Michael Ratner: ‘We can expect more Snowdens’

Michael Ratner is the president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a non-profit legal and educational organisation committed to defending civil liberties, and an attorney representing Julian Assange and Wikileaks.

Ratner is the author of Against War with Iraq (2003), Guantanamo: What the World Should Know (2004), and The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld: A Prosecution by Book (2008). In 2006, The National Law Journal named Ratner one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the United States.

Ratner joined Empire to discuss the lack of mass outrage against the snooping, and how the government’s “sledgehammer” approach towards individuals like Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Bradley Manning is an indication of how nervous it is of revelations that may lead to more democracy.