Snowden

The case of Edward Snowden is mindful of the situation the German officers found themselves in under Hitler. Snowden took an oath to uphold the constitution but soon discovered that the government was not following the constitution. He questioned a number of his co workers about this and they understood that listening to US citizens was illegal according to the forth amendment commonly referred to as the right of privacy. He now must ignore the forth amendment or break his oath. This is the German officer who said he was just following orders when he gassed Jews. He could have chosen not to follow orders and been punished just as Snowden chose not to follow his oath and was punished. Section 72 of the Foreign Intelligence Office (FISA) allows the government to secretly listen in on foreign agents and entities. This is legal but it quickly spread to include US citizens as witnessed in the Trump administration. History shows that powerful secret surveillance tools will be abused for political ends. When government officials testified under oath that they did not abuse FISA what they meant was they only intended to listen to foreign agents but accidentally listened to US citizens. If they accidentally heard something they thought was illegal they could then use the regular courts to go after this person which they did. The US government has used the excuse of national security to cover up illegal activities for years and it is only when a whistle blower exposes them that they get caught. Thus they have the Espionage Act of 1917 to punish any whistle blower. Snowden chose to reveal how the government was using Section 72 to gather information on US citizens and fled to Russia in 2013 where he resides to this day.