Edward if you don't know leaked the info about the NSA spying on it's people in America. I think that he is a hero type person because the American people should know of this type of stuff and the national security should not be doing this kind of stuff in secret. What do you think about the NSA spying on Americans and should they do it even if a terrorist attack can be prevented.

I can't call him a hero because FRANKLY, this NSA stuff is nothing new to me. This crap has been going on since the McCarthy era when it was first established under Harry S. Truman and was only made WORSE with the Patriot Act of 2001(If you didn't complain THEN, you have no business complaining now). If your all surprised by this NSA news, then this country really has regressed. I also can't call him a traitor either because as I said, this "stuff" has been going on for years so what earth-shattering news is he revealing that is so damaging *rolls eyes*. If anything, the leaking of covert operations against Iran were more "damaging" than what this guy has been divulging.

To my opinion, I think Snowden is a hero, he's stepping up against what the NSA is doing and I think this is what the NSA deserves and I have to say congratulates to Snowden for stepping up. 

I don't know if I would call him a hero... but he is not a traitor by any means. Personally, I consider him a whistle blower, and good on him for doing it.

But yeah, seriously, where was all this outrage when they passed the Patriot Act twelve years ago? How is anyone surprised that they've been doing this?

Elara : people weren't outraged because lots of people were naive enough to believe that it would never be used against American citizens even though the language allows them to do just about anything they want.

he certainly revealed hypocrosy in the usa.
america refused a takeover bid on telecons by china fearing they would listen in.
oh sweet irony.
nice to see the usa has been bugging the eu, along with their allies embassies too, such trust.

geeogree : You're probably right.

thenumberone : Total side note, but the UK has also recently been exposed for bugging other countries as well, so you really can't be too judgmental there. Trust between nations is an illusion anyway.

Elara :
of course I can, the uk government are absolute d****.
Their defence was they werent actually listening. bull. bugged countries and they apparently are tapping our phones according to new reports.
politicians are a holes.
The germans actually questioned our government over bugging its people. it seems the germans care more about our liberties than our own government. they are the better country.

thenumberone : Yeah, apparently all it takes for the government to care about spying on their own people is going through a harsh, Fascist dictatorship with terrifying secret police followed by forty years of division and occupation where those same conditions exist in half the country.

... They seriously said they "weren't listening" as a defense? Silliness!

What I find interesting is that no country is calling the US out on the manhunt.

And now we have comments from GWB saying he isn't sorry for what he did when he set up this program, or for how they secreted it's existence away from the people when they balked at the Total Information Awareness program (same basic program, different name).

thenumberone :

It's not really hypocritical of the US to try to prevent Chinese espionage considering the Chinese spy on us regularly. It's just common sense. What is hypocritical is the European politicians pretending to be surprised and outraged by reports of US spying.

soxfan849 :
except it is. 
because you were trying to prevent them from doing what you already were.
and snowden also revealed you were hacking chinese networks, despite complaints about china doing that.

how is being surprised, or pretending to be, hypocritical?

I find him inspirational, he stood up for what he believed was right. Unfortunately he most likely will be considered a traitor and I find that unfortunate because the American public does have the right to know what the NSA was doing.

thenumberone :

Because the European countries pretending to be outraged (like Germany and France) are doing the same thing.

And because you seem not to understand what hypocrisy is, here's a definition: "the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform; pretense". If America condemned espionage (and like the European countries now, it probably has) that would be hypocritical (because America spies as well). But just trying to make it harder for other people to spy on you isn't hypocritical (unless you condemned preventing espionage, but that would be a stupid condemnation to make).

soxfan849 :
I havent heard about france and germany doing it, id be especially surprised at germany. the only one so far under the spotlight for it is the uk. For the german one the targeets seem to be fairely corrupt nations where germany has peacekeeping forces, the targets being officials of that country. its still wrong, and pretty disrespectfull to people who are supposed to be friends (or at least close acquaintances) but its not really the same level as the usa or the uk. I cant see justification for spying on democratic nations that arent aggressive. I dont know if its me, but your france link doesent load for me. id be less surprised to find France were up to something, unless its recent, since frances current presudent is a liberal socialist.

I understand hypocrosy, and I understand that obviously having a foreign nation eavsdropping has to be avoided, but it is an extreme irony that the usa said they couldnt trust the takeover bid due to tapping fears, when the usa is no more trustworthy to that end.

equaly, it is definitive hypocrosy to chastise a government for listening in on its people, when the government making the statements does so as well.

thenumberone :

I don't know the extent that Germany does it, but I do know that France is pretty bad (here's another one). The UK is too, like you said. And I can't imagine Canada isn't involved at least somewhat with the US, since they're such close allies.

But hopefully people can see through their own governments and call for reform all around. Maybe the UN could be used to monitor intelligence programs of all countries, although I don't know how feasible that would be. Probably not very. But it's one thing to spy on other governments. It's another thing entirely to spy on innocent civilians, regardless of where they live.

I'd just hate to see people criticize the American government for a little while, ignore that their government may be doing the same thing, and have nothing accomplished at the end of the day.

soxfan849 :
I knew china had been stealing industry information but not france. that is entirely unacceptable, however not altogether surprising, their last president was pretty dodgy. id be pretty disapointed if they continued this with their new government, it steals peoples livelyhoods.

it would be naive to imagine that the usa were unique in being the only western nation to spy on its people, in fact thats already proven false. however eventually this will die down and it will all resume. its next to impossible to stop, because the only way we find out, is if someone "whistleblows". given what happens to these people (like snowden and assange) I dont think many people are likely to step forward.