So, just what did Edward Snowden do to get us so all riled up? I mean, just what did he reveal that was so top secret? Just what was it that endangered national security?
What?
I know he told us our phone records and computers were under surveillance and I know he said we were spying on China and other countries. Help me, though, what secrets did he release? It might come as a big surprise to us that our phone and Internet communications are being monitored, but how does it compromise our security?
Consider what he was charged with: espionage and stealing government property. I do not know what crimes fit under which laws to know if it is significant that he was not charged with releasing classified information, much less with endangering national security. Can releasing classified information be its own charge, or does that fall under the charges of espionage? I do not know.
You can "classify" whatever you want, including, I imagine, the simple fact that the U.S. is spying on its citizens. But, perhaps it would be problematic to prosecute such a case, as it would only hammer out the fact that the U.S.criminalized telling Americans they were being spied on.
Should that be a crime, just telling people they are being spied on -- not revealing anything that would damage them, or their country, but just telling them, "Hey, Big Brother is watching you"?
Well, I'm aware House Speaker John Boehner and former Vice President Dick Cheney both called Snowden a traitor. Maybe there is cause for them calling him that. I'm just not seeing it. I'm not seeing how telling Americans that they are being spied on is such a traitorous act. Yes, Boehner and Cheney did allude to what they believe to be the harm. "The disclosure of this information puts Americans at risk," Boehner said. And, Cheney said Snowden did, "enormous damage to the national security" and severely undermined our intelligence-gathering capabilities. How, then -- how? He told us we are being spied on. He said China and some of our allies are being spied on. Did he do more? Did I miss something? When President Obama had to defend what we were doing to our allies, he more or less said, "No secret, there, that we spy on other countries," and he is right. So then, just how does telling these countries that they are being spied on, how does that endanger our security?
Endangering national security is a serious thing, but let's not run a man out of the country if we cannot even articulate what he did to endanger that national security. Let's come up with something a little more substantial than, "Well, he told Americans they are being spied on and he told China and other countries they were being spied on."
For this, we call him a traitor? Hmm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden#NSA_surveillance_disclosures
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/06/11/boehner-snowden-is-a-traitor/
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/cheney-defends-surveillance-and-calls-leaks-traitorous/#h[ItiIti]
my question is: Why is Showden acting like a fugitive? He is avoiding U.S. like it is the plaque?
ReplyDeleteIt did sour my opinion of him a little a day ago when I heard he said he has the right to asylum. He has the right to seek asylum, I suppose, but not the right to asylum. He spoke of how the U.S. is standing in his way, making it hard. Well, of course. Of course the U.S. is trying to arrest him.
ReplyDelete