Top 100 Quotes About Snowden
#2. Those of us who fought the crypto wars, as we call them, thought we had won them in the 1990s. What the Snowden documents have shown us is that instead of dropping the notion of getting backdoor government access, the NSA and FBI just kept doing it in secret.
Bruce Schneier
#3. Did anyone in the White House or the N.S.A or the C.I.A. consider flying to Hong Kong and treating Mr. Snowden like a human being, offering him a chance to testify before Congress and a fair trial?
Alex Berenson
#4. One of the most surreal aspects of the NSA stories based on the Snowden documents is how they made even the most paranoid conspiracy theorists seem like paragons of reason and common sense.
Bruce Schneier
#5. Patriots don't go to Russia. They don't seek asylum in Cuba. They don't seek asylum in Venezuela. They fight their cause here. Edward Snowden is a coward. He is a traitor. And he has betrayed his country. And if he wants to come home tomorrow to face the music, he can do so.
John F. Kerry
#6. Snowden was horrified to discover that behind bars he would have no access to a computer.
Luke Harding
#7. We believe Russian-American relations are broader and larger than emotions and mutual grudges, including the situation with the U.S. fugitive Edward Snowden.
Sergei Lavrov
#8. Our rights are not granted by governments," Snowden said. "They are inherent to our nature. But it's entirely the opposite for governments: their privileges are precisely equal to only those which we suffer them to enjoy.
Edward Snowden
#9. Snowden said carefully, 'I've been unable to get in touch with the person I thought might know about our mutual friend's difficulty.'
The guy sounded like he worked for the CIA. Or Charles Dickens.
Josh Lanyon
#10. Purvis. This is my associate, Samantha Kofer. We've been hired to get our client out of jail. Snowden took a step back as Mattie pressed ahead. Samantha, treading water, wasn't sure what to do, so
John Grisham
#11. On December 1, 2012, I received my first communication from Edward Snowden,
Anonymous
#12. ISIS went to school on how we were collecting intelligence on terrorist organizations by using telecommunications technologies. And when they learned that from the [Edward] Snowden disclosures, they were able to adapt to it and essentially go silent.
Michael Morell
#13. Mr. Snowden did not start out as a spy, and calling him one bends the term past recognition. Spies don't give their secrets to journalists for free.
Alex Berenson
#14. What the Snowden scenario proved is that the weakest link is not the technology, the weakest link is the individual; we shouldn't kid ourselves.
John W. Thompson
#15. There is no denying that Snowden's dramatic disclosures, despite the damage they did to U.S. intelligence, accomplished a salutary service in alerting both the public and the government to the potential danger of a surveillance leviathan." (p.299)
Edward Jay Epstein
#16. Edward Snowden isn't a traitor. He reported the crime of conspiracy to deny citizens of their constitutional rights.
David Chiles
#17. Snowden is an orderly thinker, with an engineer's approach to problem-solving.
Barton Gellman
#18. Snowden evidently knew of WikiLeaks, a niche transparency website
Luke Harding
#19. I was thinking about how people were upset about the information that came out from Snowden about the NSA - many people were upset, including myself. But I was kind of surprised by how little we did about it - how little fighting we did.
Maggie Gyllenhaal
#20. No offense to Iceland, but Latin America is where the fugitive leaker Edward Snowden should settle.
Stephen Kinzer
#21. I don't think Edward Snowden deserves a death penalty or life in prison. I think that's inappropriate. I think that's why he fled, [because] that is what he faced.
Rand Paul
#22. Mr. Snowden is a coward who has chosen to run.
Chuck Schumer
#23. Is Snowden a good man or a bad man? I have no clue and even less interest.
John McAfee
#24. It's customary to stand when a lady enters and leaves the room, Mr. Snowden." Jacob cut his dark eyes to her. "If and when I'm in the presence of a lady, I'll be sure to do that.
A.E. Via
#25. Despite Russia's move to raise interest rates this week, the value of the ruble has continued to crash. Russia's economy is so bad, Edward Snowden had to put government secrets on Craigslist.
Jimmy Fallon
#26. I'm worried that the government might kill Edward Snowden with a drone.
Ron Paul
Ron Paul
#27. Edward Snowden may not be a Chinese mole, but he might as well be. He's just handed Beijing a major score, while the NSA struggles to pick up the pieces - and the rest of us pay the price in terms of future national security.
Arthur L. Herman
#28. The many pro-surveillance advocates I have debated since Snowden blew the whistle have been quick to echo Eric Schmidt's view that privacy is for people who have something to hide. But none of them would willingly give me the passwords to their email accounts, or allow video cameras in their homes.
Glenn Greenwald
#29. Free speech and freedom of the press are under attack in the U.K. I cannot return to England, my country, because of my journalistic work with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and at WikiLeaks. There are things I feel I cannot even write.
Sarah Harrison
#30. Documentarian Laura Poitras has crafted a first-rate Hitchcockian-type thriller telling the story of Edward Snowden.
Leonard Maltin
#31. The [Edward] Snowden disclosures created this perception that people's privacy was being put at significant risk.
Michael Morell
#32. Edward Snowden: The Whistleblower Behind the NSA Surveillance Revelations
Glenn Greenwald
#33. Do I believe Edward Snowden contributed to the rise of ISIS? Yes. Would they have gotten there without the help he provided them? Probably. Would they have been able to conduct this attack in Paris without him? Maybe. So the honest answer is I don't know.
Michael Morell
#34. Snowden has yet to tell me anything that was a fact that I have been able to rebut or that anybody in the U.S. government I have talked to has been able to rebut.
Barton Gellman
#35. Edward Snowden made an audacious claim: I, sitting at my desk, could wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email.
Glenn Greenwald
#36. If we think that democracy is a good thing, then we must believe that the public should know as much as possible about what the government it elects is doing. Snowden has said that he made the disclosures because "the public needs to decide whether these programs and policies are right or wrong.
Peter Singer
#37. My understanding is that espionage means giving secret or classified information to the enemy. Since Snowden shared information with the American people, his indictment for espionage could reveal (or confirm) that the US Government views you and me as the enemy.
Ron Paul
#38. I hope we follow Mr. Snowden to the ends of the Earth to bring him to justice.
Lindsey Graham
#39. Edward Snowden, who worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, professes to have had access to whatever he wanted to know about anyone's anything. If he's telling the truth, why does he have such permeability without any government oversight? Is that OK with you?
Henry Rollins
#40. With some of the issues around the Snowden leaks and what the NSA was doing I think have scared people around the world and I think in many ways rightfully so.
Mark Zuckerberg
#41. Ecuador has never stated flatly that it would give asylum to Edward Snowden.
Barton Gellman
#42. Saving Edward Snowden from prison is one of WikiLeaks' achievements of which I am most proud.
Sarah Harrison
#43. I think in some ways what Snowden is, is he's a mix of a cold war spy novel and post-9/11 spy novel.
Alex Berenson
#44. Edward Snowden gave a little press conference today. He is apparently seeking temporary asylum in Russia. Because, you know, when you're tired of the government snooping into everything you do, Putin's Russia is definitely the place you want to go.
Bill Maher
#45. For months, Obama administration officials attacked Snowden's motives and said the work of the NSA was distorted by selective leaks and misinterpretations.
Barton Gellman
#47. In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden's release of NSA material, and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago.
Daniel Ellsberg
#48. Snowden has been very sparing about discussing his early life or his personal life.
Barton Gellman
#49. My links to WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden mean I am treated as a threat and can't return to the U.K.
Sarah Harrison
#50. To the extent that you have aided and abetted Snowden, even in his current movements, why shouldn't you, Mr. Greenwald, be charged with a crime?
Glenn Greenwald
#51. I see Edward Snowden as someone who has chosen, at best, exile from the country he loves-with a serious risk of his assassination by agents of his government or life in prison (in solitary confinement)-to awaken us to the danger of our loss of democracy to a total-surveilla nce state
Daniel Ellsberg
#52. In the end, we will never, ever be able to guarantee that there will not be an Edward Snowden or another Chelsea Manning because this is a large enterprise composed of human beings with all their idiosyncrasies.
James R. Clapper
#53. I have another name for what they're terming whistleblowers, and that's righteous heroes. From Bradley Manning to Snowden. They're people of conscience who are unwilling to turn a blind eye to the crimes of our government. And thank goodness for them.
Tom Morello
#54. To charge Snowden with espionage is a severe form of political persecution.
Mark Weisbrot
#55. I am incrementally a pessimist, but I see the international debate that Edward Snowden has engendered, and I think this is exactly where the discussion should be. So, I would say I'm more optimistic than pessimistic.
Adam Savage
#56. Any country that grants asylum to Snowden risks retaliation from the United States, including diplomatic isolation and costly trade sanctions. Several don't seem to care.
Stephen Kinzer
#57. Snowden's itinerary does, however, seem to bear the fingerprints of Julian Assange. Assange was often quick to criticise the US and other western nations when they abused human rights. But he was reluctant to speak out against governments that supported his personal efforts to avoid extradition.
Luke Harding
#58. In the post-Snowden world, you need to enable others to build their own cloud and have mobility of applications. That's both because of the physicality of computing - where the speed of light still matters - and because of geopolitics.
Satya Nadella
#59. For future Snowdens, we want to show there is an organization that will do what we did for Snowden - as much as possible - in raising money for legal defense and public advocacy for whistleblowers so they know if they come forward there is a support group for them.
Sarah Harrison
#60. Man was matter, that was Snowden's secret. Drop him out a window, and he'll fall. Set fire to him and he'll burn. Bury him and he'll rot, like other kinds of garbage. The spirit gone, man is garbage. That was Snowden's secret. Ripeness was all.
Joseph Heller
#61. Snowden was extremely good at digital self-defense. When he was employed by the C.I.A. and N.S.A., one of his jobs was to teach U.S. national security officials and C.I.A. employees how to protect their data in high-threat digital environments.
Luke Harding
#62. The subject of Citizenfour, Edward Snowden, could not be here for some treason.
Neil Patrick Harris
#63. Eric Holder, our attorney general, says the Mr. Snowden will be brought to justice. Just as soon as we can find someone who can track his calls and read his emails.
Bill Maher
#64. Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give to an American.
Edward Snowden
#66. There is a policy response that needs to occur. There is also a technical response that needs to occur. It is the development community that can really craft the solutions and make sure we are safe.
Edward Snowden
#67. If an NSA, FBI, CIA, DIA, etc analyst has access to query raw SIGINT databases, they can enter and get results for anything they want. Phone number, email, user id, cell phone handset id (IMEI), and so on - it's all the same.
Edward Snowden
#68. You shouldn't send an email from a computer that's associated with you if you don't want it to be tracked back to you. You don't want to hack the power plant from your house if you don't want them to follow the trail back and see your IP address.
Edward Snowden
#69. I'm just another guy who sits there day to day in the office, watching what's happening, and goes, 'This is something that's not our place to decide.' The public needs to decide whether these programs or policies are right or wrong,
Edward Snowden
#70. We need to think about encryption not as this sort of arcane, black art. It's a basic protection.
Edward Snowden
#71. Acting Government officials, they said they wanted - they would be happy, they would love to put a bullet in my head, to poison me as I was returning from the grocery store, and have me die in the shower.
Edward Snowden
#72. As a general rule, US-based multinationals should not be trusted until they prove otherwise. This is sad, because they have the capability to provide the best and most trusted services in the world if they actually desire to do so.
Edward Snowden
#73. There are programs such as the NSA paying RSA $10 million to use an insecure encryption standard by default in their products. That's making us more vulnerable not just to the snooping of our domestic agencies, but also foreign agencies.
Edward Snowden
#74. Bathtub falls and police officers kill more Americans than terrorism, yet we've been asked to sacrifice our most sacred rights for fear of falling victim to it.
Edward Snowden
#75. Our founders did not write that We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all US Persons are created equal.
Edward Snowden
#76. Encryption works. Properly implemented strong crypto systems are one of the few things that you can rely on. Unfortunately, endpoint security is so terrifically weak that NSA can frequently find ways around it.
Edward Snowden
#78. I went to a website the other day and right at the top of the page it showed me my ip address. It was the most disturbing moment I have ever experienced. This website even told me what internet browser I was using, and what day it was. Computers can do anything.
Edward Snowden
#79. Every time somebody on the internet sort of glances at us sideways, we launch an attack at them. That's not going to work out for us long term, and the U.S. have to get ahead of the problem if we're going to succeed.
Edward Snowden
#80. We have the means and we have the technology to end mass surveillance without any legislative action at all, without any policy changes.
Edward Snowden
#81. The sad truth is that societies that demand whistleblowers be martyrs often find themselves without either, and always when it matters the most.
Edward Snowden
#82. They are intent on making every conversation and every form of behavior in the world known to them.
Edward Snowden
#84. When it comes to cyber conflicts between, say, America and China or even a Middle Eastern nation, an African nation, a Latin American nation, a European nation, we have more to lose.
Edward Snowden
#85. When you are subverting the power of government, that's a fundamentally dangerous thing to democracy.
Edward Snowden
#86. I think the public still isn't aware of the frequency with which the cyber-attacks, as they're being called in the press, are being used by governments around the world, not just the US.
Edward Snowden
#87. All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say in how they are governed. That is a milestone we left a long time ago.
Edward Snowden
#88. As a general rule, so long as you have any choice at all, you should never route through or peer with the UK under any circumstances. Their fibers are radioactive, and even the Queen's selfies to the pool boy get logged.
Edward Snowden
#89. I know the media likes to personalize political debates, and I know the government will demonize me.
Edward Snowden
#90. The work of a generation is beginning here, with your hearings, and you have the full measure of my gratitude and support.
Edward Snowden
#91. If they had taught a class on how to be the kind of citizen Dick Cheney worries about, I would have finished high school.
Edward Snowden
#92. When it is made to appear as though not knowing everything about everyone is an existential crisis, then you feel that bending the rules is okay. Once people hate you for bending those rules, breaking them becomes a matter of survival.
Edward Snowden
#93. I have had many opportunities to flee HK, but I would rather stay and fight the United States government in the courts, because I have faith in Hong Kong's rule of law.
Edward Snowden
#94. The NSA was actually concerned back in the time of the crypto-wars with improving American security. Nowadays, we see that their priority is weakening our security, just so they have a better chance of keeping an eye on us.
Edward Snowden
#95. I told the government I'd volunteer for prison, as long as it served the right purpose,
Edward Snowden
#96. The consent of the governed is not consent if it is not informed
Edward Snowden
#97. Cyber Command is supposed to be defending our critical infrastructure at home, but they are spending so much time looking at how to attack networks, how to break systems, and how to turn things off. I don't think it adds up as representing a defensive team.
Edward Snowden
#98. It's critical how we want to use these spy programs, these electronic capabilities, where we want to draw the line, and who should approve these programs, these decisions, and at what level, for engaging in operations that could lead us as a nation into a war.
Edward Snowden
#99. You can't come forward against the world's most powerful intelligence agencies and be completely free from risk.
Edward Snowden
#100. You are not even aware of what is possible. The extent of their capabilities is horrifying. We can plant bugs in machines. Once you go on the network, I can identify your machine. You will never be safe whatever protections you put in place.
Edward Snowden
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