200 Quotes by Glenn Greenwald

It’s common to go from ‘crashing the gate’ to guarding it.

A lot of these people are Iraqis fighting for control of their own government. Maybe there’s an argument to make that outside forces that go in and start bombing that country or invading that country are actually terrorists more so than the people in the country.

There’s a huge cost to freedom in letting people talk about how you print these plastic guns or letting them say these things about arming for tyranny. There’s also a cost to letting the government say these ideas can’t be expressed, this is treason. It’s difficult.

You can offer the ability to citizens to choose from one of the two parties and elect their leaders as much as you want. But “democracy” is an illusion – a sham – if the most significant acts taken by those leaders are kept concealed from the citizenry.

Your personal life is now known as Facebook’s data. Its CEO’s personal life is now known as mind your own business.

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.

Finally, Snowden gave me an answer that felt vibrant and real. “The true measurement of a person’s worth isn’t what they say they believe in, but what they do in defense of those beliefs,” he said. “If you’re not acting on your beliefs, then they probably aren’t real.

The War on Terror has been and continues to be, above all, a war on the most basic liberties and political safeguards that we’re all taught are what distinguishes the US and keeps it free.

Edward Snowden: The Whistleblower Behind the NSA Surveillance Revelations.