The other day, I watched a presentation on YouTube. There were three featured speakers, Glenn Greenwald, Noam Chomsky and Edward Snowden. The subject of the talk was privacy, and it was appropriately called, "A Conversation on Privacy".
There were many interesting and intelligent comments from the speakers, my favorite line coming from Snowden, when asked what he thought of the idea that (major paraphrasing) "those with nothing to hide nave nothing to fear, and therefore do not need to worry about privacy rights". His response was, "that's like saying freedom of speech doesn't matter because you have nothing to say". While I have been skeptical of Ed Snowden for years, this talk assuaged all my doubts about him, and affirmed in my the belief that he is a thoughtful, intelligent and important American.
I don't want to talk much about the topic of privacy, but rather how someone like Edward Snowden should be treated by his government. What fascinates me about this issue is that he committed treason against the US Government, but NOT against the US population. We live in a country that is increasingly falling into an US (the general population) vs THEM (our dear leaders) scenario. What is good for the government may be bad for the people, and vice versa. This is a problem because regular everyday Americans have a difficult enough time already, getting their politicians to do what we want them to do. Why are our elected leaders allowed to persecute someone who has stood up for the people that put them in office? How would Ed Snowden be re-integrated into American society?
Speculating on Obama's true opinion about the Snowden situation is impossible. However, as a constitutional lawyer, he should be familiar with the 4th Amendment, which protects people's privacy from "unreasonable search and seizures". Obviously this is open to some interpretation. But let's say officials in our government crossed a major line, and violated the 4th Amendment, because you would have to be insane - or Tom Cotton - to think there was any legitimate excuse to basically wiretap every cell-phone in America. Why isn't the person who pointed out the crime at least NOT being treated like a criminal. And why are the actual criminals still more or less at large?
I suppose the answer is obvious, as nobody in the government is going to willingly incriminate themselves, least of the President, who is immune from prosecution anyway. Still, very sad.
Ed Snowden's story is a tragedy. In spite of heroic action, he will be a prisoner of sorts, for the rest of his life. Even if he were to return to the US, he would need a 24/7 security detail to protect him. My only hope is that we as a nation, seize on the opportunity to hold our elected leaders accountable for unconstitutionally spying on the people they are supposed to represent. My fear is that it is already too late.
