I find each of these sentences while seemingly trite a sort of koan, worthy of lengthy reflection. Each of the four are self-supporting, yet here they are assembled into a composition. I feel like I have only the beginning glimmerings of any sort of understanding of the deep hold Judeo-Christian beliefs have in the west. There’s so much to read…
To give an account of my life while protecting the privacy of my loved ones and not exposing legitimate government secrets is no simple task, but it is my task. Between those responsibilities—that is where to find me.
—Edward Snowden, Permanent Record, (London: Macmillan, 2019), 8.
Barton Swaim, WSJ review: “After 9/11, to his great credit, Mr. Snowden joined the Army…”
Because the US planned to invade Saudi Arabia? I am reading this language in the context of a world where late-night television comedians are sourced for insightful political commentary. It occurred to me that this might be seen as a sort of millennial poetry.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The United States today filed a lawsuit against Edward Snowden, a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA), who published a book entitled Permanent Record in violation of the non-disclosure agreements he signed with both CIA and NSA.
The lawsuit alleges that Snowden published his book without submitting it to the agencies for pre-publication review, in violation of his express obligations under the agreements he signed. Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that Snowden has given public speeches on intelligence-related matters, also in violation of his non-disclosure agreements.
The United States’ lawsuit does not seek to stop or restrict the publication or distribution of Permanent Record. Rather, under well-established Supreme Court precedent, Snepp v. United States, the government seeks to recover all proceeds earned by Snowden because of his failure to submit his publication for pre-publication review in violation of his alleged contractual and fiduciary obligations.
Snepp. Vietnam stays with me, with us actually, though most of us don’t realize it.
It’s at Dussmann‘s. I’ve been seeing all these people on Twitter showing their orders from Amazon, and that seems kind of paradoxical, which is fine, life is richer for the existence of paradoxes, but still…just sayin’…
I am using my receipt for a Russian SIM as a bookmark, which I find really funny, perhaps because of the beer, but I still find it funny.
I myself had sworn an oath of service not to an agency, nor even a government, but to the public, in support and defense of the Constitution, whose guarantee of civil liberties had been so flagrantly violated. Now I was more than part of that violation: I was party to it.
—Edward Snowden, Permanent Record, (London: Macmillan, 2019), 6.
This is pretty horrible prose. I’m feeling old.
The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military operation by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, sixteen days after Germany invaded Poland from the west. Subsequent military operations lasted for the following 20 days and ended on 6 October 1939 with the two-way division and annexation of the entire territory of the Second Polish Republic by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The Soviet (as well as German) invasion of Poland was indirectly indicated in the “secret additional protocol” of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed on 23 August 1939, which approximately divided Poland into “spheres of influence” of the two powers and questioned future existence of the Polish state.
Smallest independent KZ in Germany.
“Verein wider das Vergessen und für Demokratie”.
This building had been the camp kitchen.
