Why Edward Snowden has already won

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VOL. 32, NO. 1, JANUARY 2014 WWW.SOCIALISTACTION.ORG U.S. / CANADA $1 Lynne Stewart is free!

Lynne arrives at La Guardia airport, Jan. 1, after her release from prison.

Edward Joseph Snowden, 30, former National Security Agency (NSA) con­ tractor and the world’s most ardent whistleblower, continues to be the bane of U.S. government surveillance and spy operations. Rarely does a week pass when government denials of gross spy­ ing operations are not almost instantly refuted by a Snowden release of damn­ ing classified texts that he acquired dur­ ing his stint with the NSA and several associated private surveillance corpo­ rations.

Based on hundreds of classified docu­ ments that Snowden has released since May 2013, few people—with the excep­ tion of a handful of NSA obfuscators and President Obama himself—today deny that the myriad of government and pri­ vate spy agencies collect virtually all phone, e-mail, and other communica­ tions of everyone in the United States— if not the entire world! An estimated $50 billion yearly is expended from the secret and nearly unregulated Congres­ sional “black budget” for these opera­ tions, which employ 1.3 million agents certified with government national se­ curity clearances.

Just six months after the Obama ad­ ministration’s flat denial of Snowden’s exposés, two Federal District Court judges confirmed his revelations, but with opposed conclusions. On Dec. 16, Washington, D.C.-based Federal District Court Judge Richard J. Leon ordered the government to cease collecting data on the phone calls of two plaintiffs and to destroy all records of their call history.

In a 68-page opinion, the 2002 Bush appointee wrote, “ I cannot imagine a more indiscriminate and arbitrary inva­ sion than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for the purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval” (em­ phasis added).

I couldn’t help but note here the judge’s concluding phrase, “without prior judi­ cial approval,” implying that perhaps with such approval, the government’s massive spy operations would be okay. The Justice Department has insisted that the legality of its spying stemmed from having the approval of 15 separate judges on 35 occasions. But these were FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) judges, essentially acting in secret and without any requirement that their victims, or anyone else, be accorded the right to refute the secret charges made against them.

The lead article on Judge Leon’s de­ cision in the Dec. 17 New York Times opened: “A federal district judge ruled on Monday that the National Security Agency program that is systematical­ ly keeping records on all Americans’ phone calls most likely violates the Constitution, describing its technology as ‘almost Orwellian’ and suggesting that James Madison would be ‘aghast’ to learn that the government was en­ croaching on liberty in such a way.” Leon nevertheless stayed his own ruling, not­ ing that it was likely to be appealed by the government.

A few days later, New York District Court Judge William H. Pauley III con­ sidered the same arguments brought in a suit by the ACLU. In contrast to Leon, Pauley approved the government’s col­ lection of metadata on all Americans. His 54-page opinion concluded: “No doubt, the bulk telephony metadata collection program vacuums up infor­ mation about virtually every telephone call to, from, or within the United States. That is by design, as it allows the NSA to detect relationships so attenuated and ephemeral they would otherwise escape notice.

“As the September 11 attacks demon­ strate, the cost of missing such a thread can be horrific. Technology allowed alQueda to operate decentralized and plot international terrorist attacks remotely.

Marty Goodman / Socialist Action The bulk telephony metadata collection program represents the government’s counter-punch: connecting fragmented and fleeting communications to recon­ struct and eliminate al-Queda’s secret network.”

No doubt both decisions will, in time, be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the “majesty” of American law will be finally enunciated by the ap­ pointed high legal spokespeople for American capitalism! And no doubt, as has been the case with virtually all ruling classes throughout history, the “national security” interests of the state power will supersede the constitution­ ally or otherwise protected rights of its citizens.

Edward Snowden has repeatedly de­ nied spurious government accusations that he defected to Russia (where he now resides as a temporary resident) or China, that he was engaged in espio­ nage, or that he did great harm to the United States. Indeed, Washington Post reporter Bart Gellman aptly quoted Snowden’s response to his detractors: “If I defected at all,” he said, “I defected from the government to the public.”

(continued on page 5, in “Victory! Lynne Stewart is free!”)

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INSIDE SOCIALIST

N.Y. police chief — 2 Haiti’s starvation wage — 3 Green capitalism? — 4

U.S. budget deal — 6 Socialism then & now — 7 Mandela’s Legacy See page 5 .

Canada news — 8-9 S. Africa unions — 10 Nelson Mandela — 12