Making treason cool. By Ralph Peters. New York Post, June 10, 2013.
Leaker loving his celebrity. The Jacksonian perspective on Snowden and Manning.
NSA Leaker Is No Hero. By Max Boot. Commentary, June 9, 2013.
Edward Snowden’s Parallel Universe. By Max Boot. Commentary, June 11, 2013.
Snowden’s Quest Isn’t About Civil Liberties. By Max Boot. Commentary, June 12, 2013.
NSA secrets leaker: Hero or traitor? Video. The Five. Fox News, June 10, 2013. YouTube.
Fox News analyst Ralph Peters: “Bring back the death penalty” for NSA leaker. With Video. By David Edwards. The Raw Story, June 10, 2013. Also at NewsHounds. The Huffington Post. Real Clear Politics. YouTube.
Edward Snowden: The Whistleblower Behind the NSA Surveillance Revelations. By Glenn Greenwald. NJBR, June 10, 2013.
Peters:
Forget
skinny ties and retro hats: The surest way to attain super-cool status (and
fame) today is to betray your country.
The
impossibly self-important NSA contractor, Edward Snowden, who “exposed” two
vital intelligence programs, isn’t a leftie Paul Revere. He’s Kim Kardashian
with stubble.
He
revealed very highly classified
programs, alerting our enemies about our most sophisticated intelligence-collection
capabilities (programs designed to keep us safe, not spy on us).He broke his
oath to protect the information with which we entrusted him, lied about who we
target and aided those who want to kill Americans. And he hints he could do
more damage.
To this
old-fashioned American, that’s plain treason.
It’s
always been a hipster thing to trash government, but the left’s
generations-long effort to destroy the positive image of patriotism has made
betraying our country a fashion statement. Snowden is a copycat who “admires”
Pfc. Bradley Manning, another now-famous young man who knew better than those
who serve dutifully for decades. He’s also enamored of Julian Assange, the
left’s favorite accused rapist.
There’s
nothing brave about his brag that he was the source of the NSA leaks
(especially since he fled the country first). This is clearly about the desire
to be a star.
To get
a sense of Snowden’s phenomenal vanity, check out the 12-minute film (all over
the Internet) in which he justifies his deed. The high-school dropout may have
a flair for tech, but he knows nothing about our history, trade relations,
international affairs or even the conditions in Hong Kong (where he says he now
fears assassination by CIA-backed Triad gangsters).
Claiming
that he only wants to make government accountable, Snowden then brags that he
could expose CIA stations around the world. He wants “asylum from any countries
that believe in free speech.” So he went to China?
Hope you enjoy your stay, Mr. Snowden.
In his
I-love-me interview, he further opines that the American people, not the
government, should decide about programs such as those he revealed. He should
have stayed in school until he got to the Civics block on democracy. The
American public does vote on these
programs — through their representatives in Congress. That’s why we have
regular elections.
And to
my leftist friends: Do you really want a 29-year-old high-school dropout,
rather than Congress, deciding which intelligence programs should be
authorized? Really? Sounds like a
dictatorship to me.
Snowden,
not the NSA, subverted democracy.
It may
disappoint conservatives, but I’m a fan of Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.). I
don’t agree with all of her positions, but I respect her integrity. Protective
of civil liberties, she’s an excellent litmus test on intelligence matters. And
Feinstein believes the NSA programs in question help keep us safe.
Again
to my leftist friends: Do you really
think Snowden or Manning or Assange care more about your freedom than Sen.
Feinstein?
There is a scandal here, though, one that’s
overdue for serious attention: the out-of-control use of contractors to perform
vital government services.
This is
a mess for which Republicans bear the chief blame. For a generation, they’ve
insisted that the private sector can perform all government work cheaper and better — even when it comes to
national security. But as I’ve seen myself, from the Pentagon to Iraq, it ain’t
cheaper and it’s rarely better.
This
spoiled-brat, dropout Benedict Arnold claims he was pulling down a $200,000
salary for his NSA contract work. A direct NSA employee on the government
payroll might get between $75,000 and $90,000 for the same work. And the
contractor adds on exorbitant overhead, so Snowden probably cost us at least
$500,000 per year. Wonder why we’ve seen the defense and intelligence budgets
soar?
Obviously,
Snowden’s employer, Booz Allen Hamilton, failed in its oversight duty. But
contractors are desperate for techies with security clearances, and Snowden
already was cleared above top secret. There was no incentive to look too
closely at him: The company needed a warm body in Hawaii.
And
Booz Allen Hamilton is actually one of the better
contracting outfits.
So: We
have a fame-hungry traitor, a compromise of vital security programs, a turncoat
who’s put himself at China’s mercy, the left-leaning media making the creep a
hero and contractors desperate to cover up their greed.
Coming
to a TV near you: “Real Spies of DC.”
