General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Re: Attacks on Snowden, Greenwald. How the fuck do people like that sleep at night? [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Because it is the job of lawyers to protect the legal rights of citizens. Greenwald is a journalist and a lawyer. I suspect that a lot of lawyers -- the good ones -- the ones you would want representing you if you were charged with a crime or suffered an abuse of your legal rights -- agree with Greenwald and Snowden.
The American revolution was fought by men who knew what it was to have an overbearing governmetn abuse their basic rights. They included the Fourth Amendment in part so that if the right to privacy and/or other rights of Americans were abused by a government, there would be a record. That record would permit and permits the person whose rights are violated, the person incarcerated or killed by police or government in violation of the Constitution and for insufficient reason to have recourse and to be able to discover who caused him harm.
The NSA's spying on foreigners is on surer legal footing, but the appropriate thing for them to do is to get a warrant just in case their spying on foreigners leads them to spy on Americans.
The NSA now is probably acting on good faith. But in the wrong hands, and it is very easy for a government to get into the hands of desperate, embarrassed people who promise the moon, can't deliver and then look for scapegoats and who become oppressive dictators, the information they have gathered could be extremely dangerous to any of us, more likely you than me because I am older than you.
If you were in the military, you, of all people, should courageously and carefully protect the network of rights that make us a free people. That network was constructed by people who had seen the excesses of despotic government. Few Americans have. The nonchalance about the violations of the Fourth Amendment that the NSA is perpetrating make me suspect that Americans will find out sooner rather than later why the Bill of Rights exists.
At my age, I have little to fear. But if you were in your early twenties in 1984 . . . . you should defend the Bill of Rights. It is the most precious gift our nation has.