CONNOR HOFFMAN
Staff Writer
Edward Snowden, the famous rogue National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who revealed a lot of the NSA’s secrets to the American public, is in the news again. According to CNN, Snowden said he is willing to go to prison in the United States and reach some sort of plea bargain with the country.
The U.S government on the other hand, filed charges in 2013 against Snowden for theft and two provisions of the Espionage Act of 1917: “unauthorized communication of national defense information” and “willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person.” They have not responded to Snowden’s recent plea.
This again raises the question of whether or not Snowden is a traitor, as many have called him, or a hero for revealing a huge secret government surveillance program of U.S. citizens.
Merriam-Webster.com defines a traitor as “a person who is not loyal to his or her own country, friends, etc.: a person who betrays a country or group of people by supporting an enemy.”
Snowden is a traitor to the U.S. government indeed, because he did release all of that information. However, we cannot truly call Snowden a traitor, because he did it to inform the American public about how our government was lying to us. Also, Snowden did not give this information to one of America’s enemies such as Russia or China.
Snowden decided that he had to reveal the NSA’s surveillance program after the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, testified before Congress in 2013 and said that the NSA was not performing a mass surveillance program against civilians.
Senator Ron Wyden asked Clapper whether intelligence officials collect data on Americans, and Clapper responded saying, “No, sir… not wittingly.”
Keep in mind, this was during a televised congressional hearing that Clapper tried to say there was no NSA surveillance of the public. The best part about all of this is that Clapper, the very same man who lied in front of Congress, is still in his position. It truly makes my blood boil that a scumbag such as Clapper is not in an orange jumpsuit right now.
Although Snowden is a traitor in the sense that he did betray the U.S. government by revealing these documents, wasn’t the government betraying us by lying and saying they were not spying on civilians? Snowden is a traitor to the U.S. government, but he is a definitely a hero to the people; he did what was necessary for the public. In fact, the only true traitor here is the NSA, for violating our sacred privacy rights and then lying about it.
Another thing to consider that makes Snowden even less of a traitor to the public is the way he decided to release these documents. Snowden could have easily decided to just upload all of these files to the internet, but instead he chose to give them to two journalists — Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald. He wanted them to use their judgement as journalists and decide which of the files were too classified to release.
Since Snowden did release classified government documents, he should be put on trial, but unfortunately it’s not that simple. The U.S. government is trying to charge Snowden with provisions of the Espionage Act of 1917, and the only thing they need to prove in order to convict Snowden on these charges is that he simply released the information. This does not take into consideration why the person released the information.
“The Espionage Act finds anyone guilty who provides any information to the public, regardless of whether or not it was wrong,” said Snowden in a BBC interview. “You aren’t even allowed to explain to a jury what your motivations were for revealing this information. It is simply a question of, ‘Did you reveal information?’ If yes, you go to prison for the rest of your life.”
Snowden must receive a fair trial with a jury, and he cannot be charged with the Espionage Act because it would be a very unfair and politically motivated trial. This trial should give Snowden some sort of lesser punishment, because he does not deserve to go to jail for life for exposing our government’s corruption.
On the other hand, the NSA should have a complete and thorough audit by Congress, for they are the only true traitors in this story. The NSA has seriously abused its power and the people must reign this in.
The first thing that must be done is the President should ask for Clapper’s letter of resignation for committing perjury by lying in front of Congress. Congress then should put Clapper on trial, for his crime is much more heinous than what Snowden did. Then Congress must pass several laws that seriously limit the ability of the NSA to spy domestically.
Many people have made serious sacrifices for our civil liberties. Snowden has done just that and should receive a much lesser punishment because it was truly for a good purpose.