Prior
to June 2013, the name Edward Snowden did not ring many, if any, bells.
However, his revealing of the actions of the National Security Agency, where he
worked, launched him into a global spotlight. He placed himself into an ongoing
debate: hero or traitor. He also sparked another debate: is the NSA and the
U.S. government on the whole invading the privacy of the U.S. citizens and the
rest of the world.
Both
debates are difficult to argue without full understanding of the situations.
First, looking at the NSA, there is not much information that doesn’t border
the invasion of the privacy boundary. In total, the NSA was authorized to spy
on 193 countries in one manner or another. In terms of foreign relations, this
does not put the United States in good trust with the rest of the world. This
not only makes the United States look like a paranoid nation (which we kind of
are), but it also makes it appear as those we view almost every nation in the
world as a threat to us in one way or another. Looking at another aspect of the
NSA’s spying, they [the NSA] have been questioned by other governments and
international organizations around the world as to whether their investigations
not only broke U.S. laws, but also laws of the corresponding nations.
When it
comes to the involvement of the NSA in possible illegal surveillance on U.S.
citizens, the information is much more personal. The first information released
regarding the NSA activity focused on a secret court order that resulted in
Verizon allowing the NSA to listen in on millions of customers’ phone calls.
Next, the public learned that the NSA was collecting information from the
biggest search engines, including Facebook and Google. Snowden also included
that the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) accompanied the NSA in some of its
surveillance.
Now,
for the second debate… Snowden himself. When it comes to debating whether he is
a hero or a traitor, the debate is not only between U.S. citizens, it also
includes citizens and governments from around the world. The argument that he
is a hero is based on what his actions did in their most basic form. They
revealed that the U.S. government was spying on both the U.S. citizens and
nations around the world. They also showed, as Snowden said in an address to a
crowd at the South by Southwest Conference, that he “saw the Constitution being
violated on a massive scale.”
Not
surprisingly, the argument that Snowden is a traitor is led by politicians. Speaker
of the House John Boehner says that Snowden is a traitor that put innocent
citizens in danger. Other politicians view his acts as those of a traitor
because he revealed top secret information to other nations. There are also
arguments over whether the way that he revealed the information was the best
decision, due to the importance and controversy that surrounded the information
in question. Other critics look at the way that he obtained the information as
illegal.
Personally,
I believe that Snowden is a hero, through and through. What the United States
government (and the NSA more specifically) did is wrong. I can understand being
more wary in today’s world because of 9/11 and the threats of terrorism.
However, there is no excuse for monitoring the people that you are supposed to
look after without their consent. Also, the United States has no right to watch
almost every square inch of the planet. I can understand watching trouble areas
of the world, such as the Middle East, to gain an understanding of how the
situations there are going, but a full on surveillance is just over the top.
Here are some related articles:
Here is a video debating whether Snowden is a hero or a traitor:
