Edward Snowden: Chinese Informant? Not so fast...

I believe in National Security.  I do.  I believe it is necessary to hack into foreign governments, known terrorist networks, and criminal organizations.  I have no qualms about aggressive, proactive efforts to root out terror wherever it grows and then to destroy it with drones, boots, or missiles.  I believe in a strong defense.

I do not believe in subjecting myself to surveillance to help the effort, and I do not think that the government should presume that my data is fair game simply because it simplifies the location of threats.  It is not an anonymous survey that NSA wants us to take, and the information can clearly point back to me regardless of my innocence.  What's more is the fact that if you can photoshop pictures to create convincing fakes, I believe the same can be done to data in order to frame me for something I took no part in accomplishing.  For this reason, at least on the surface, the NSA dragnet appears to me to be unwise and unconstitutional.

To this end, I am hesitant to declare the whistleblower, regardless of his means, as an enemy of the state or a subject of Chinese espionage for the simple reason that I deserve to know what it took him to tell me.  Did I have a reasonable expectation that the government would have brought to my attention how I currently receive surveillance of my non-criminal activities?  The response from the government might be to me, "What do you have to hide?"

With due respect to my critics, it does not matter what I have to hide.  In the Fourth Amendment, does it say that there is a reasonable expectation of privacy as long as you have nothing to hide?  Was the Fourth Amendment not meant to prevent government agencies from seeing exactly what they want to see according to NSA?  I admit that I only care about my own privacy, not those of terrorists; however, I disagree that law enforcement and intelligence assets will only catch terrorists if they can look at my usage data.  Perhaps my data makes it easier because they want to gather all data and sort in order to look for anomalies, but it does not make it OK.  When was the last time a totally unaffected and law abiding citizen received a call from the police department to come to the police station in order to stand in a line up?  We would not accept that practice as OK, so why would this one be any different?  Is it OK because it happens to be less intrusive?

http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/06/10/Former-CIA-Officer-Intel-Considering-NSA-Whistleblower-Potential-Chinese-Espionage?utm_source=e_breitbart_com&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Breitbart+News+Roundup%2C+June+10%2C+2013&utm_campaign=20130610_m116300908_Breitbart+News+Roundup%2C+June+10%2C+2013&utm_term=More