America’s Intelligence Community to Snowden: We’re Coming for You!

 

Apparently, Edward Snowden may want to take extra care of his surroundings now.  He never knows when some “passerby” will “casually” prick him with a needle, infecting him with some agent that can cause him to collapse and “die in the shower” later on in the day.

Snowden, the 30-year-old former NSA contractor, the man who blew the lid on his agency last year and revealed to American citizens the mass domestic spying being done on them (among other things), has angered many an official in Washington D.C.  This rings especially true of those standing amongst the ranks of the American intelligence community, where the general sentiment reigns that Snowden is a dangerous wartime traitor.  As one official from the Pentagon has said, the whistleblower is “single-handedly the greatest traitor in American history.”

Now, one may look at that charge and think that, especially in the grand scheme of American history, calling Snowden the “greatest traitor in American history” may be a bit too much.  However, that seems to be the most charitable thing that the American intelligence community has to say about the former contractor.  As revealed late yesterday in a Buzzfeed article, many in the community are thinking of taking Snowden out.  That’s right, they’re thinking of killing him with their own bare hands.

A current NSA analyst intimated to the folks at Buzzfeed that “In a world where I would not be restricted from killing an American, I personally would go and kill him myself,” adding that most people in his agency “share this sentiment.”

The Pentagon official who called Snowden “single-handedly the greatest traitor in American history,” in saying that he does not “take pleasure in taking another human beings life, having to do it in uniform,” has nonetheless expressed his desire to “put a bullet in his head.”

A defense contractor has said that many in the national security establishment would like to Snowden “tried and hung” for the crime of revealing their mass spying activities on the American public.  In fact, according to said contractor, they would like to “forget the trial and just hang him.”

And then there’s the chillingly detailed fantasies of how Snowden should be killed.  An Army intelligence officer told Buzzfeed that “I think if we had the chance, we would end it very quickly…Just casually walking on the streets of Moscow, coming back from buying his groceries. Going back to his flat and he is casually poked by a passerby. He thinks nothing of it at the time starts to feel a little woozy and thinks it’s a parasite from the local water. He goes home very innocently and next thing you know he dies in the shower.”

Of course, the Buzzfeed article goes on to make clear that the people quoted did not expect anyone in the intelligence community to act out on their deadly desires.  It does give the public at large a nice window into the world of the American intelligence community, though.  It is one where officials apparently think that they should be free to do anything under the sun, regardless of what the Constitution says or the effectiveness of their actions, because, after all, it’s in the name of “national security”.  And, like Edward Snowden, if anyone dares to cross them and reveal to the public what exactly it is that they are doing, out of concern of the ramifications involved, we should forget about any trial in the first place and “just hang him.”

At least, officially speaking, the federal government’s position is that Snowden should be returned to the United States to face trial, where he will ostensibly be accorded due process in facing the music for his alleged crimes. That is their position, “officially speaking.”  One thing is clear, however:  Being a whistleblower in the United States can potentially prove to be very much so fatal.

h/t to David Sirota for the above image

Buzzfeed article:  http://www.buzzfeed.com/bennyjohnson/americas-spies-want-edward-snowden-dead

– Danny “Lucius” Lundy

*Don’t forget to spread the word!  Check out “The Lucian” Facebook page, and follow “The Lucian” on Twitter!  Thank you for your support.

Food for Thought: The United States- A Police State?

 

On their Facebook page this morning, the good folks at C-SPAN have decided to do something quite interesting this morning.

See, this cable network, known throughout the years for providing the American public televised proceedings of their Federal Government (among other things) have decided to put up a poll on their page asking a straightforward, but provocative question:  Is the U.S. a police state?

At the time that this piece is being written, 438 people have responded to the poll.  To any one who has been paying attention to the state of affairs just in this year alone, let alone the past ten+ years, the results, while telling, shouldn’t be surprising at all.  In this poll, an overwhelming 350 respondents have said that the United States is indeed a police state.  Only 88 people have disagreed with that assertion.

Now, understand that this is a poll on Facebook, and that there are only, at current time, 438 people out of a country of millions that have made their voice heard here.  However, given polling on similar topics in the recent past, one can get a sense from the public mood that a majority of the people of the country, by and large, might very well agree with the thought that the United States has become, in essence, a police state.

And why wouldn’t they get that sense?  Remember that earlier this year, thanks to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the public now knows about the government’s mass surveillance program, which has gathered phone records and internet data on millions of Americans.  They know about how the government has used such information (just in the recent past alone) to go after and discredit those it deems as standing against it.

To add to that are the instances of harsh treatment that the government has levied against journalists and whistleblowers, along with its obvious abuse of the Espionage Act in connection to these instances.  Heck, the public has increasingly seen for years now, in the current “War on Terrorism” era, what seems to be an escalating erosion of their constitutional rights and liberties, in conjunction with more and more government intrusion and secrecy, all of it done in the name of “national security”, and all of it cheerleaded by the nation’s top officials and politicians.

This doesn’t even mention, by the way, the ever-increasing militarization of local police forces across the country, with the disastrous effects that such a move entails.

Yes, the American public has witnessed all of this.  Is it really therefore surprising that a majority of the people responding to C-SPAN’s Facebook poll think that the United States is a police state?

Of course, in looking at the comment section of this poll, there is a caveat to be noted here.  There are some here of a decidedly right-wing bent who have made a point in talking about how, under the “socialist” Obama Administration, things ranging from increased taxes to Obamacare have contributed to a more totalitarian, police state-like society.  Quite a sizable amount of people in the comments section, in fact, have voiced opinions along these lines.  It’s a little scary, to say the least, that there is a good percentage of folks out there who would believe such childish thoughts.

All in all, this poll is really a sad commentary on a nation that is supposed to be the bastion for freedom and liberty.  The people recognize that there is something amiss here in America.  They see that threats to their liberty are rising faster than ever, and that there seems to be no end in sight in terms of a reversal of this disturbing trend.  In other words, they see an apparent, evident police state in their midst.

The C-SPAN Facebook poll:

https://www.facebook.com/questions/10152221673645579/?qa_ref=pp

– Danny “Lucius” Lundy

*Don’t forget to spread the word!  Check out “The Lucian” Facebook page, and follow “The Lucian” on Twitter!  Thank you for your support.