How valuable is Edward Snowden today and in perspective?

Alexander Lipen y Andrea González 

President Maduro has been the first and only one of the few to offer political asylum to Edward Snowden unconditionally.

What is it, of importance, that Maduro might have seen in this man?

Recently, Edward Snowden has been a subject of much speculation amongst journalists, politicians and even merchants. At the same time, very few people, in truth, realize the practical value of Snowden’s revelation.

Many might ask themselves: “He has not said anything new, we knew that we were being spied on, so what?”, “If I have nothing to hide, let them know!”

If Snowden does not carry any valuable information, why is it, then, that NATO is fiercely hunting him, violating international laws and conventions, breaking diplomatic procedures and threatening any sympathizer or country with possible repercussions?

Let us analyze the possible damages, created by Snowden:

1. The minimal damage: Snowden has provided material proof of espionage (the PRISM system etc). Such material proof creates a legal precedent within international law.
   
   
   Prior to Snowdens revelation, the fact of espionage and global surveillance system was known only to secret service agents or specialized journalists, often on a “hearsay basis”.
   
   
   For an average person, the idea of global espionage was imagined on the same level as UFO’s or Hollywood science fiction.
   
   
   After Snowdens revelation, the world has changed. The fact has materialized and millions of ordinary people have seriously realized the situation for the first time. A proven fact of total control of the global information stream significantly changes the international law.
   
   
   Imagine now, how ridiculous seem the statements of NATO members about the “shortcomings of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq”? After all, USA started a war and when did not find any weapons, used a defense of “intelligence miscalculation”. (In the meantime having destroyed a whole country). With such technologies as prism, it is impossible to make “intelligence mistakes”.
   
   
   How about the argument that “they did not know about true intentions of the muslim brotherhood or al quaeda during the arab spring in the middle east?”

2. NATO caused direct, material damages to other sovereign states. The most simple example is the virus which had switched off Iranian power plants and “fried” Iranian computer systems. After all, now Iran has the right to demand compensation at the International Court of Justice for the suffered damages. Such case is analogue to ICJ Nicaragua v USA where the damages, suffered by Nicaragua from US aggression were officially recognized and legally enshrined by the international community, with relevant sanctions towards the USA.
   
   
   At the same time, one ought to think: what else are the Americans capable of? In which other, technological disasters, which occurred in the “axis of evil” within the last decade, might they have been involved? 
   
   
   After all, the material damage, caused by one state to another sovereign state, may be considered by different categories of international law: from aggression and sabotage till war crimes and genocide (if such had affected the civil population).

3. If there is a program, which can gather unlimited information, then there is also a program, which can analyze and structure the collected information. Such collector of “open source intelligence” provides a possibility to calculate and plan financial, military and other analyzes to the smallest precision. Not only does this allow to calculate the possibility of organizing a pro-NATO revolution, as it also permits to foresee the changes on the stock exchange, cause financial crises and to know any weak spots of a state, which can be influenced with minimum effort towards maximum destabilization.

4. Total control of the information stream allows to manipulate the political views of the masses. It is no secret that Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other, have built in- personalization algorithms. You might have noticed that these mechanisms offer you specific search results and banners in accordance with your personal data. For example a single person will see offers of dating sites, a family man will see offers of a larger automobile and a person planning to go on holiday, will see offers of different travel destinations.
   
   
   Also, people are being divided into groups of uniform sympathizers. By tracking which pages we open the most, the algorithms provide us with personalized news. This way a person may form an impression that “the whole world thinks alike”. And what if they need to impose certain political views?
   
   
   This is where the manipulation starts, which the Western agencies will never confess: recently we may notice how a millions-large Turkish uprising was managed to be “silenced” in the news, because the current Turkish leader is convenient to NATO. At the same time we may witness how a riot of 15 criminals in Benghazi, with support of NATO weapons and mass media, had been turned into a civil war, having disposed a legitimate leader- Muammar Gaddafi, and destroyed a rich, prosperous state of Libya.

In a world in which the information technologies are tightly interconnected, where computer robots may calculate economic processes to the detail, the owner of information becomes a Ruler. With one click of a button, the Western leaders can cause revolutions and suppress popular uprisings, cause currency devaluations and create money supply, all within their interests. And by virtue of Snowden, this is no longer fiction and conspiracy, but a proven fact. The fact that we are slaves of the capitalist system.

Perhaps this is the reason that Maduro, as one of the few, has realized the true value of Snowden? Could this be a consequence of the thinking pattern of the 21 century socialism?

Might it be the case that Maduro offered help so that the Information stream would not be used within the solemn interests of the Western oligarchy, but within the interests of the whole population of our world?