Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, has identified himself as the source of highly classified documents about NSA and FBI signals interceptions.
In an article headlined Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations, The Guardian newspaper reports Snowden’s reasons and motivations for the disclosures. Snowden has taken refuge in Hong Kong.
What are your thoughts about his actions? Is he a patriot? A criminal? A traitor?
How do his actions differ from those of Daniel Ellsberg?
Okay I will bite. Am I being graded on this?
A criminal? To early to say. I think that before that determination can be made a trial is required. It does seem that he did ‘break’ the (or some) law, although I have not yet, despite my extensive (not) research determined from news reports, specifically what laws he broke. All reports seem to say, ‘yep, he broke the (several) law’. A patriot or traitor? It is really to early to say. History generally determines who is and who is not a patriot/traitor…especially in today’s ‘spin doctor’ world.
Comment by up river — June 11, 2013 @ 9:16 am
up river,
Nope, no grades. If I were assigning a grade to the story, the grade would be “incomplete.” There are so many things about this story that don’t make sense it may take quite a while for the investigators to sort out exactly what the facts are. You are correct in saying that it is really too early to say.
One thing I think is pretty clear: The skewsmedia are misusing the term “whistleblower” to describe him. Under the federal whistleblower protection act, workers in the US intelligence community (including contractors) are exempt from its protection when they divulge classified information.
Comment by Bill — June 11, 2013 @ 1:04 pm
‘Skewsmedia’ misusing terminology? Say it ain’t so! Seems like the exception is pretty darn clear. Perhaps the media meant he is ‘whistling in the wind’?
Comment by up river — June 11, 2013 @ 4:00 pm