Define international law.
Enforce international law?
Can’t be done, doesn’t exist.
But he is attacking key premises upon which modern democracies are built. Read the UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights. If we allow that to erode, we’re on a slippery slope all the way to Hell.
He means all sorts of things, and nothing. He’s a study in politik-speak. Everything is “would be”, “potentially”, “pre-this, pre-that”.
I’m surprised he doesn’t just chuck in random bits of Latin.
A la Boris?
He does realize that Greenwald is moving to a start-up internet site, right? Whatever he reports, all the newspapers will report. Unless he believes he can stop the press from reporting on what has already been reported, which is to put them out of business.
I am no leader but recently as a commenter on The Guardian,my comments have been disallowed,forever I guess. I live in the states and must admit,my comments are good,maybe very good. I have been visiting The Guardian since the Ed Snowden revelations,and have commented regularly,so why all the sudden did The Guardian Block my comments? My guess is that the powers that Be ,whether it be the UK or the US,hate Ed Snowden stories and Hate citizens reading,digesting ,and commenting about stories. Perhaps The Guardian is doing this to more people than myself. My point is that The Guardian is making moves to filter probably with a nudge rather than a wink
Doesn’t matter. The real message is that Cameron is scared silly. And that’s entirely proper, since he’s been caught out and everybody knows it. The best question is, what exactly is it he’s so frightened they will publish very soon? Gotta be a damning piece of evidence, to get this reaction!
So, he’ll wolf and cry foul and threaten, and everything else the greedy and self-serving do when they get caught. Enjoy! The public is going to keep on seeing this kind of nonsense, and those who supported and funded this crap ARE going down over it, one way or another. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of civil rights violating megalomaniacs. Honestly, I can barely wait for the inevitable ‘Lah-ti-Da Airy Fairy’ song to appear and go viral on YouTube. Or, Hitler rant, which might be even sweeter.
I wish I could agree with you, but I think all of this is theater, and the spying will go on unabated, as will the erosion of rights. I hope you are right, though.
Yeah, I understand. But I’m feeling pretty bullish about it today. And really, there will ALWAYS be another round of tyrants and bullies. Think about it - that’s just human history happening. No reason to let it diminish the pleasure of catching this batch out and sending them on their way. They don’t feel shame, so we’ll have to be satisfied with their grief over loss of political power.
I can’t attest to the quality of your comments, but you might want to work on the quality of your grammar.
Thing is, round about 1215 and slowly onwards, a lot of this got sorted out. Bullying kings and barons were pushed back into their boxes.
The peak of the civil rights movement may well have been just prior to the mass availability of digital data gathering, storage and communication technologies. Maybe around 2003.
What I’m saying is, this is not a lost cause. No-one should relax, ever, and evermore. There will always be some kind of impetus to trammel and control people, from some quarter, but the many can control the few.
Allow the erosion to continue and London becomes Harare. DC becomes Brazzaville.
We’re only 4 days away from anarchy, ever, as the famous and self-proving saying goes. That should maintain a sense of urgency around the business of freedom.
Lah-dee-dah? Airy fairy? Glad to see Cameron is taking this seriously and not resorting to name calling like powerless children do. (See what I did there?)
I thought maybe he was an Annie Hall fan.
With no watchdog outside of the spying agencies, or additional Snowdens, the governments can simply patronize the citizenry, by telling them they aren’t doing it anymore.
That being said, the following quote is revealing: “… the UK government’s Edgehill programme, … with the US government’s Bullrun program…”. Both names refer to battles in the civil wars of England and the USA respectively, and say something about the mindset of those who chose them.
In those earlier civil wars, the forces of democracy are up 2-0. As you say, now is not the time to let up the pressure.
Time for Russell Brand to run for PM. He would send Cameron crying for his mum.
Not to mention “… and all the rest of it”. Yes, the belittling phrases are very revealing of his mindset (if we can call it that).
I’m not trying to be rude or snarky, but they probably got tired of your dodgy grammar. I’ve seen it happen before, more than once. English-language forums generally expect posters to be able to communicate at a certain minimum level.
Just for example: Spaces go after commas, not before. Capital letters are for the beginnings of sentences and proper nouns, not any random words. Use one (or two at most) spaces between sentences, not four or five.
Query; What mechanism is currently in place to push back against Cameron legally? I ask out of sincere ignorance…
All true - except maybe the 2003 date,which should be several years earlier (the US DOD was privately showing off its unencryption tricks as earlier as '98.) However- if you can stand wayyy back for a sec and just look at it like a chess game, they’re are scared spitless. Snowden got’em, and it’s piling on day after day. Look at the vids. None of them are slick or smooth. They squirm. They look down. They are nervous and freaking out. Obama’s eyes go vacant as he speaks. And it’s a beautiful thing. Sure, I’ve been enraged, and I’m certainly nowhere near done with that. But this is good to see,
Try it. Turn the sound off and don’t listen to what they are saying. Just watch what they are doing. Newspapers don’t convey it as well, but Cameron freaked. He lost his temper. He made stupid threats. That’s the measure of how MUCH he’s already toast. Check!
Cory brought up international law. I was just wondering what he was talking about.
