PRO/CON: Is Snowden a whistle-blower or just irresponsible?

Transcription

1 PRO/CON: Is Snowden a whistle-blower or just irresponsible? By McClatchy-Tribune News Service, adapted by Newsela staff on Word Count 1,340 Demonstrators rally at the U.S. Capitol to protest spying on Americans by the National Security Agency, as revealed in leaked information by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, in Washington, D.C., Oct. 26, AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite PRO: He's exposed the NSA's abuses WASHINGTON Edward Snowden is a courageous American hero. He will be remembered as one long after the war on terror is replaced by some other excuse for violating Americans rights and the rights of the rest of the world. He won his first major legal victory on Dec. 16. A judge ruled that the National Security Agency's collection of Americans phone records was probably against the Constitution. Snowden was the first person to expose the NSA's snooping into Americans' private lives. It s unfortunate that most of our media's reporting on our national spy state has let us down. It still treats the abuses that Snowden revealed as a result of overeager efforts to protect Americans from terrorism. But our government's actions obviously had nothing to do with terrorism. This article is available at 5 reading levels at 1

2 Not Just Targeting Terrorists Our government has spied on other countries to help give U.S. companies an advantage. It has tapped the phones of foreign leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. Even ignoring those gross actions, the U.S. is doing much more than just violating our private lives. Don t get me wrong: that s bad enough. Most people don t want to share all the details of their personal lives with government spies. But the Obama administration has managed to convince some among us that the NSA is just keeping our personal information in storage and not using it. We're led to believe that our information is simply being sorted with computers to identify or investigate targets that have something to do with terrorism. However, there is a mountain of evidence that says the opposite. This massive informationgathering is in fact being used against citizens who are involved in activities that are protected by our Constitution. Political organizers and public educators have been targeted. The American Civil Liberties Union has created a list. It shows spying on American citizens and "obstructing political activist groups" in recent years. The spying was done by U.S. law enforcement agencies in 36 states. Our government has the ability to use the NSA s information to cause problems for political groups that don't agree with our government. It's already spied on anti-war groups. It also got into groups across the country that were planning to protest at the 2004 Republican convention. In 2011, the Boston police, the Boston Regional Intelligence Center and the FBI were very busy tracking activists. These activists were not terrorists. They were just members of protest groups. As a result, they seem to have ignored the information that was literally handed to them about the terrorists who bombed the Boston Marathon. This tells you a lot about what's important to our crooked national spy state. A Spy State These programs were never about terrorism, wrote Snowden in a letter to Brazilians on Dec. 17. He said they are really about economic spying, social control and diplomatic manipulation. They re about power. In the 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. was inspiring millions in the struggle for rights for African-Americans, and for the rights of poor people. At the same time, the FBI was busy tapping his phone and harassing him. This article is available at 5 reading levels at 2

3 At one point, it tried seriously to blackmail King into committing suicide. Today, it would have a constant flow of information not only on his every move and phone call, but also about every activist in that movement across the country. That is the difference that technology makes, if we let them get away with it. The spy state is also making the U.S. into a country run by companies and the military. The expanding military and spy communities are becoming more powerful relative to our elected officials, including the president. It was the military-intelligence community that got the Obama administration to threaten China, Russia and Latin America. It was a pointless attempt to force other countries to cooperate in capturing Snowden. In the process, it broke all sorts of international laws. And it is our military-intelligence community s power that is currently blocking attempts to reduce the NSA s abuses. It s not just your private life that is being invaded because of the abuses that Snowden exposed it's bigger. The foundations of our democratic society are being attacked. ABOUT THE WRITER: Mark Weisbrot is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. This essay is available to McClatchy-Tribune News Service subscribers. McClatchy-Tribune did not subsidize the writing of this column; the opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of McClatchy-Tribune or Newsela. CON: He's acted like an enemy agent In a strictly legal sense, under U.S. law Snowden might not meet the definition of the word traitor. But in the way most people think of the word, it would certainly apply. In disclosing national security secrets, Snowden was following in the footsteps of Julian Assange, the Australian-born founder of WikiLeaks. Both men claim a noble purpose: to use the power of the Internet to expose the corruption and wrongdoing of brutal, oppressive governments. But in practice, they have told us almost nothing about countries like North Korea, Iran, China, Cuba and Venezuela. Instead, they ve mostly spilled secrets from nations ranked at the top of the Freedom House Index of Freedom in the World. These are the countries that organize the peacekeeping and humanitarian missions, combat the spread of nuclear weapons, champion human rights, fight terrorism and human trafficking, and hold free and fair elections. This article is available at 5 reading levels at 3

4 Regardless of why they say they did it, Snowden s and Assange s actions have undercut the world s champions of freedom. And they've given aid and comfort to the world s most undemocratic countries. Further, they have betrayed the idea of freedom. The Assange/Snowden view of the world asserts that complete transparency equals freedom, which is not just being overly innocent it's worse. Idea Of "Ordered Liberty" Respect for our private lives is a fundamental and essential part of freedom. The government of free peoples is an extension of the people, because the government rules on their behalf. Free societies recognize that keeping some secrets is a necessary role of government. Democracies operate under the idea of ordered liberty. They establish rules to protect both the individual and the community as a whole guarding both individual freedom and the safety of citizens. No one has the right to discard those rules and substitute rules of his own choosing. Disregarding ordered liberty doesn t advance freedom it just creates chaos. And chaos enables evil and kills democracies like our own. Snowden is neither freedom fighter nor whistle-blower. His leaks are broad and all over the place. The vast majority expose no wrongdoing whatsoever. What about those cases where Snowden might argue he has revealed government actions that might cross the line? His actions are still, at best, irresponsible. The United States system of ordered liberty offers several ways to raise claims of wrongdoing or abuse of power without endangering our country. Federal agencies have inspector generals. Congress routinely investigates claims of government wrongdoing. And, yes, we have whistle-blower protection laws. The notion that Snowden had no option but to leak secrets is indefensible. Finally, Snowden betrayed the trust he was given by the U.S. government to safeguard the nation s secrets. Free societies depend on trustworthy citizens. Bank tellers, lawyers, doctors, police officials and others in positions of trust can't decide that they as individuals get to choose what information should or should not be dumped in the public. If they did, we wouldn t be living in Assange s paradise. We would be living in North Korea, where no one is trusted ever. Edward Snowden has betrayed freedom. In the end, that s a much greater offense than intentionally acting like an enemy agent and traitor to his country. This article is available at 5 reading levels at 4

5 ABOUT THE WRITER: James Jay Carafano is vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at The Heritage Foundation. This essay is available to McClatchy-Tribune News Service subscribers. McClatchy-Tribune did not subsidize the writing of this column; the opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of McClatchy-Tribune or Newsela. This article is available at 5 reading levels at 5