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1 2017-04-24T18:17:50-07:00 Bana Nourkeyhani 8a68a2418b55f123291fe807610bb36bc772ebc7 16360 1 plain 2017-04-24T18:17:50-07:00 DC BUDGET STANDOFF Bloomberg Contributor Washington DC USA United States 185037764 Bloomberg via Getty Images 2013 Bloomberg AH/ET The U.S. Capitol is reflected in a puddle next to the Capitol Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013. The House scrapped a vote tonight on a fiscal plan that contains almost none of Republicans' initial conditions for ending the 15 day-old government shutdown and raising the debt ceiling said Representative Pete Sessions, chairman of the House Rules Committee. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images 20131015 070000+0000 AMERICA; AMERICAS; NORTH AMERIC DEBT; FISCAL; CLIFF; CEILING DEFAULT; BUDGET GOVERNMENT; POLITICS SENATE; LAWMAKERS TOPNEWS Not Released (NR) For editorial use only. Additional clearance required for commercial or promotional use, contact your local office for assistance. Any commercial or promotional use of Bloomberg content requires Bloomberg's prior written consent. Bloomberg A POL Republicans Scrap Vote On Debt-Cap Plan Lacking Party Aim Bana Nourkeyhani 8a68a2418b55f123291fe807610bb36bc772ebc7This page is referenced by:
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2017-03-21T15:31:45-07:00
Whistleblowing Is Not Just Leaking - It's an Act of Political Resistance
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Written by Edward Snowden on May 3, 2016
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2017-04-25T18:26:43-07:00
The second and most recent manifesto written by Edward Snowden was written on May 3, 2013 titled " Inside the Assassination Complex: Whistleblowing is not just leaking - It's an Act of Political Resistance".
Although the length of this manifesto is much longer than the first one written in 2013, it is absolutely flooded with information.
"One of the challenged of being a whistleblower is living with the knowledge that people continue to sit, just as you did, at those desks, in that unit, throughout the agency, who see what you saw and comply in silence, without resistance or complaint. They learn to live not just with untruths but with unnecessary untruths, dangerous untruths, corrosive untruths. It is a double tragedy: What begins as a survival strategy ends with the compromise of the human being it sough to preserve and the diminishing of the democracy meant to justify the sacrifice." (Snowden, 2016)
In this section of the manifesto, Snowden touches on the fact that there are people currently working in the CIA that are just sitting there and not doing anything about it. It demonstrates the humanity in Snowden as even the thought of others sitting around doing nothing irritates him and hurts him as a citizen of the earth. As well, Snowden recognizes that the CIA and NSA being able to tap into everyone's phones etc, is something that has been going on as soon as 'government' exists and how it truly is shocking that it took so long for someone to expose such breaches of privacy.
"I've agreed that whistleblowers are elected by circumstance. It's not a virtue of who you are or your background. It's a question of what are you exposed to, what you witness. At that point the question becomes Do you honestly believe that you have the capability to remediate the problem, to influence policy?" (Snowden, 2016)
Snowden makes a really good point in this quote by saying that if you do not think that you reveal will change anything, then why do it? The purpose of exposing something such as the NSA documents is to let people know in hopes of them being aware and potentially doing something about it. Snowden had access to a large amount of documents (all which have been handed off to journalists trusted by Snowden) and although his current life situation isn't ideal, what he did made people all around the world aware of the unnecessary power given to governments.
