]: How is all of this possible?
Gabriel: Keyboard selectors…“attack” “take out Bush”. Think of it as a Google search except instead of searching only what people make public, we’re also looking at everything they don’t. Emails, chats, SMS, whatever.
Snowden: Yeah, but which people?
Gabriel: The whole kingdom, Snow White.
…
Snowden: You don’t have to get a FISA court order?
Gabriel: No, not here. XKeyscore’s under 702 authority, which mean no warrants.
Snowden: Okay, but for U.S. targets then, you’d have to get the court order?
Gabriel: You mean FISA? Yeah, but they’re just a big-ass rubber stamp, dude. I mean, FISA judges are all appointed by the Chief Justice, who’s like, you know, Darth Vader when it comes to national security.[/b]
You watch this and can’t help but wonder if your own bedroom is in the loop. In fact, there’s a scene where Snowden and Lindsay are having sex. Snowden notes the laptop on the table. He knows that “big brother” may well be watching them on some screen on “the hill”.
[b]Snowden [to Laura]: You know, I thought things were actually going to be better with Obama. I was wrong.
…
Snowden [to Laura]: The Japanese were not as thrilled to learn that we wanted them to help us spy on the Japanese population. They said it was against their laws. Of course we tapped the entire country anyway. And we didn’t stop there 'cause once we owned their communications systems, we started going after their physical infrastructure. We’d slip these little sleeper programs into power grids, dams, hospitals…the idea was if the day came when Japan was no longer an ally, it would be lights out. And it wasn’t just the Japanese. We were planting malware in Mexico, Germany, Brazil, Austria. I mean China I can understand, or Russia, or Iran, or Venezuala…but Austria? We’re also being ordered to follow most world leaders and heads of industry. You know, we’re tracking trade deals, sex scandals, diplomatic cables…or leverage over Brazilian oil companies, or helping to oust some third-world leader who is not playing ball. And ultimately the truth sinks in that no matter what justification you’re selling yourself, this is not about terrorism. Terrorism is the excuse. This is anout econimic and social control. And the only thing you are really protecting is the supremacy of your government.
…
Snowden [to Laura]: There’s that moment when you’re sitting there and the scale of it hits you. The NSA is really tracking every cell phone in the world. No matter who you are every day of your life, you’re sitting in a database just ready to be looked at. Not just terrorists, or countries, or corporations but you.
…
Corbin: Is there something you do hold against me?
Snowden: You didn’t tell me we were running a dragnet on the whole world, Corbin.
…
Snowden: So we should catalog billions of people’s lives?
Corbin: Most people already catalogue their lives for public consumption.
Snowden: Well, they catalogue part of their lives, and they do it by choice. We’re not giving them a choice. We’re just taking everything.
Corbin: Most Americans don’t want freedom, they want security. It’s a simple bargain. If you want to play with all the new toys and be safe, you pay the price of admission.
Snowden: Yeah, but the people, they don’t even know they’ve made that bargain.
…
Snowden: So, this is data collection for the month of March worldwide, emails and Skype calls. So France, 70 million. Germany, 500 million. Brazil, two billion. Inside the U.S., 3.1 billion emails and calls. That’s not including any of the telecom company data.
Patrick: Okay, so what’s the collection in Russia?
Snowden: Russia is 1.5 billion.
Patrick: Wait, so we’re collecting twice as much in the U.S. as we are in Russia?
…
Catfish: We all knew that it was a kid. Poof. He’s gone. But same village, two, three days later. We see the funeral party. We knew it was a kid that they were burying. Moms and dads wailing. And then the order comes down. Hit 'em. Poof. And they are gone in a cloud of dust.
…
Trevor [after Catfish discloses the consequence of a drone strike that killed the child and then an entire family]: You make it sound criminal, man. It’s war. It’s a job.
Catfish: I don’t know, man, you saying jobs can’t be criminal?
Trevor: Not if you’re working for the government.
Snowden: You ever hear about the Nuremberg trials, Trev? They weren’t that long ago.
Trevor: Yeah, and we hung the Nazi big shots, right?
Snowden: Yeah, well, the big shots were the first trial, but then the next trial were just the judges, and lawyers, and policemen, and guards, and ordinary people just doing their jobs, following orders. That’s where we got the Nuremberg principles, which then the UN made into international law, just in case ordinary jobs become criminal again.
…
Snowden: I’m grateful for you looking after me.
Corbin: Or after you omitted the truth in your last polygraph. What was it you were withholding exactly?
Snowden: Remember that day in class you were talking about the FISA court? You said they approved Bush’s wiretapping programs.
Corbin: Sometimes we’re restricted from tellng the whole truth. Doesn’t give us permission to lie.
Snowden: Come on, Corbin, the director of National Intelligence just lied to Congress!
…
Corbin [to Snowden]: If it will give you any peace of mind, I can assure you Lindsay is not sleeping with that photographer friend of hers.[/b]
Snowden’s expression tells us that he knows all that Corbin telling him this implies.
[b]Snowden: Your email is being monitored.
Lindsay: So?
Snowden: It’s different now. It’s not passive collection, it’s full-take surveillance. It’s all your emails, calls, texts, social media, everything. It’s also possible the house is bugged. I’m not sure.
Lindsay: By who?
Snowden: By a senior officer in the C.I.A.
…
Newsman [on TV]: Breaking news tonight. Reports that through a secret court order, the Obama administration is collecting the phone records of millions of Verizon customers…The specific court order shows that all of the information is going to the National Security Agency.
…
Wolf Blitzer [on TV]: The Washington Post and the Guardian in London reporting that the NSA and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading Internet companies, including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple. The Post says they are extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time.
…
Snowden listens to Obama on TV: In the abstract, you can complain about Big Brother and how this is a potential program run amok. But when you actually look at the details, I think we struck the right balance.
…
Hank [watching Snowden on TV]: He did it. The kid did it.[/b]