Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Edward Snowden: Hero or Villain?

photo Snowden3.jpg

Previous Post:
Snark Amendment: Edward Snowden Releases NSA Secrets

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We should be thankful for individuals like Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald who see injustice being carried out by their own government and speak out, despite the risk. They have done a great service to the American people by exposing the truth about what our government is doing in secret.
~ Snowden's choice for President, Ex-Candidate Ron Paul, via Washington Post

Edward Snowden is no Hero
. . . Snowden is now at the mercy of the Chinese leaders who run Hong Kong. As a result, all of Snowden’s secrets may wind up in the hands of the Chinese government—which has no commitment at all to free speech or the right to political dissent. And that makes Snowden a hero?
~ Jeffrey Toobin on The New Yorker



(Snowden) has damaged national security, our ability to track down terrorists, or those with nefarious intent, and his disclosure has not made America safer.
~ Congressman Jim Langevin, D-Rhode Island, in New York Times

I don't look at this as being a whistleblower. I think it's an act of treason.
. . . He violated the oath, he violated the law. It's treason.
~ Senator Dianne Feinstein on The Hill

Edward Snowden is a hero
. . . Snowden is a hero because he realized that our very humanity was being compromised by the blind implementation of machines in the name of making us safe. Unlike those around him, who were too absorbed in their task to reflect on their actions and pause in their pursuit of digital omniscience, Snowden allowed himself to be "disturbed" by what he was doing.
More in the midst of technology than most of us will ever be, Snowden disengaged for long enough to be human and to consider the impact of what he was helping build. He pressed pause.
~ Douglas Rushkoff on CNN

He betrayed honesty and integrity, the foundation of all cooperative activity. He made explicit and implicit oaths to respect the secrecy of the information with which he was entrusted. He betrayed his oaths.
. . . He betrayed his employers. Booz Allen and the C.I.A. took a high-school dropout and offered him positions with lavish salaries. He is violating the honor codes of all those who enabled him to rise.
He betrayed the cause of open government. Every time there is a leak like this, the powers that be close the circle of trust a little tighter. They limit debate a little more.
He betrayed the privacy of us all. If federal security agencies can’t do vast data sweeps, they will inevitably revert to the older, more intrusive eavesdropping methods.
He betrayed the Constitution. The founders did not create the United States so that some solitary 29-year-old could make unilateral decisions about what should be exposed. Snowden self-indulgently short-circuited the democratic structures of accountability, putting his own preferences above everything else.
~ David Brooks on New York Times


















































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