Edward Snowden: Hero or Traitor?

By Tom Kando

What a mess! Opinions range from admiration for Snowden to loathing. Some worry about the potential harm he has done, while others are ecstatic about America’s worldwide embarrassment.

First, let me disqualify the sadistic anti-Americans who are orgasmic about the US government’s current troubles. They are the same knee-jerk zealots who danced in the streets on 9/11, arguing that 3000 American deaths pale compared to the dozens of thousands who die every month in the Middle East, in Africa and elsewhere. As if one made the other right. Americans do not dance in the streets when thousands of people are pulverized in a foreign country.

Now don’t get huffy. I am no right-wing apologist for the increasingly Orwellian practices of the US government. All I am saying is: Please! Can we look at this in a nuanced fashion?


True, it is a sad day when Americans have to flee their country to find refuge in places like China and Russia! What a terrible reversal. Have we not always been the haven for the freedom loving people and refugees of the world? Now, people like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are fleeing FROM America, seeking political asylum in places like Russia! Has the world turned upside down?

Question, then: Is Edward Snowden a hero/martyr or a villainous traitor? Many of you may already have made up your mind. But to me, the situation does not seem quite so simple.

I agree that the growing secret surveillance of the population by government agencies such as the FBI, the NSA and the CIA is a horrific and fascistoid trend. In principle, I welcome such things as Assange’s Wikileaks and now Snowden’s leaks.

But then, we get into the details. The specifics of Snowden’s behavior: He flees to places like China, Russia, maybe Cuba or Venezuela. These are all bad places. America may have developed some mild Orwellian symptoms, but you cannot seriously equate the levels of political freedom in the US with those countries! Plus, Snowden is reported to have given China and Russia some pretty important secrets about whom and how our government spies on theirs. This seems very wrong to me. Those two countries are long-term geopolitical adversaries. We know that they spy on the US massively. They will always pursue interests diametrically opposed to ours.

Maybe Snowden has no choice? Maybe he can only expect safe haven from of our adversaries? Maybe. This surely diminishes him.

More importantly: What about political reality? President Obama stated things succinctly: (1) We cannot remain on a permanent war footing; the so-called war on terror must come to an end. (2) at the same time, we must strike a balance between freedom and security. There are many people and regimes that wish great harm to the governments and to the people of the US, the UK and other western countries. On June 24, ten innocent mountain climbers were murdered by Pakistani terrorists, only because they were Europeans.

Shit happens - often. Are western governments/societies forbidden to protect themselves?

You can’t look at this situation purely in black and white. OF COURSE Guantanamo should be shut down. OF COURSE it’s absurd for the NSA to collect Verizon’s 3 billion daily telephone calls. These leaks have brought to the fore the urgent need to change course. The government’s spying upon us is out of control.

But don’t go haywire: America is not a police state. We remain a free society. And Obama’s admonition that we need to strike a balance between freedom and security is not a pseudo-issue.

And what about Edward Snowden? Maybe his motives were good, but many of his actions have been foolish and harmful, with no regard for consequences. Embarrassing and weakening the Obama administration at a time when it is already in deep doo doo on so many fronts cannot help.

I hope that the US authorities exercise mercy if and when they nab Snowden, but I doubt that they will. So the next best thing for Snowden would be to find refuge in some benign country such as Iceland. While I agree with him that our government is spying on us too much, I reject the view that America is close to being a Gestapo-like society (as some of my radical friends here and in Europe believe), and Snowden’s way is not the right way. leave comment here