Snowden Quotes

Edward Snowden: Terrorism is just an excuse.

Corbin O'Brian: The modern battlefield is everywhere.

Edward Snowden: I think the greatest freedom that I have gained, the fact that I don't have to worry about what happens tomorrow, Because I'm happy with what I've done Today.

Corbin O'Brian: Secrecy is security and Security is Victory.

Edward Snowden: But Austria?

Edward Snowden: You didn't tell me we were running a dragnet on the whole world, Corbin.

Corbin O'Brian: With foreign site intel transfer. Transfers happen on collection now. They go straight to the Pentagon, Mossad if they need it.

Catfish: In Vegas, looking at Afghanistan. We all knew that it was a kid. Poof. He's gone. But same village, two, three days later. We see the funeral party. We knew it was a kid that they were burying. Moms and dads wailing. And then the order comes down. Hit 'em. Poof. And they are gone in a cloud of dust.

Edward Snowden: You ever hear about the Nuremberg trials, Trev? They weren't that long ago. Yeah, well, the big shots were the first trial, but then the next trial were just the judges, and lawyers, and policemen, and guards, and ordinary people just doing their jobs, following orders. That's where we got the Nuremberg principles, which then the UN made into international law, just in case ordinary jobs become criminal again.

Wolf Blitzer: The Washington Post and the Guardian in London reporting that the NSA and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading Internet companies, including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple.

Corbin O'Brian: Bombs won't stop terrorism, brains will, and we don't have nearly enough of those. I'm gonna give you a shot, Snowden.

Corbin O'Brian: [to Snowden] In 20 years, Iraq will be a hellhole nobody cares about. Terrorism's a short-term threat. The real threats will come from China, Russia, Iran. and they'll come as SQL injections and malware. Without minds like yours, this country will be torn apart in cyberspace.

Edward Snowden: And ultimately, the truth sinks in that no matter what justification you're selling yourself, this is not about terrorism. Terrorism is the excuse. This is about economic and social control. And the only thing you're really protecting is the supremacy of your government.

Hank Forrester: [about the Cray-1] The first supercomputer. You can get all of this on a cell phone now.

Hank Forrester: Sometimes, the more you look, the less you see.

Hank Forrester: You would think intelligence would count for something in the intelligence business. Right. But you wanna know what it really is? What really sets the agenda? Military industrial happiness management. You keep the coffers open in Congress, you keep the money flowing to the contractors.

Edward Snowden: Look, Mr. MacAskill, uh, this is not about money or anything for me. There's no hidden agenda. I just wanted to get this data to established journalists like yourselves, so that you can present it to the world, and the people can decide either I'm wrong or there's something going on inside the government that's really wrong.

Gabriel Sol: Optic Nerve. It's camera and mic activation. I wish we could take credit, but the Brits wrote it. Yeah, her laptop's off. Or was, she just forgot to close it. Of course, how would she know? This shit is so sly, the webcam light doesn't even turn on.

Barack Obama: That means no more illegal wiretapping of American citizens. No more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient.

Barack Obama: Every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information, but those who seek to make it known.

Edward Snowden: No matter who you are, every day of your life, you're sitting in a database just ready to be looked at.

Corbin O'Brian: Most Americans don't want freedom, they want security.

Thomas Drake: To other whistleblowers, to others in the government, not to speak out. Do not tell truth to power. We'll hammer you.

Trevor James: You know it. We track 'em, you whack 'em.

Lindsay Mills: What is it about this fucking job that makes it more important than your life?

Edward Snowden: And it's just gonna get worse for the next generation, as they extend the capabilities of this sort of architecture of oppression.