Open letter to Edward Snowden from his father Lon Showden

[David McCarthy]

Speaking truth to power is risky, revealing corruption to power is a minefield!
Governmental Agencies, Cults and Corporations spying on its citizens in the name of freedom is immoral, illegal and destructive.
I hope Snowden finds a safe haven soon.....

David.

Open letter to Edward Snowden from his father Lon Showden.

Bruce Fein & Associates, Inc.
72212th Street, N.W\, 4th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20005
Phone: 703-963-4968
bruce@thelichfieldgroup.com

July 2/2013

Edward Joseph Showden Moscow

Dear Edward:
I, Bruce Fein, am writing this letter in collaboration with your father in response to the Statement you issued yesterday in Moscow.
Thomas Paine the voice of the American Revolution, trumpeted that a patriot saves his Country from his government.
What you have done and are doing has awakened congressional oversight of the intelligence community from deep slumber; and, has already provoked the introduction of remedial legislation in Congress to curtail spying abuses Under section 215 Of the Patriot Act and section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act You have forced onto the national agenda the question of whether the American people prefer the right to be left alone from government snooping absent probable cause to believe crime is afoot to vassalage In hopes of a risk-free existence.
You are a modern day Paul Revere: summoning the American people to confront the growing danger of tyranny and one branch government.
In contrast to your actions, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper responded last March as follows to an unambiguous question raised by Senator Ron Wyden:
"Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?" Clapper testified, "No sir, it does not.11 Wyden asked for clarification, and Clapper hedged: "Not wittingly, there are cases where they could inadvertently, perhaps, collect, but not Wittingly
Director Clapper later defended his stupendous mendacity to the Senator as the least untruthful answer possible. President Obama has not publically rebuked the Director for frustrating the right of the people to know what their government is doing and to force changes if necessary through peaceful democratic processes, that \s the meaning of government by the consent of the governed. "We the people" are sovereign under the U.S, constitution, and government Officials are entrusted with stewardship (not destruction) of Our liberties.
We leave it to the American people to decide whether you or Director dapper is the superior patriot.

The history Of civilization is a history of brave men and women refusing to bow to government wrongdoing or injustice, and exalting knowledge, virtue, wisdom, and .selflessness over creature comforts asthe North Star of life, We believe 'you'r' actions fall within that honorable tradition, a conviction we believe is shared by many.
As regards your reduction to de facto statelessness occasioned by the Executive Branch to penalize your alleged violations of the Espionage Act, the United States Supreme Court lectured In Trop V, Dulles (1958): "The civilized nations of the world are; in virtual unanimity that statelessness Is not to be imposed as punishment for crime.''
We think you would agree that the final end of the state is to make men and women free to develop their faculties, not to seek planetary domination, through force, violence Or spying. All Americans should have a fair opportunity to pursue their ambitions. Politics should hot be a football game with winners and losers featuring Juvenile taunts over fumbles or missteps.
Irrespective of life's vicissitudes, we will be unflagging in efforts to educate the American people about the impending ruination of the Constitution and the rule of law unless they abandon their complacency or indifference.
Your actions are making, our challenge easier,
We encourage you to engage us in; regular exchanges of ideas or thoughts about approaches to curing or mitigating the hugely suboptimal political culture of the United States. Nothing less is required to pay homage to Valley Forge, Cemetery Ridge, Omaha Beach; and other places of great sacrifice.

Very truly yours,
Bruce Fein
Counsel for Lon Snowden

Lon Snowden

Link:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/151333544/Fein-Snowden-July-2

Related:

"THE director of America's National Intelligence has apologised for telling congress earlier this year that the National Security Agency (NSA) does not collect data on millions of Americans, a response James Clapper now says was "clearly erroneous".
Read more:
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/wo ... 6673730161

Why Edward Snowden Is a Hero : The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/j ... -hero.html

[David McCarthy]

"You may believe there's no possibility of America turning into a thugocracy, that the amassed information – conversations, business dealings, personal health and financial data, media consumption, gun records and so much more – will never be systematically misused that way. But even if you do, ask yourself this: if a young employee of one of the countless private companies administering the surveillance state could get access to so much for idealistic reasons, how vulnerable is this material to people with baser motives? Do you suppose corporate spies or foreign security services might be able to tempt some of the holders of this information with money, or find others who are vulnerable to blackmail? We're creating the ultimate treasure chest of information, and it's value is nearly limitless."


"America's founders would be horrified at what we've done, and what we've become.
They would have denounced our secret laws, Kafka-esque "no fly lists" and so many other recent creations of power-grabbing presidents emboldened by feeble lawmakers and compliant courts.
While they wouldn't have understood the modern concept of privacy – though they've have wanted to protect it once they did understand – they would have engineered checks and balances to prevent today's wholesale abuses, made so much worse by active corporate participation, reluctant or not, in the digital dragnets"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... y-not-same

[seriously]

Real letter? Did Ed Snowden's father really misspell his own last name (Showden)? I'm not a Snowden fan nor am I an advocate of unlawful search and seizure or privacy breaches. In this case, I try and look at it logically. From my perspective, here's what is taking place. Metadata is maintained on phone calls. This means data about the phone call and not the content of the phone call. Date, time, from phone # X to phone #Y. The Metadata is parsed through via queries looking for patterns. Ex: provide output for all phone #s communicating with a table containing known terrorist phone #s. Based on the output, is additional scrutiny warranted? If so, go before a judge and obtain a warrant to record conversations on phone #(s). Determine if the owner/user of phone # is a threat and go from there.

All phone call conversations can't be recorded and maintained digitally on disk or tape storage for retrieval at a later date. The amount of data is way too excessive and the task would be daunting. The phone companies themselves couldn't and wouldn't do this because of the cost. Only an extremely small subset of phone call content would be recorded and maintained and those would have to meet very specific parameters. Believing the government cares about the content of your phone calls or texts is narcissistic. As a former R$E member, I can understand why current and some former "students" believe the government has a big interest in their personal lives. R$E members are narcissistic because JZ aka Ramtha teaches them to be. This is their reality and everyone else including the government is just a player in their reality.

I don't like the government looking at US citizens phone call metadata but I don't like terrorist attacks either. There's a fine line and unfortunately we live in a violent world where people maintain silly religious beliefs including Jihad. So, what do you do? Personally, I'm willing to give up a little freedom to actively seek out terrorists. I understand if people don't share my opinion and if I felt the government was going too far or there weren't proper checks and balances I'd change my mind pretty quickly.

[David McCarthy]

Real letter? Did Ed Snowden's father really misspell his own last name (Showden)?

Sorry seriously that was my Typo.
I believe the letter is genuine.

WASHINGTON (WJZ) — The father of admitted NSA leaker, Edward Snowden, applauds his son in an open letter.

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2013/07/0 ... en-letter/

Angela Merkel: NSA snooping claims 'extremely serious'
German chancellor says fight against terrorism is essential but methods used must be proportionate

""If these reports are confirmed in the course of our investigations, we will be looking at an extremely serious incident," she said. "Using bugs to listen in on friends in our embassies and EU representations is not on. The cold war is over. There is no doubt whatsoever that the fight against terrorism is essential, and it needs to harness intelligence about what happens online, but nor is there any doubt that things have to be kept proportionate. That is what guides Germany in talks with our partners."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/ju ... ng-serious

[David McCarthy]

Hi seriously

if I felt the government was going too far or there weren't proper checks and balances I'd change my mind pretty quickly.

Sure I agree, please consider this..

Reuters: Why the government wants your metadata.
"But any suggestion that Americans have nothing to worry about from this dragnet collection of communications metadata is wrong. Even without intercepting the content of communications, the government can use metadata to learn our most intimate secrets – anything from whether we have a drinking problem to whether we’re gay or straight. The suggestion that metadata is “no big deal” – a view that, regrettably, is still reflected in the law – is entirely out of step with the reality of modern communications."

"Repeated calls to Alcoholics Anonymous, hotlines for gay teens, abortion clinics or a gambling bookie may tell you all you need to know about a person’s problems. If a politician were revealed to have repeatedly called a phone sex hotline after 2:00 a.m., no one would need to know what was said on the call before drawing conclusions. In addition sophisticated data-mining technologies have compounded the privacy implications by allowing the government to analyze terabytes of metadata and reveal far more details about a person’s life than ever before."

"For this reason, law enforcement and intelligence agencies have long appreciated the value of metadata, and the outdated view that metadata surveillance is far less invasive than eavesdropping has allowed those agencies to use powerful surveillance tools with relatively little judicial oversight.

They can do this because, decades ago, long before the Internet altered all aspects of modern communication, the Supreme Court ruled that when we voluntarily divulge personal information to any third party, we waive our privacy rights and lose all Fourth Amendment protection over that information."


"So we shouldn’t be comforted when government officials reassure us that they’re not listening to our communications – they’re merely harvesting and mining our metadata. In a digital world, metadata can be used to construct nuanced portraits of our social relationships and interactions.
It’s long past time for Congress to update our surveillance and privacy laws to ensure that before the government can go digging through our digital lives, it needs to demonstrate to a judge that it has good reason to believe we’ve done something wrong."

the full article..
Why the government wants your metadata
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2 ... -metadata/