Stephen Colbert gave the closing keynote at the RSA cybersecurity conference yesterday, despite pleas from activists to boycott the organization after a Reuters report revealed it had landed a $10 million contract from the NSA to build a backdoor into encryption software.
"I hope RSA took the money. If they didn't, they should have. We all have Uncle Sam's cameras up our junk. Shouldn't someone be getting paid for it?" joked Colbert.
"We the people voted for the Patriot Act. We voted for the people who reauthorized it, and re-reauthorized it. The American people have spoken," he said in defense of the NSA's practices, which he acknowledge have saved zero lives. "You don't change horses in mid-wiretap."
After a series of security- and technology-premised punchlines, the comedian switched subjects to Edward Snowden, dropping his usual satirical character to offer a genuine criticism of the whistleblower.
"I see the Norwegians gave Snowden 30 Nobel Prize nominations. The guy's practically a war criminal - I don't understand how they could put him up for the same prize they once gave to Henry Kissinger," said Colbert.
"Why, if Snowden was concerned with letting us know how we are spied on, why did he let us know how we spy on other countries? I think we should spy on other countries," he went on, adding that he believes Snowden should face the legal consequences of revealing US secrets to the likes of Russia and China.
Guess Colbert's not too worried about who's reading his email.
[via The Register]
