In June 2013, a
defense contractor named Edward Snowden leaked a veritable treasure trove of
documents to the media detailing the workings of National Security Agency mass
surveillance programs. Immediately
causing an uproar in many levels of government, Snowden was forced to flee the
country in order to avoid arrest, as he became branded a traitor by the
government. The Department of Justice
charged him with theft of government property and violation of the Espionage Act. The leak had drastic consequences,
however, that went far beyond one man.
The documents first leaked revealed
the existence of two major NSA programs.
One collected the phone records of a myriad of average citizens, while
the other, called Planning Tool for Resource Integration, Synchronization, and
Management (PRISM), was responsible for the collection of digital
information of citizens, including their e-mails, videos, photos, and social
media information, among a laundry list of other things.
Two months later, an internal audit
showed that the agency was overstepping its authority or simply breaking
privacy rules literally thousands of times every year since Congress had
granted it broad new powers in 2008. As
just one example, a declassified court opinion showed that for almost three
years before the leak, it frequently searched a very large phone records
database in direct violation of privacy rules.
In fact, the so-called “Black Budget” found not long afterwards showed
that the NSA was actually paying some companies for access to their
communications networks. Tech companies
moved to strengthen their encryptions when it was learned that the agency had
indeed infiltrated Yahoo and Google data centers, collecting from hundreds of
millions of accounts. Finally, as if all
of this was not enough, December came about with yet another revelation: the NSA, on top of all of its other data on
citizens, had been collecting cell phone location records. It was enough for Judge Richard J. Leon of
the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to condemn the NSA’s
actions as pretty much unconstitutional.
American citizens were not the only
targets, however. U.S.-based cloud
companies had always been on the defensive in Europe beforehand, as there was
widespread suspicion that the U.S. Government, using the Patriot Act as an
excuse, would pry into people’s data if it was stored on American servers. These fears turned out to actually be
somewhat justified, as in the middle of the record collection controversy, the
NSA was found to have been spying on leaders of other countries such as Germany
and Brazil in addition to its own citizens.
After all of the bombshell
revelations, then, it was no wonder that the tech companies took a hit. A great deal of them were losing customers,
and consequently, revenue; those customers who remained were now justifiably
much more concerned about where their data was stored, as well as how secure it
was and its various possible uses. This
was when billions of dollars began to be spent by these companies in order to
improve the encryptions on services such as Google searching and Outlook.
To think, that most of this happened
in the span of about six or seven months.
The government has been facing even greater fallout since then, with
numerous other revelations coming to light and countless lawsuits filed as a
result. A top-secret Pentagon report
from the year after the initial leaks assessing the resulting damage to
national security described it as “grave,” and House Intelligence Committee
Chairman Mike Rogers claimed that the consequences would have “lethal
consequences for our troops in the field.”
However, neither disclosed specific details as to exactly how; indeed,
nothing and no one ever actually showed just how the leaks were damaging. No evidence could be found supporting, for
example, one specific damage claim that Snowden had leaked the documents to one
or another of the country’s adversaries.
His ACLU lawyer, Ben Wizner, thus went so far as to state that
“[someone] admitted in an interview that he doesn’t ‘think anybody really knows
what [Snowden] actually took with him, because the way he did it, we don’t have
an accurate way of counting.’ In other
words, the government’s so-called damage assessment is based entirely on
guesses, not on facts or evidence.” One
form of damage is now in fact visible, in the form of about one thousand NSA
intelligence targets going underground, according to Richard Ledgett, the
agency’s director. Nevertheless, there
has, in reality, been no meaningful spike in terrorist activity since the
initial leaks.
Snowden’s various intelligence leaks
did serve to revive the practice of end-to-end encryption and other efforts to
protect privacy. Nonetheless, the most
important result of this man’s actions was the shift of the debate over what
actions the government can and should be allowed to take for national security
purposes. As a consequence, the USA
Freedom Act went into full effect just over a year ago, and under it, storage
of phone records is shifted to the phone companies themselves, with a court
order required for the NSA to access them.
In the end, for revealing practices by our own government that the
Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board deemed absolutely ineffectual and
unconstitutional, Edward Snowden is undeniably a great American hero.
Sources
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PRISM_Collection_Details.jpg
I agree that Snowden did what was right and that he should be pardoned. Yes, leaking classified information is treasonous, but spying on your citizens in all kinda of illegal ways is much more treasonous. Treason is not just betraying the government, it is betraying the country, which the NSA absolutely did.
ReplyDeleteI do think that while the leaks are quite shocking, it is important to remember that Snowden was just a contractor for the government and then realize that he probably only revealed the tip of the iceberg. If these incredibly intrusive policies are the ones being shown to contractors, what kind of other horrible things could the NSA be doing that only the top brass know about? I think it is obvious at this point after the leaks from Snowden and the information we know about MKUltra (holy crap), that many 3 letter intelligence agencies simply have too much power and operate with essentially complete impunity under the pretense of national security (which is obviously important but mostly just used as an excuse by powerful people, for example the complete ineffective programs run by the TSA).
I believe that Snowden was taking on the role as a whistleblower and should be pardoned. I recognize that he did break the law by releasing the classified information that that he did, but he was doing it in order to inform U.S. citizens that their government was infringing on their constitutional rights. Because Snowden was simply trying to warn the public of the governments illegal actions, I believe what he did was justified. If he had stolen the information for other purposes, such as to sell it to the enemies of the U.S. I would be willing to agree that he is a traitor. If he is punished I believe that it would deter future whistleblowers from releasing information about our government's inappropriate actions. This will leave such actions unchecked and will eliminate a tool that the public should have to use in order to keep the government from abusing its power. To prevent this Snowden should be pardoned to let future whistlblowers know that their actions justified.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Snowden should be pardoned. He did not follow the laws but he was trying to help people gain new perspective on the government. I think if he had gained any money from doing this it would have not been justified, but so far he has not personally benefitted from leaking the information. If they were to find that he did jeopardize america safety by leaking other information to enemies then I this would be a whole other argument, but seeing how there "hasn't been a spike in terrorism since the leak" I think his intentions were to educate people and not hurt the country.
ReplyDeleteMy feelings towards whether Snowden should be pardoned are mixed. On the one hand, he did do the American (and Global) people a great service by revealing the immensity of the NSA's reach. However, there are less drastic channels for whistleblowers to go through, and I have not heard anything to suggest Snowden tried other tactics before just releasing massive amounts of classified information.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, the Obama admistration is know to have carried out massive crackdowns on whistleblowers, so maybe Snowden thought this was the only possible route.
In the end, I would applaud a pardon, as long as it is made clear that he did break the law. As Christian said in his article, future whistleblowers should know that they can report problems safely, but that they ought to go through other routes than blasting everything to the media.