Oliver Snowden Interview

2. BACKGROUND:
• Patriot Act was an Act of Congress signed after 9/11 that allowed the
government to take measures to protect the American public from
terrorism through enhanced domestic security, surveillance programs,
& improved intelligence
• And in May 2011, Obama signed a four year extension of three key
provisions from the Patriot involving wire taps, searches of business
records, & conducted surveillance of those suspected of terrorist
activities
• June 1st these controversial provisions from the Patriot Act are set to
expire and be up for reauthorization
• This includes Section 215- which allows the government to mandate
businesses to turn over files on any tangible things to protect against
terrorism
• The rulings on which tangible things the government can take are
overseen by a secret court inside the NSA, which has allowed the NSA
to collect phone records on every American
• In June 2013, Edward Snowden, a contractor for the NSA, leaked
thousands of secret documents about what was really happening at the
NSA including the collection of phone records on all Americans, the
sharing of private photos sent from one person to another, the
recording of American phone calls, & the surveillance and spying of
foreign countries to show the American people the abuses of the NSA

3. ARTICLE:
• Article from Business Insider about John Oliver’s interview with Edward
Snowden regarding these upcoming reauthorizations of the provisions
in the Patriot Act
• The basis for the interview is as follows:
• The greater American public is very unknowledgeable about who
Edward Snowden is, what he leaked to the public, & the severity of June
1st and the whole debate around government surveillance on its citizens
• Oliver wants to shed light on the situation and June 1st so the public
can have an informed debate on whether or not to reauthorize the
provisions
• In order to do this he conducts an interview with Edward Snowden
• He realizes that most Americans do not have the intellectual capacity to
understand the surveillance debate and are uninformed on the subject
so he likens the interview to asking Snowden which government
programs allow for and actually do collect un-terrorist related private
photo sharing between American citizens
• To which Snowden answers that nearly all of the NSA programs do
collect these private photos and conversations between normal citizens
and even share them between NSA employees

4. ARTICLE CONT:
• Oliver takes to the streets of New York where he asks citizens if they
know who Edward Snowden is and most answer no
• Then he asks the same citizens whether or not they want the
government to be able to see their private photos they share with their
significant others and most answer absolutely not
• Finally, Oliver criticizes Snowden for not personally reading all of the
NSA articles he turned over to journalists to expose to the public,
because one of the articles contained information regarding current ISIS
spying methods by the US and the NY Times did not properly leave out
this information like they should have before taking it public, which led
to ISIS stopping this spying
• Personal Stance:
• I do not believe the government should be able to conduct surveillance
on anyone in the US or any unrelated to terrorism foreign countries and
believe the Patriot Act provisions should not be reauthorized, just as
Snowden and Oliver believe as well
• We should not sacrifice freedom and privacy for increased safety
measures in the wake of fear left after 9/11

5. ETHICAL QUESTIONS:
• Should the government have the power and authority to do the things
the Patriot Act allows them to do and that they currently do?
• Is it right to sacrifice privacy and violate basic rules of freedom for
increased security and safety & is it right that the NSA did not inform
the public they were doing so?
• Follow-Up: Should Edward Snowden have leaked the NSA documents to
the public or was it better that the public did not know what was going
on?
• Finally, regarding Oliver’s criticism of Snowden, do you believe it was
wrong for Snowden to turn over all of the documents he gave to
journalists without personally reading all of them?
• Oliver’s interview with Snowden and the Oscar awarding winning
documentary, CitizenFour, on Snowden and the NSA leaks are both
available on HBO GO

6. CITINGS:
• http://www.hbogo.com/#home/video&assetID=GOROSTGP45300?video
Mode=embeddedVideo?showSpecialFeatures=false/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Act
• http://www.businessinsider.com/what-the-john-oliver-snowden-
interview-means-2015-4