Nhà vận động dân quyền nổi tiếng John Lewis, một nhân vật còn sống sót từ thời Martin Luther King, từng bị bắt 40 lần, cho đến khi trở thành dân biểu lão thành trong quốc hội Mỹ hiện nay, cũng đã bị bắt 4 lần vì tham gia biểu tình đối kháng lệnh chính phủ cùng quần chúng. Ông được "obama" gọi là "lương tâm của quốc hội Mỹ" 'conscience of the US Congress'- Hôm qua ông đã họp báo lên tiếng ủng hộ và bênh vực Snowden, khi được hỏi là Snowden có phải là kẻ tội phạm hay không.Nền Luật Pháp Cao Cấp hơn đó, chính là LƯƠNG TÂM NHÂN BẢN và LÒNG CÔNG CHÍNH CAN ĐẢM với ĐỒNG LOẠI của chúng ta!
"Trong việc tuân giữ triết lý và qui tắc của bất bạo động, tuân thủ với giảng giải của Henry David Thoreau và những người như Gandhi cũng như những nhà đấu tranh bất bạo động khác, nếu quí vị tin rằng có điều gì không chính đáng, điều gì đó bất công, và quí vị sẵn sàng chống lại tập quán truyền thống, pháp luật tồi tệ, để quí vị còn có lương tâm. Quí vị có quyền chống lại những luật lệ này và sẵn sàng trả giá... Và đó là điều Snowden đã làm"...Đôi khi quí vị phải hành động theo chỉ đạo của lương tâm mình, quí vị phải hành động theo lương tâm...Có một số người lên án rằng đó là tội phạm là phản quốc hay gì gì cũng thế. Snowden có thể trả lời là anh ta tuân thủ theo một luật cao cấp hơn. Rất nhiều người chúng ta thật sự không chấp nhận được cách thức chính phủ đang rình mò chúng ta"
(In keeping with the philosophy and the discipline of non-violence, in keeping with the teaching of Henry David Thoreau and people like Gandhi and others, if you believe something that is not right, something is unjust, and you are willing to defy customs, traditions, bad laws, then you have a conscience. You have a right to defy those laws and be willing to pay the price.""That is what we did," ... Sometimes you have to act by the dictates of your conscience. You have to do it."
"Some people say criminality or treason or whatever. He could say he was acting because he was appealing to a higher law. Many of us have some real, real, problems with how the government has been spying on people."
'Since I've been in Congress, I've been arrested four times. Sometimes you have to act by the dictates of your conscience.' Photograph: Reuters
John Lewis, one of America's most revered civil rights leaders, says the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was continuing the tradition of civil disobedience by revealing details of classified US surveillance programs.
Lewis, a 73-year-old congressman and one of the last surviving lieutenants of Martin Luther King, said Snowden could claim he was appealing to "a higher law" when he disclosed top secret documents showing the extent of NSA surveillance of both Americans and foreigners.
Asked in interview with the Guardian whether Snowden was engaged in an act of civil disobedience, Lewis nodded and replied: "In keeping with the philosophy and the discipline of non-violence, in keeping with the teaching of Henry David Thoreau and people like Gandhi and others, if you believe something that is not right, something is unjust, and you are willing to defy customs, traditions, bad laws, then you have a conscience. You have a right to defy those laws and be willing to pay the price."
"That is what we did," he added. "I got arrested 40 times during the sixties. Since I've been in Congress I've been arrested four times. Sometimes you have to act by the dictates of your conscience. You have to do it."
Lewis was among the majority of Democratic congressmen who voted for an amendment in the House of Representatives last month that sought to effectively end the NSA's bulk collection of millions of phone records.
The vote was narrowly defeated, but revealed a surprising degree of congressional opposition to the spy agency's collection of data.
Snowden, 30, who passed highly-classified documents to the Guardian and Washington Post, has argued he was acting out of conscience because he wanted to shine a light on a surveillance apparatus which he believes is out of control.
But the former NSA contractor has mostly been condemned on Capitol Hill, where he has few defenders, even among those who say his leaks have revealed important details about the NSA which were previously unknown.
The White House insists that Snowden is not a whistleblower, but a felon who should be returned to America from Russia, where last week he was granted temporary asylum.
John Lewis (right) and the leaders of the Freedom Riders: Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King Jr, in Montgomery, Alabama, May 1961. Photograph: Corbis When it was pointed out to Lewis that many in Washington believed that Snowden was simply a criminal, he replied: "Some people say criminality or treason or whatever. He could say he was acting because he was appealing to a higher law. Many of us have some real, real, problems with how the government has been spying on people."
He added: "We had that problem during the height of the civil rights movement. People spied on, and got information on Martin Luther King junior, and tried to use it against him, on the movement, tried to plant people within different organisations – that probably led to the destruction of some of those groups."
President John F Kennedy resisted authorising the FBI to place King under surveillance in the lead-up to the 1963 March on Washington, where he gave his famous 'I Have A Dream' speech.
However other senior figures in the movement were wiretapped, and federal authorities, who suspected civil rights leaders had communist connections, recorded phone conversations King participated in.
Although only in his early 20s at the time, Lewis, a student leader, was one of the 'Big Six' civil rights leaders from the civil right era.
He is the last surviving speaker who shared a platform with King at the famous rally in 1963.
He was first elected to the House of Representatives, for a district in Georgia, in the 1980s and since has become an elder statesman in Capitol Hill, respected across the political divide.
In 2011, when awarding him a Medal of Freedom, president Barack Obama described Lewis as "the conscience of the United States Congress".
Lewis, a 73-year-old congressman and one of the last surviving lieutenants of Martin Luther King, said Snowden could claim he was appealing to "a higher law" when he disclosed top secret documents showing the extent of NSA surveillance of both Americans and foreigners.
Asked in interview with the Guardian whether Snowden was engaged in an act of civil disobedience, Lewis nodded and replied: "In keeping with the philosophy and the discipline of non-violence, in keeping with the teaching of Henry David Thoreau and people like Gandhi and others, if you believe something that is not right, something is unjust, and you are willing to defy customs, traditions, bad laws, then you have a conscience. You have a right to defy those laws and be willing to pay the price."
"That is what we did," he added. "I got arrested 40 times during the sixties. Since I've been in Congress I've been arrested four times. Sometimes you have to act by the dictates of your conscience. You have to do it."
Lewis was among the majority of Democratic congressmen who voted for an amendment in the House of Representatives last month that sought to effectively end the NSA's bulk collection of millions of phone records.
The vote was narrowly defeated, but revealed a surprising degree of congressional opposition to the spy agency's collection of data.
Snowden, 30, who passed highly-classified documents to the Guardian and Washington Post, has argued he was acting out of conscience because he wanted to shine a light on a surveillance apparatus which he believes is out of control.
But the former NSA contractor has mostly been condemned on Capitol Hill, where he has few defenders, even among those who say his leaks have revealed important details about the NSA which were previously unknown.
The White House insists that Snowden is not a whistleblower, but a felon who should be returned to America from Russia, where last week he was granted temporary asylum.
John Lewis (right) and the leaders of the Freedom Riders: Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King Jr, in Montgomery, Alabama, May 1961. Photograph: Corbis When it was pointed out to Lewis that many in Washington believed that Snowden was simply a criminal, he replied: "Some people say criminality or treason or whatever. He could say he was acting because he was appealing to a higher law. Many of us have some real, real, problems with how the government has been spying on people."He added: "We had that problem during the height of the civil rights movement. People spied on, and got information on Martin Luther King junior, and tried to use it against him, on the movement, tried to plant people within different organisations – that probably led to the destruction of some of those groups."
President John F Kennedy resisted authorising the FBI to place King under surveillance in the lead-up to the 1963 March on Washington, where he gave his famous 'I Have A Dream' speech.
However other senior figures in the movement were wiretapped, and federal authorities, who suspected civil rights leaders had communist connections, recorded phone conversations King participated in.
Although only in his early 20s at the time, Lewis, a student leader, was one of the 'Big Six' civil rights leaders from the civil right era.
He is the last surviving speaker who shared a platform with King at the famous rally in 1963.
He was first elected to the House of Representatives, for a district in Georgia, in the 1980s and since has become an elder statesman in Capitol Hill, respected across the political divide.
In 2011, when awarding him a Medal of Freedom, president Barack Obama described Lewis as "the conscience of the United States Congress".
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