Shelby Jackson, staff writer, shelbycjackson@gmail.com
If you’ve heard anything in the news over the last couple of months about Edward Snowden, it’s probably had something to do with the headline “Whistleblower or Traitor?” For those who don’t know anything about what’s going on with this story, let me share a little synopsis.
A couple months ago, Snowden was charged with espionage and theft of government property. He then leaked information about the nations mass surveillance, national security and breaking of privacy acts. Snowden has been seeking asylum in several different countries and has been offered temporary asylum in Russia.
I’ll cut to the chase; Snowden is a traitor. My reasoning is the fact that instead of leaking the information to people who could fix the problem within our own nation, he gave it to “The Guardian,” a British news source. I don’t know how he figured that would fix anything. By no means do I agree with what the NSA is doing by collecting huge databases on each and every American individual, but that is still no excuse to leak our nation’s secrets to other countries. What made him a traitor is the way he went about it.
Republican Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky talked about Snowden’s dilemma a few weeks ago in a CNN interview.
“I do think for Mr. Snowden, if he cozies up to the Russian government, it will be nothing but bad for his name in history,” Paul said. “If he goes to an independent third country like Iceland, and if he refuses to talk to any sort of formal government about this, I think there’s a chance that he’ll be seen as an advocate of privacy. If he cozies up to either the Russian government, the Chinese government or any of these governments that are perceived still as enemies of ours, I think that will be a real problem for him in history.”
We now know that Snowden has received temporary asylum in Russia. I find this to be really interesting. Why would he leak secrets about our national security and then look for asylum in Russia and China, two countries we have never ever had a solid relationship with? I find that extremely odd. What could possibly be in Russia for him?
The point I’m trying to make is Snowden can’t be trusted any more than our own government. We know the federal government has been and still is collecting personal and private information on the thanks to the NSA and the patriot act. In no way am I defending the government, but I don’t believe in supporting someone that sells out our country to other countries then runs away like he has something to hide.
I just want everyone to remember that this is America, a land of liberty and freedom. We have the opportunity to make choices and better ourselves every day, but we need to make those choices that will keep us free and go about the right way of ensuring those freedoms.
Okay, first of all, your chronology is wonky. Snowden fled to Hong Kong. Disclosures were made by the Guardian originating from Snowden (which Snowden very publicly owned up to). The US government THEN charged him with espionage and theft of property, as well as revoking his travel documents. Snowden made it very clear that he had to be careful about where he went because his travel was monitored and he had to go somewhere reasonably out of reach but not so out of reach as to throw up red flags before the disclosures were made.
Secondly, just because someone does something that is not in the interests of the United States, this does not make them a traitor.
Thirdly, in order for fleeing to China then to Russia to even open the question of “aiding the enemy,” (the actual legal content of the crime “treason,” a crime which was very narrowly defined in the United States…
He is a double standard hypocrite putin of Russia has stated he agreed with the NSA as long as it is done legally. So for those who don’t read enough and think it is cool to be an Internet leaker think about your so called hero and who he ran to . What’s worse is the people who blindly defend him. They have no clue . Also if you are sooo worried about being spied on get rid of your tweets face book and stop using your cell phones. But that won’t happen will it? The same people defending this wanna be are the same people filming un suspecting others and putting it on you tube or world hip hop or face book. Putting their personal lives out there for all to see. No our government is not an angel but neither are the people who can’t see past the hypocrictal people who worry more about this NSA when we have our own NSA going on. The hypocritical supporters of snowden worry me more than…