Edward Snowden: A True American Hero

As a product of the Bush-era, I can’t say I was surprised in the slightest when it was brought to light a few weeks ago that the United States government, specifically its National Security Agency (NSA), has been collecting and storing private phone and internet data on a global scale. Edward Snowden, the man behind the leakages of this information, approached both The Guardian and The Washington Post after purposefully collecting data about the operations since early 2013. Until his move to Hong Kong in May, Snowden had been working as a system administrator for a NSA contractor Booz Allen Hamilton in Hawaii.

Perhaps most notable in the leakages he provided was the unveiling of PRISM, a clandestine mass surveillance operation which allegedly allows access to e-mail, web searches, and other online traffic in real-time. Since the initial leaks on 5^th of June, more releases have been published disclosing information on ethically dubious NSA operations. On the 12^th of June, Hong Kong’s main English newspaper The South China Morning Post disclosed that the NSA has been hacking into computers in China and Hong Kong since 2009.

What is remarkable about this whole scandal is that despite this being arguably the biggest embarrassment of the Obama Administration since his democrats stepped into the White House in 2009, the focus has now been placed on extraditing Snowden back to the US. In typical fashion, the media will over-stress the criminal charges placed on him, as well as the implications this has for national security, in order to portray him a man worthy of guilt and marginalize the righteous nature of his actions. Obama has recently called on the necessity of upholding the rule of law in encouraging his extradition, as Snowden is currently charged with theft of government property and espionage.Yet, I am inclined to wonder, should the citizens of the United States (or any global citizen in fact) who employs a cell phone or internet connection, not rather be suing the US government for theft of their own property? After all, I’m fairly certain even Google in their new, somewhat controversial and oversimplified, privacy policy did not include a clause allowing the NSA access. And most professionals nowadays must disclose at least portions of their works electronically; be it a business rendez-vous time and location, a novel’s first draft, or a meme of world-class quality…

Indeed, I was fortunate enough to have been forewarned by Felipe Coronel (aka Immortal Technique), a rapper and activist from Harlem, in one of his 2003 songs ‘The Cause of Death’ wherein he states: “your phone is tapped by the federal government.” Clearly, Mr. Coronel is one American citizen who quickly understood the implications of the Patriot Act of 2001. Most of us will have long forgotten the ‘Warrantless Wiretapping’ program under the Bush administration, another NSA upset that was quickly washed out of the media after causing a small stir regarding privacy intrusion.

Edward Snowden has been a hero for his generation; at least that was the sentiment I got whilst attending protests in front of the US Consulate in Hong Kong in his defense. Here in HK at least people seem to have understood the gravity of the US’ privacy infringements – as it is bad enough that the US breached its privacy norms domestically; that they have extended those infringements to the globe makes this situation a whole lot worse.

Now, the question remains: what can we do to rectify this global infringement of privacy and human rights? Well, when faced against the United States government, realistically there is nothing we can do. For its citizens, you will be fortunate enough to vote for the next puppet on the left or right, and for most of the rest of us, we can sit back and watch our respective nations pamper Uncle Sam in typical fashion. After all, there is no doubt that the US remains for the time being the unquestioned global hegemon; financially, economically but ultimately, militarily – 39% of global military expenditure still comes out of the US, for a population that accounts for about 5% of the globe’s. Despite only working with a skeletal memory of my middle-school trigonometry classes, these numbers appall me.

The one upshot can be seen in nuanced political defiance, most remarkably that coming from Latin American countries (however unsurprising to anyone who understands the abusive history between the bordering continents) who have voiced support to Snowden’s cause. Many other global celebrities have also encouraged his actions via online social networking, notably notorious documentarist Michael Moore. And of course, no one will forget Julian Assange and his contributions to this global cat-and-mouse chase, given his current living situation. Even Mozilla, the free software community best known for creating Firefox, has launched a campaign against unethical digital surveillance.

Many of us will try to laugh this situation off; I know I have. Vice provides some amusing memes although my personal favorite can be seen above. The Daily Currant (a contemporary competitor of The Onion and other satirical news-broadcastings) drew attention to itself with the assuming premise (and not totally unbelievable…) that John McCain was calling for a full-out invasion of Hong Kong S.A.R. This Tumblr isn’t bad either, with a collection of the jovial US President ‘spying’ on his people.

Snowden already tricked a plane load of journalists, as well as his government, into believing he was taking a flight to Havana, Cuba. Perhaps this was an implied stab at the Obama Administration, who most certainly hopes to see him locked up in Guantanamo Bay. How ironic considering that while Snowden voted for a third party in 2008, he did tell The Guardian he believed in Obama insofar as he might put an end to some of the surveillance practices that afforded him his 200,000k a year salary.

Jokes aside, Snowden was a 2003 US Army enlistee who sought to one day work in Special Forces all the while being a high school and community college dropout. As an undergraduate myself, that in itself is heroic. Furthermore, he served time in America’s War on Terror in Iraq. Moreover, he disclosed his identity to protect the ensuing harassment of his colleagues and even left his good-looking pole-dancing girlfriend and their life in Hawaii.

And yet today, whether in blogs or in bars, I’ve heard American citizens call Snowden the traitor. These chaps will probably agree with Jeffrey Toobin, who wrote an article in the early stages of the leakages, entitled Edward Snowden is No Hero; since the 10th of June, this man has amassed over 30,000 ‘shares’ for his article over Facebook.

The important distinction that he is failing to underline, however, is that between the government of a nation and the nation itself. Any man who betrays ‘his’ government in order to educate ‘his’ people, and protect their democratic rights, is a man performing a service to his nation; and property rights are of the most valued in today’s United States. Without necessitating a citation, a quick review of John Locke’s Second Treatise will suffice to warrant this.

Today, he finds himself in Russia, stuck in transit at Moscow’s international airport, and US Secretary of State John Kerry has called on “our friends in Russia” to extradite him, admitting that there is no established extradition treaty between the two nations “if you wannna be technical”. Last month, Snowden informed The Post that he was seeking “asylum from any countries that believe in free speech and oppose the victimization of global privacy.” Now, he is currently awaiting an asylum response from Venezuela.

Despite calls for conviction from the United States, I, along with renowned human rights NGO Amnesty International, sincerely hope he finds asylum. I’m not implying that Edward Snowden is a perfect man; no man is. But at least he has shed some light on the US’ hypocritical respect of the rule of law. And any person who does so should be thanked. After all, where would Tintin (the world-class journalist) be if it wasn’t for Snowy?

WRITTEN BY PAUL GRELON