A Year of Edward Snowden

Today celebrates a year since Edward Snowden first showed us the beginning of a long, deep hole of NSA spying and lying. From Clapper lying to Congress, and getting away with it, to Obama saying metadata collection isn't a big deal, when we've learned that it clearly is. Check out my first and second articles written almost a year ago talking about the information shared by Snowden and the potential impacts.

TEDTalks: Edward Snowden vs. NSA (Richard Ledgett)

Earlier in March, Edward Snowden spoke on TEDTalks via a very cool mechanical bot about the NSA and the leaks he has been involved with over the past year.

Watching the video was fascinating. While I already knew a great deal about all the programs that he spoke about, it was refreshing to hear it put out in laymen terms. Snowden was very informative and gave a solid talk.

He spoke about PRISM, how the NSA broke their own rules consistently, our role in the world economy and security, Project Bullrun (which undermines companies' security), and well, you can watch the TEDTalk to see it all. But the basic point that he has been making all along is that the NSA is violating our right to privacy and is creating an unsafe environment for the security of our citizens and companies with programs that are undermining the internet.

Obama Feeling Pressure From The People About The NSA?

So the New York Times reports that President Obama apparently is finally taking a serious look into the NSA's spy and bulk collection program and end it! Whoa! This is huge news. 

Snowden Speaks at Length About Leaks

I just watched this interview with Edward Snowden and the German channel NDR where he goes into depth about his opinions, observations, and reaction to the his leaks. He also explains what the significance of his leaks are.

Video uploaded to LiveLeak December 27, 2013. You can view it here on LiveLink.

ACLU v. Clapper Case Dismissed, NSA Continues Bulk Collection

IMAGE: Electronic Frontier Foundation

In June, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) brought a case against James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, questioning the legality of the NSA’s programs to spy on the American people and collect and store bulk information for future use. ACLU v. Clapper was made possible after Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the NSA.

Two Thousand and Thirteen or Nineteen Eighty-Four?

A few months ago I had the urge to once again read George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. I was shocked at the staunch parallels with today’s society that I found within. While my head was buried in my book, Edward Snowden began leaking the NSA files he gathered while working as a contractor. The timing was surreal. If you haven't read Nineteen Eighty-Four, or like me, you haven't read it in a long time, let me refresh your memory. You’ve likely heard the concept of Big Brother, the watchful eye of an oppressive government, but that is just a portion of this amazing novel by the author of Animal Farm.

George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four in 1949 and used Stalin controlled Soviet Russia and wartime London as inspiration for a dysfunctional future setting. While his main objective may have been to discredit Communism through metaphor, the similarities to U.S. modern society are still striking.

The book begins with protagonist Winston Smith returning home from work. He describes his stark surroundings and mundane routine. In a state of constant war, all material items are rationed and simple things like coffee and chocolate are luxuries of the past. Buildings with “their sides shored up with balks of timber, their windows patched with cardboard and their roofs with corrugated iron” line the streets of London. The description of London reminds me of the terrible photos of bankrupt Detroit, decrepit and run down.

Million Mask March

On November 5th, the hacktivist group Anonymous called for an international day of action to protest, well whatever you want. Thousands, if not a million people around the world marched, protested and spread their messages of equality, freedom, and honesty. Here in Los Angeles, we marched for a variety of reasons, while the most vocal of the group being to end the Federal Reserve.

More Revelations From Edward Snowden

PHOTO: Mad Magazine

Almost four months ago, I wrote an article explaining why it was important to understand who Edward Snowden was and what he had done. At the time, I thought his exposure of NSA secrets would fade in the minds of the general public, much like Chelsea Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, has seemed to do.

While Glenn Greenwald and the Guardian continue to expose more and more astounding disregard for the 1st and 4th Amendment, I thought it was only right to expand on my earlier article and include the new revelations that have since been revealed.

When Snowden’s name first popped up in the news, there was much speculation about whether what he was saying was true, and if so, if it was deemed acceptable by the American public or a gross violation of our basic rights as Americans.

Edward Snowden: Why You Should Know His Name

Sunday, June 9th the Guardian posted yet another article on the ongoing exposure of the overwhelming National Security Administration’s (NSA) PRISM program. This time it was not just a piece about the NSA, but about the whistleblower behind the leak, Edward Snowden.

[Originally published in Ladybud Magazine here: Edward Snowden: Why You Should Know His Name]

Snowden is a 29-year-old infrastructure analyst who, until recently, worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, a contracting company providing the NSA with intelligence. He was exposed to a multitude of information that allowed him to piece together what the NSA was doing in regards to the surveillance of the American people, claiming he could wiretap even the President with access to a personal email address, and with his accumulating knowledge began to feel uncomfortable with what he concluded to be the NSA’s abuse of power.