10 ms·

so you think whistleblowing is illegal if you work for the NSA ?

• rootusrootus 3y ago
  That's a pretty great example of begging the question. Can you explain why you think what he did was whistleblowing and not whatever he actually got charged with? Further, I would be interested to hear your thoughts on why we should want NSA employees or contractors to make their own judgement call on what information should be made public or not.
  • mcv 3y ago
    Just to be clear, he's charged with espionage, just like most government whistleblowers are, according to a very questionable interpretation of, I think, a 1914 espionage act, that previously wasn't interpreted like that at all. What he did was clearly not espionage, because he didn't sell info to a foreign country, he released it to the American public. And if I recall correctly, he made sure not all of it was released, and it was redacted as responsibly as he could. That's not how espionage works. Charging these whistleblowers with espionage is a flagrant abuse of the law.
  • myrmidon 3y ago
    If you have secret programs that are later explicitly ruled illegal, rampant corruption within the whole system (people with access stalking personal contacts), AND the highest authorithies in that whole rotten branch of government lying straight to the face of democratic representatives, how else would you go about improving things without violating the espionage act? If my government had secret programs that my own courts would rule illegal later, I damn well hope that someone is going to run to the press,and I also hope that this someone is gonna get a medal... Are you simply going to tolerate corruption, illegal and unethical behavior as long as there is some law that forbids talking about that?!