Tag: National Security Agency

Eben Moglen: Oh, Freedom

A talk given by Eben Moglen at Columbia Law School on October 30th, 2013

Good afternoon.

Since we were last here the press of the world has been full of information concerning the practices of the US listeners, and statements from Presidents, Premieres, Chancellors, and Senators on the subject.

Our purpose this time being to consider the political meaning of Mr. Snowden and the future he has brought us, we must begin by discarding for immediate purposes pretty much everything said by the Presidents, the Premieres, the Chancellors, and the Senators. It has been a remarkable display of misdirection and misleading, and outright lying. We’ll come back to it, but it will not serve us at the outset.

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“Edward Snowden committed espionage on behalf of the human race.”

Westward the Course of Empire

A talk given by Eben Moglen at Columbia Law School on October 9th, 2013

Good afternoon.

There is no introduction. After 26 years in this place it feels ridiculous to me to pretend that anyone is especially honored by my presence here.

If I am to be frank about it, I invited myself. Not in the way that Edward Snowden invited himself to Sheremetyevo Airport. Nor in the way that Julian Assange invited himself to the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Surely not in the way that Chelsea Manning invited herself to 35 years in Fort Leavenworth. No, law professor-like I have assigned myself no onerous duties. I undertook nothing more than to come here and to tell you the truth.

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