{"id":59257,"date":"2015-06-08T12:00:24","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T11:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=59257"},"modified":"2015-06-07T12:47:59","modified_gmt":"2015-06-07T11:47:59","slug":"daniel-ellsberg-credits-edward-snowden-with-catalysing-us-surveillance-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/06\/daniel-ellsberg-credits-edward-snowden-with-catalysing-us-surveillance-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Ellsberg Credits Edward Snowden with Catalysing US Surveillance Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Prominent US whistleblowers applaud Snowden\u2019s Patriot Act revelation for inciting Congress to take action, though they doubt he can ever return to the US.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 420px;\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.theguardian.com\/embed\/video\/us-news\/video\/2015\/jun\/01\/nsa-surveillance-reforms-whistleblowers-video\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>1 Jun 2015 &#8211; <\/em>NSA whistleblower <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/edward-snowden\" >Edward Snowden<\/a> should be thanked for sparking the debate that forced Congress to change US surveillance law, Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, said Monday [1 Jun 2015].<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_46184\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/snowden-wired5.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-46184\" class=\"wp-image-46184 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/snowden-wired5.jpg\" alt=\"Platon\" width=\"400\" height=\"550\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/snowden-wired5.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/snowden-wired5-218x300.jpg 218w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-46184\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Edward Snowden. Platon<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Other prominent US whistleblowers also gave Snowden credit and argued that the curbs in the NSA\u2019s surveillance powers by Congress \u2013 combined with a federal court ruling last month that bulk phone record collection is illegal \u2013 should open the way for him to be allowed to return to the US, although they conceded this was unlikely.<\/p>\n<p>Ellsberg, the former US military analyst who risked jail in 1971 by <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pentagon_Papers\" >leaking Pentagon papers showing the White House lied about the Vietnam war<\/a>, welcomed the concessions made by the Senate, limited as they are.<\/p>\n<p>Sweeping US surveillance powers used by the NSA <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2015\/may\/31\/nsa-reform-senate-deal-as-patriot-act\" >expired at midnight<\/a> after a dramatic showdown in the Senate. Some are likely to be replaced with those in new legislation, the USA Freedom Act.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is just one step on the road to regaining our rights. It is a promising beginning and we have Snowden to thank for that,\u201d Ellsberg told the Guardian.<\/p>\n<p>He described the Patriot Act, which was used by the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/nsa\" >NSA<\/a> as authorisation for the bulk phone data collection, as a monstrosity.<\/p>\n<p>Ellsberg was, like Snowden many years later, accused under the Espionage Act over the 1971 leaks, but the case against him was dismissed.<\/p>\n<p>He was in London at the start of a weeklong speaking tour with other American whistleblowers, including Thomas Drake, a former NSA member who revealed widespread abuses and violations; Jesselyn Radack, a former justice department official; and Coleen Rowley, a former FBI special agent who challenged supposed evidence used to justify the Iraq invasion.<\/p>\n<p>Their tour takes in Oslo, Stockholm and Berlin and is aimed at encouraging \u201ca culture of openness and truth as well as security for those who take the risk of disclosing information that authorities want to keep hidden\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Ellsberg has been nominated for this year\u2019s Nobel peace prize.<\/p>\n<p>Asked about the importance of the recent events in Congress, Ellsberg said: \u201cThis is the first time, thanks to Snowden, that the Senate really stood up and realised they have been complicit in the violation of our rights all along \u2013 unconstitutional action. The Senate and the House have been passive up until now and derelict in their responsibilities. At last there was opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What should happen to Snowden? \u201cHe should get the Nobel peace prize and he should get asylum in a west European country,\u201d Ellsberg said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do not think he will ever be able to come back to the United States no matter how popular he might come to be, and I think there is much more support for him month by month as people come to realise how little substance in the charges that he caused harm to us. They realise he is responsible for the debate going on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut that does not mean the intelligence community will ever forgive him for having exposed what they were doing. I don\u2019t think any president will find it politic to confront the intelligence community by pardoning him or allowing him to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Others have been less forthright. Asked whether the rejection of bulk collection by Congress and the courts meant it was now time to review official US attitudes to Snowden, Rand Paul, the Republican presidential candidate who played a key role in ensuring the Patriot Act provisions expired on Sunday night, declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t have any control over that,\u201d he told the Guardian. \u201cThat, I think, is going to be up to the president, and that\u2019s a president who used to be against the Patriot Act, so someone should ask him why he changed his mind,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Republican senator Dean Heller gave Snowden some credit for kickstarting the debate. \u201cNo doubt it played a role,\u201d he told the Guardian. \u201cI think it played the same role for me as it did for most of the American people, who were surprised and stunned that the government had this sort of access to this kind of data.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Radack described the events in the Senate on Sunday as \u201ca hugely symbolic moment\u201d, noting that it was the first time that the powers in the Patriot Act had not been automatically re-authorised annually.<\/p>\n<p>Drake challenged the need for mass surveillance rather than targeted surveillance. \u201cAre there legitimate threats? Yes. But you do not have to suck the ocean dry to find a few drops.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>____________________________________<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>More:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2015\/jun\/01\/nsa-us-surveillance-patriot-act-guide\" >US surveillance reform: what has happened and what happens next? <\/a>Is the Patriot Act gone forever? What exactly is the USA Freedom Act? Can the government still monitor terrorist groups? Here\u2019s what you need to know.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2015\/jun\/01\/edward-snowden-nsa-surveillance-patriot-act-whistleblowers-daniel-ellsberg\" >Go to Original \u2013 theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden should be thanked for sparking the debate that forced Congress to change US surveillance law, Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, said Monday [1 Jun 2015].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-whistleblowing-surveillance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}