Snowden?

Since he is a risk of revealing more , I'm OK with sending a squad to kill him wherever he is.  He is a traitor and enemy to our country.

We've been at war for over a decade...Snowden has aided our enemy and has the capability to continue to do so.  He has become an enemy of our country.  He can, and should, be treated the same as any other enemy of war.

Interestingly, so far he hasn't been charged with treason... just lesser offenses.  Probably because he hasn't shared anything that wasn't already close to public knowledge.  If that changes, sure, charge him.

Although I'm of the opinion that if they're going after Snowden, someone should also be busting Clapper for lying to Congress.

The NSA is limited by law to gathering foreign intelligence, but they've gone out of their way to circumvent that restriction lately.

The NSA is not subject to provisions provided under the Patriot Act?

I agree about Clapper. Bad deal.

My other question is, why is congress trying to make changes in the surveillance law at this point? Has anyone been victimized as a result of these laws?  

I feel like congress continually poking their nose into this is similar to Snowden leaking classified information. 

My final question is this. Why don't they just send Dog the Bounty Hunter (or one of his family members) in to shove Snowden in a suitcase and ship him back to the US..?

He'll be welcome into one of those countries with crazy leadership.. They'll force him to hand over whatever he knows, and then they'll chew him up and spit him out. 

And I find it funny that France who was so outraged is now found to have their own Prism program, but due to the laws/government, they can do nothing about it.  Hahaha.  Oh the outrage.

Were I a congressman with something to hide? I'd be nervous.

As an ordinary citizen?

I'm more concerned about my physical/financial safety from the guys who are out there with true criminal intent. 

(which I guess in reality, might just be some of the congressmen )

Those of us in the tech industry were warning about this sort of thing long before Snowden was a household name.  The concerns we voiced over certain parts of the Patriot Act?  Ignored.  The major telcos working hand in hand with the government... ignored.

This is a prime example of a situation where our elected representatives offer no realistic alternatives.  Because both parties are pro-big-brother, with a few notable exceptions like Rand Paul.

The problem is that people get irrational about their safety.  The chance of you being killed by a terrorist incident in the USA is very, very small.  Compare that with things you take for granted like driving where the risk is far greater.

Compound that with the fact that mass-surveillance is unlikely to stop bad guys (ex: Boston).

We're giving up a lot to gain very very little if we stand by and don't hold our government accountable.

NXS - you and I are much closer on this issue than my posts will look like, believe it.  The deal is, we are our worst enemies.  The amount of personal information we have given away, for the sake of convenience, is mind boggling. I'm not sure we can turn that tide back. 

I can only speak for myself on the front end, but I know what is out there about me, and it's stunning.  My entire life....school, credit, residences, marriage, and on and on is there for me to see with the push of a button.  So is yours.....although I've probably never looked at it (why would I).  You'd be appalled at what I could see about you.  JoshR and I traded PM's and he gave me permission to look at his information to see what was there....but I didn't, because it's not right....and probably, at least in my mind, illegal.

I have no idea what the answer is.....but I'm telling you....be mad at ourselves....we gave it away.

I agree.

I also don't really have a problem with Snowden.  It's one thing to take information like this and secretly leak it to the Chinese (or whoever) as a blatant espionage play, but quite another to go public with it to expose the unconstitutional behavior of the government.  Yes, these things help the war on terror, but the ends don't justify the means.