Edward Snowden
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983)
[1] is an American former technical contractor for the United States
National Security Agency (NSA) and a former employee of the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who
leaked details of several top-secret U.S. and British government
mass surveillance programs to the press.
[6][7]
Snowden leaked the information, primarily to
Glenn Greenwald of London's
The Guardian, in spring 2013 while employed as an "infrastructure analyst" at NSA contractor
Booz Allen Hamilton.
The Guardian in turn
published a series of exposés in June–July 2013 and revealed programs such as the interception of US and European telephone
metadata and the
PRISM and
Tempora
Internet surveillance programs. Snowden's disclosures are said to rank
among the most significant security breaches by leakers or NSA defectors
in United States history.
[8][9]
Snowden's leaks have been a subject of great controversy. Some have referred to Snowden as a hero and a
whistleblower, while others have described him as a
traitor.
Snowden has defended his leaks as an effort "to inform the public as to
that which is done in their name and that which is done against them".
[7][10][11] Government officials have condemned his actions as having harmed U.S. interests and its position in the
War on Terror. Meanwhile, the media disclosures have fueled debates in the United States and elsewhere over
mass surveillance,
government secrecy, and the balance between
national security and
information privacy in the
Post-9/11 era.
On June 14, 2013, U.S. federal prosecutors charged Snowden with espionage and theft of government property.
[12]
Childhood, family and education
Edward Joseph Snowden was born in
Elizabeth City, North Carolina,
[2] and grew up in
Wilmington, North Carolina.
[13] His father, Lonnie Snowden, a resident of
Pennsylvania, was an officer in the
United States Coast Guard,
[14] and his mother, a resident of
Baltimore, Maryland, is a clerk at a federal court in Maryland.
[13][15]
By 1999, Snowden had moved with his family to
Ellicott City, Maryland,
[13] He studied at
Anne Arundel Community College[13] to gain the credits necessary to obtain a high-school diploma but he did not complete the coursework.
[16][17]
Snowden's father explained that his son had missed several months of
school owing to illness and, rather than return, took and passed the
tests for his
GED at a local community college.
[11][18][19] Snowden worked online toward a Master's Degree at the
University of Liverpool in 2011.
[20] Having worked at a US military base in Japan, Snowden reportedly had a deep interest in
Japanese popular culture and had studied the Japanese language
[21] and later also worked for a Japanese
anime company.
[22][23] He also said he had a basic understanding of
Mandarin and was deeply interested in martial arts, and listed
Buddhism as his religion.
[24]
Career in the U.S.
On May 7, 2004, Snowden enlisted in the
United States Army as a Special Forces recruit but did not complete the training.
[1][25] He said he wanted to fight in the
Iraq war because he "felt like [he] had an obligation as a human being to help free people from oppression."
[11]
However, he said he was discharged four months later on September 28
after having broken both of his legs in a training accident.
His next employment was as a
National Security Agency (NSA) security guard for the
Center for Advanced Study of Language at the
University of Maryland,
[26] before, he said, joining the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to work on
IT security.
[27] In May 2006 Snowden wrote in
Ars Technica,
a technology news and information website, that he had no trouble
getting work because he was a "computer wizard." In August he wrote
about a possible path in government service, perhaps involving China,
but said it "just doesn't seem like as much 'fun' as some of the other
places."
[25]
Snowden said that in 2007 the CIA stationed him with
diplomatic cover in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was responsible for maintaining computer network security.
[28]
Snowden described his CIA experience in Geneva as "formative", stating
that the CIA deliberately got a Swiss banker drunk and encouraged him to
drive home. When the latter was arrested, a CIA operative offered to
intervene and later recruited the banker.
[29] Swiss President
Ueli Maurer
commented, "It does not seem to me that it is likely that this incident
played out as it has been described by Snowden and by the media."
[30] The revelations come at a sensitive time for
US-Swiss relations as the Swiss government attempts to pass legislation allowing for more banking transparency.
[31]
The Guardian reported that Snowden left the agency in 2009 for a private contractor inside an NSA facility on a US military base in Japan
[11] later identified as
Dell,
[32] which had substantial classified contracts.
[32] Snowden remained on the Dell payroll until early 2013.
[32] NSA Director
Keith Alexander has said that Snowden held a position at the NSA for the twelve months prior to his next job as a consultant,
[33] with
Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information clearances.
[34] According to
The New York Times, Snowden took a
Certified Ethical Hacker training course in 2010.
[35] USIS completed a background check on Snowden in 2011.
[36]
Snowden described his life as "very comfortable", earning a salary of "roughly US $200,000."
[37] At the time of his departure from the US in May 2013, he had been working for consulting firm
Booz Allen Hamilton for less than three months inside the NSA at the
Kunia Regional SIGINT Operations Center in Hawaii,
[38][39][40] employed on a salary of $122,000.
[41] While intelligence officials have described his position there as a "
system administrator",
Snowden has claimed he was an "infrastructure analyst", which meant
that his job was to look for new ways to break into Internet and
telephone traffic around the world.
[42] He said he had taken a pay cut to work at Booz Allen,
[43] and that he sought employment in order to gather data on NSA surveillance around the world so he could leak it.
[44] The firm said Snowden's employment was terminated on June 10 "for violations of the firm's code of ethics and firm policy."
[41][45]
According to
Reuters,
a source "with detailed knowledge on the matter" stated that Booz
Allen's hiring screeners found some details of his education "did not
check out precisely", but decided to hire him anyway; Reuters stated
that the element which triggered these concerns, or the manner in which
Snowden satisfied the concerns, were not known.
[46] The résumé stated that Snowden attended computer-related classes at
Johns Hopkins University.
A spokesperson for Johns Hopkins said that the university did not find
records to show that Snowden attended the university, and suggested that
he may instead have attended Advanced Career Technologies, a private
for-profit organization which operated as "Computer Career Institute at
Johns Hopkins."
[46] A spokesperson for University College of the
University of Maryland
said that Snowden had attended a summer session at a University of
Maryland campus in Asia. Snowden's resume stated that he estimated that
he would receive a
University of Liverpool
computer security master's degree in 2013. A spokesperson for the
university said that in 2011 Snowden registered for an online master's
degree program in computer security and that "he is not active in his
studies and has not completed the program."
[46]
Before leaving for Hong Kong, Snowden resided in
Waipahu, Hawaii with his girlfriend.
[47] According to local real estate agents, they moved out of their home on May 1, leaving nothing behind.
[17]
Flight from the U.S.
Snowden left Hawaii for Hong Kong on May 20, 2013, and traveled on to
Moscow on Sunday, June 23, 2013, as Hong Kong authorities were
deliberating the US government's request for his extradition.
[48]
Snowden explained his choice of first port of call thus:
NSA employees must declare their foreign travel 30
days in advance and are monitored. There was a distinct possibility I
would be interdicted en route, so I had to travel with no advance
booking to a country with the cultural and legal framework to allow me
to work without being immediately detained. Hong Kong provided that.
Iceland could be pushed harder, quicker, before the public could have a
chance to make their feelings known, and I would not put that past the
current US administration.
[43]
Hong Kong
Snowden said that he was predisposed "to seek asylum in a country
with shared values", and that his ideal choice would be Iceland.
[7][11] The
International Modern Media Institute, an Icelandic
freedom of speech advocacy organization, issued a statement offering Snowden legal advice and assistance in gaining asylum.
[49]
Iceland's ambassador to China, Kristin A. Arnadottir, pointed out that
asylum could not be granted to Snowden because Icelandic law requires
that such applications be made from within the country.
[50]
Snowden vowed to challenge any
extradition attempt by the
US government, and he was reported to have approached Hong Kong human rights lawyers.
[51] In an interview with Hong Kong's
South China Morning Post, Snowden said that he planned to remain in Hong Kong until "asked to leave."
[52] He added that his intention was to let the "courts and people of Hong Kong" decide his fate.
[53]
Media reports emerged that the British government was strongly
discouraging airlines from allowing Snowden to board any flight bound
for the United Kingdom.
[54][55]
On June 20 and 21, a representative of
WikiLeaks said that a chartered jet had been prepared to transport Snowden to Iceland,
[56] and WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange
announced that he was brokering a discussion between Snowden and the
Government of Iceland for Snowden to possibly be granted asylum in
Iceland.
[57]
On June 23, US officials said that Snowden's
US passport had been revoked.
[58] On the same day, Snowden boarded the commercial
Aeroflot flight SU213 from Hong Kong to Moscow, accompanied by
Sarah Harrison of WikiLeaks.
[59][60] Hong Kong authorities said that Snowden had not been detained as requested by the United States because the United States'
extradition request had not fully complied with Hong Kong law
[61][62][63] and there was no legal basis to prevent Snowden from leaving.
[64][65][Notes 1]
Snowden's passage through Hong Kong inspired a local production team to produce a low-budget five-minute film titled
Verax. The film, depicting the time Snowden spent hiding in the
Mira Hotel while being unsuccessfully tracked down by the
CIA and
China's Ministry of State Security, was uploaded to YouTube on June 25, 2013.
[68][69]
On June 24, Julian Assange told reporters that WikiLeaks had paid for
Snowden's lodging in Hong Kong and his flight out. Assange said Snowden
was "bound for Ecuador", via Russia and perhaps other countries as
well.
[70]
Moscow
On Sunday, June 23, 2013, Snowden landed in one of Moscow's international airports,
Sheremetevo.
[71] Nobody saw Snowden get off the flight from Hong Kong.
[72] The Russian broadsheet daily
Kommersant reported on the same day that Snowden was being awaited by a limousine known to belong to the
Soviet KGB's successor agency,
[73][74] the
FSB,
[75] as well as Ecuador's ambassador's car.
[76] Ecuador's foreign minister,
Ricardo Patiño, announced that Snowden had requested asylum in Ecuador.
[77] The United States has an
extradition treaty with Ecuador, but it contains a
political offense exception under which Ecuador can deny extradition if it determines that Snowden is being prosecuted for political reasons.
[78]
On June 25 and July 15, 2013, Russian president
Vladimir Putin said that Snowden's arrival in Moscow was "a surprise" and "like an unwanted Christmas gift"
[79] As Snowden remained in the transit area of Sheremetyevo, Putin said Snowden had not committed any crime on Russian soil
[80] and was free to leave and should do so.
[81] He also claimed that Russia's intelligence agencies neither "had worked, nor were working with" Snowden.
[79][81] Putin's claims were received skeptically by some observers:
[82] one Moscow political analyst said "Snowden will fly out of Russia when the Kremlin decides he can go"
[83] and
Yulia Latynina later in July was certain that Snowden was under the total control of Russia's security services.
[84][85]
On June 30, Ecuadorean President
Rafael Correa told the
Associated Press that Snowden was "under care" of Russia and could not leave Moscow.
[86] President
Evo Morales of Bolivia seemed predisposed to offer asylum to Snowden during an interview with
Russia Today.
[87]
In early July 2013, there were reports in both US and Russian press
that Obama's visit to Russia slated for September was unlikely due to
Snowden's sojourn in Russia.
[88][89]
Morales plane incident
On July 2, 2013, the airplane carrying Bolivian President
Evo Morales
home to Bolivia from Russia was rerouted to Austria when France,
Portugal, Spain and Italy denied access to their airspace due to
suspicions that Snowden was on board.
[90] Morales had been attending a
conference of gas-exporting countries
in Russia. Lisbon Airport refused permission for the airplane to make a
scheduled landing for fuel, and France refused to let the airplane
cross their airspace. The refusals for "technical reasons", strongly
denounced by Bolivia, Ecuador and other South American nations, were
attributed to rumors perpetuated allegedly by the US that Snowden was on
board.
[91][92] Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs,
José García-Margallo, publicly stated that they were told Edward Snowden was on board but did not specify who had given him this information.
[93] Austrian media later claimed the rumor originated with the US ambassador to Austria.
[94]
It was originally reported that Snowden was not found on board after
Morales allowed a "voluntary" search of his aircraft by Austrian
authorities in Vienna. On July 7, Austrian officials announced that
although an airport staff member had boarded the plane regarding a
reported technical problem, there had been no "formal inspection",
saying that federal law gave no reason, as Morales' plane is "his
territory."
[95] The plane had departed from
Vnukovo Airport instead of
Sheremetyevo Airport, 27 miles (43 km) away.
[96]
At an emergency meeting of the
Union of South American Nations
(UNASUR) on July 4, Latin American leaders denounced the "imperialist
hijacking" or the "kidnap" of President Morales' plane by the United
States and its European allies.
[97][98][99] Various critics say the event is causing harm to European–Latin American relations, including Brazilian President
Dilma Rousseff, who said "the embarrassment suffered by President Morales affects not only Bolivia, but all of Latin America.
[100][101]
The governments of Bolivia and five other South American nations
demanded "public apologies" from the involved countries. France
apologized almost immediately after the event, saying they were unaware
Morales was on the plane.
[102][103]
Morales threatened to shut down the US embassy in Bolivia, and said
"apologies are not enough because the stance is that international
treaties must be respected."
[104]
Political asylum
On July 1, 2013, WikiLeaks revealed that Snowden had applied for political asylum to 20 countries.
[105] Snowden's WikiLeaks handler, Sarah Harrison, had submitted Snowden's request for political asylum in Russia the previous day.
[106]
A statement attributed to Snowden also contended that the U.S.
administration, and specifically Vice President Biden, had pressured the
governments of these countries to refuse his petition for asylum.
[107]
WikiLeaks reported that Snowden made a second batch of applications for
asylum in 6 countries, but declined to name them citing prior
interference by US officials.
[108][109]
The Brazilian Foreign Ministry said that their government "received
the request for asylum and doesn't intend to respond to the request."
[110] France said, "Given the legal analysis and the situation of the interested party, France will not agree."
[111]
Finland, Germany, India, Poland, Norway, Austria, Italy, and the
Netherlands cited technical grounds for not considering the application,
saying that applications for asylum to these countries must be made
from within the countries' borders or at border stations.
[105][110][112][113][114][115] A Chinese representative said the Chinese government had no information about any request from Snowden.
[116] Ecuador initially offered Snowden a temporary travel document but later withdrew it.
[117] President Correa said the decision to issue the offer had been "a mistake."
[118]
On July 1, 2013 Russian President
Vladimir Putin
said that if Snowden wanted to be granted asylum in Russia, Snowden
would have to "stop his work aimed at harming our American partners."
[119][120] A spokesman for Putin subsequently said that Snowden had withdrawn his asylum application upon learning about the conditions.
[105][121]
One day after the UNASUR meeting held on July 4, Nicaraguan President
Daniel Ortega said his country would give asylum to Snowden "if circumstances permit", without detailing what the conditions were;
[122] Venezuelan President
Nicolas Maduro said he had also decided to offer asylum to Snowden.
[123][124] Bolivian President
Evo Morales also announced he would grant asylum to Snowden, "if asked",
[125][126]
as a protest against the US and European nations that took part in
blocking his plane, and to protect Snowden from the persecution by the
USA.
[127]
On July 12, 2013, still at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow, in a
meeting with representatives of human rights organizations and lawyers
that the Kremlin helped organize,
[128] Snowden stated
[129]
that he was accepting all offers of asylum that he had already received
or that he would receive in the future, noting that his Venezuela's
"asylee status was now formal"; he also said he would request asylum in
Russia until he resolved his travel problems.
[130][129]
On July 16, 2013, the Russian
Federal Migration Service officials confirmed that Snowden had submitted an application for temporary asylum in Russia;
[131] his Russian lawyer said Snowden had stated in the application that he faced possible
torture and execution if he returned to the US.
[131]
According to his lawyer, Snowden had also stated that he would meet
Putin's condition for granting asylum and would not further harm US
interests.
[131]
The following day, Putin said Russia's relations with the US were "more
important than squabbles between special services" and added that
Snowden had been warned against any "activity that harms
Russian-American relations".
[84]
Political views
Snowden has said that in the
2008 presidential election he voted for
third-party
candidates. He has claimed he had been planning to make disclosures
about NSA surveillance programs at the time, but he decided to wait
because he "believed in Obama's promises." He was later disappointed
that Obama "continued with the policies of his predecessor."
[132] For the
2012 election, political donation records indicate that he contributed to the primary campaign of
Ron Paul.
[133][134]
Several sources have alleged that Snowden, writing under the
pseudonym "TheTrueHOOHA," was the author of hundreds of posts made on
technology news provider
Ars Technica's
chat rooms.
[135][136][137]
The poster discussed a variety of political topics. In a January 2009
entry, TheTrueHOOHA exhibited strong support for the United States'
security state apparatus and said he believed leakers of classified
information "should be shot in the balls."
[138]
However, in February 2010 TheTrueHOOHA wrote, "I wonder, how well would
envelopes that became transparent under magical federal candlelight
have sold in 1750? 1800? 1850? 1900? 1950?"
On June 17, 2013, Snowden's father spoke in an interview on
Fox TV,
expressing concern about misinformation in the media regarding his son.
He described his son as "a sensitive, caring young man... He just is a
deep thinker." While he was in agreement with his son in his opposition
to the surveillance programs that he revealed, he asked his son to stop
leaking and return home.
[18] In accounts published in June 2013, interviewers noted that Snowden's laptop displayed stickers supporting
internet freedom organizations including the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the
Tor Project.
[11] Snowden said of himself: "I'm neither traitor nor hero. I'm an American."
[139]
Media disclosures
Snowden first made contact with documentary filmmaker
Laura Poitras in January 2013.
[140] According to Poitras, Snowden chose to contact her after seeing her report on
William Binney, an NSA whistleblower, in
The New York Times. She is a board member of the
Freedom of the Press Foundation along with
Glenn Greenwald.
[141] Greenwald, reporting for
The Guardian, said he had been working with Snowden since February,
[142] and
Barton Gellman, writing for
The Washington Post, says his first "direct contact" was on May 16.
[143] However, Gellman alleges Greenwald was only involved after the
Post declined to guarantee publication of the full documents within 72 hours.
[143]
Gellman says Snowden was told his organization could not guarantee when
or the extent his revelations would be published, and Snowden
succinctly declined further cooperation with him.
[143]
Snowden communicated using
encrypted email,
[140] using the codename "
Verax." He asked not to be quoted at length for fear of identification by
semantic analysis.
[143]
According to Gellman, prior to their first meeting in person, Snowden
wrote, "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions, and
that the return of this information to the public marks my end."
[143]
Snowden also told Gellman that until the articles were published, the
journalists working with him would also be at mortal risk from the
United States Intelligence Community
"if they think you are the single point of failure that could stop this
disclosure and make them the sole owner of this information."
[143]
In May 2013, Snowden was permitted temporary leave from his position
at the NSA in Hawaii, on the pretext of receiving treatment for his
epilepsy.
[11] On May 20, Snowden flew to the Chinese territory of Hong Kong,
[144][145] where he was staying when the initial articles about the NSA that he had leaked were published.
[144][146]
Among other specifics, Snowden divulged the existence and functions of
several classified US surveillance programs and their scope, including
notably
PRISM (surveillance program),
NSA call database,
Boundless Informant. He also revealed details of
Tempora, a British black-ops surveillance program run by the NSA's British partner,
GCHQ.
Snowden explained his actions saying: "I don't want to live in a
society that does these sort of things [surveillance on its citizens]...
I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is
recorded."
[147]
Snowden's identity was made public by
The Guardian at his request
[142]
on June 9. He explained his reasoning for forgoing anonymity: "I have
no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing
wrong."
[11]
He added that by revealing his identity he hoped to protect his
colleagues from being subjected to a hunt to determine who had been
responsible for the leaks.
[148]
In July 2013, Greenwald stated that Snowden had additional sensitive
information about the NSA that he has chosen not to make public,
including "very sensitive, detailed blueprints of how the NSA does what
they do".
[149]
Reactions
United States
Executive branch
The U.S.
Director of National Intelligence,
James R. Clapper, described the disclosure of PRISM as "reckless."
[150] The NSA formally requested that the
Department of Justice launch a criminal investigation into Snowden's actions.
[150] On June 14, 2013, US federal prosecutors filed a sealed complaint, made public on June 21,
[12][151]
charging Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorized
communication of national defense information, and willful communication
of
classified intelligence to an unauthorized person; the latter two allegations are under the
Espionage Act.
[152]
In June 2013, the U.S. military blocked access to parts of the
Guardian website related to government surveillance programs for thousands of defense personnel across the country, and to the entire
Guardian website for personnel stationed in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and South Asia.
[153][154]
A spokesperson described the filtering as a routine "network hygiene"
measure intended to mitigate unauthorized disclosures of classified
information onto the
Department of Defense's unclassified networks.
[153]
Stewart Baker,
a former NSA general counsel in the early 1990s, said at a July 18,
2013 hearing, "I am afraid that hyped and distorted press reports
orchestrated by Edward Snowden and his allies may cause us – or other
nations – to construct new restraints on our intelligence gathering,
restrains that will leave us vulnerable to another security disaster."
[155]
Former CIA and NSA chief
General Michael Hayden
welcomed the debate about the balance between privacy and security that
the leaks have provoked. He said "I am convinced the more the American
people know exactly what it is we are doing in this balance between
privacy and security, the more they know the more comfortable they will
feel."
[156][157]
Congress
Reactions to Snowden's disclosures among members of Congress were largely negative.
[158] Speaker of the House John Boehner[159] and Senators
Dianne Feinstein[160] and
Bill Nelson[161] called Snowden a traitor, and several senators and representatives joined them in calling for Snowden's arrest and prosecution.
[160][162][163] Representative
Thomas Massie
was one of few members of Congress to question the constitutional
validity of the government surveillance programs and suggest that
Snowden should be granted immunity from prosecution.
[164] Senators
Ted Cruz[165] and
Rand Paul[166]
offered tentative support for Snowden, saying they were reserving
judgment on Snowden until more information about the surveillance
programs and about Snowden's motives were known. Senator Paul said, "I
do think when history looks at this, they are going to contrast the
behavior of James Clapper, our National Intelligence Director, with
Edward Snowden. Mr. Clapper lied in Congress in defiance of the law, in
the name of security. Mr. Snowden told the truth in the name of
privacy."
[167]
Former US president Jimmy Carter said: "He's obviously violated the
laws of America, for which he's responsible, but I think the invasion of
human rights and American privacy has gone too far ... I think that the
secrecy that has been surrounding this invasion of privacy has been
excessive, so I think that the bringing of it to the public notice has
probably been, in the long term, beneficial."
[168]
Public
A
Gallup
poll conducted June 10–11, 2013 showed 44 percent of Americans thought
it was right for Snowden to share the information with the press while
42 percent thought it was wrong.
[169] A
USA Today/
Pew Research
poll conducted June 12–16 found that 49 percent thought the release of
information served the public interest while 44 percent thought it
harmed it. The same poll found that 54 percent felt a criminal case
should be brought against Snowden, while 38 percent thought one should
not be brought.
[170][171] In a
Washington Post/
ABC News poll conducted June 12–16, 43 percent said Snowden should be charged with a crime, while 48 percent said he should not be.
[172]
Another poll in early July found 38 percent of Americans thought he did
the wrong thing, 33 percent said he did the right thing, and 29 percent
were unsure.
[173] A
Quinnipiac University Polling Institute
poll conducted June 28 – July 8 found that 55 percent of Americans
regarded Snowden as a whistleblower while 34 percent saw him as a
traitor.
[174]
The Quinnipiac poll also found that in the wake of Snowden's
disclosures, more Americans said that government goes too far in
restricting civil liberties as part of the war on terrorism (45 percent)
than said that government does not go far enough to adequately protect
the country (40 percent).
[174]
That finding was evidence of a massive swing in public opinion since an
earlier Quinnipiac poll, conducted in 2010, when only 25 percent of
respondents had said government goes too far in restricting civil
liberties while 63 percent had said government does not go far enough.
[174][175]
Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who received the leaked documents,
praised Snowden for having done a service by revealing the surveillance
on the American public.
[151][176] John Cassidy, also of
The New Yorker,
called Snowden "a hero", and said that "in revealing the colossal scale
of the US government's eavesdropping on Americans and other people
around the world, [Snowden] has performed a great public service that
more than outweighs any breach of trust he may have committed."
[177] CNN columnist
Douglas Rushkoff also called Snowden's leak an act of heroism.
[178] Amy Davidson, writing in
The New Yorker, was thankful for the "overdue" conversation on privacy and the limits of domestic surveillance.
[179]
Political commentators and public figures such as
Noam Chomsky,
[180] Chris Hedges,
[181] Michael Moore,
[182] Cornel West,
[183] Glenn Beck,
[182] Matt Drudge,
[184] Alex Jones,
[185] Andrew Napolitano,
[186] Oliver Stone,
[187] Michael Savage,
[188] and
Stephen Walt[189] praised Snowden for exposing secret government surveillance.
Other commentators were more critical of Snowden's methods and motivations.
[190] Jeffrey Toobin, for example, denounced Snowden as "a grandiose narcissist who deserves to be in prison."
[191] Writing in the
The New Yorker, Toobin argued:
Any government employee or contractor is warned repeatedly that the
unauthorized disclosure of classified information is a crime.... These
were legally authorized programs; in the case of Verizon Business’s
phone records, Snowden certainly knew this, because he leaked the very
court order that approved the continuation of the project. So he wasn’t
blowing the whistle on anything illegal; he was exposing something that
failed to meet his own standards of propriety. The question, of course,
is whether the government can function when all of its employees (and
contractors) can take it upon themselves to sabotage the programs they
don’t like. That’s what Snowden has done.[191]
Some former U.S. intelligence officials worried that Chinese or
Russian intelligence agents might have gleaned additional classified
material from Snowden,
[192][193][194] a speculation some former Russian agents believed well-founded.
[195]
Snowden, however, told Greenwald in July that "I never gave any
information to either government, and they never took anything from my
laptops."
[196]
The editors of
Bloomberg News
argued that, while the government ought to prosecute Snowden, the
media's focus on Snowden took attention away from issues of U.S.
government surveillance, the interpretations of the
Patriot Act, and the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court actions, all of which are "what really matters in all this."
[197]
Greenwald accused the media in the U.S. of focusing on Edward Snowden
instead of focusing on wrongdoing by Clapper and other U.S. officials.
[198] Alex Berenson, a former
The New York Times
reporter and a writer of seven spy novels, argued that the federal
government should have flown a representative to Hong Kong to invite
Snowden to give testimony in front of the U.S. Congress and receive a
fair criminal trial, with a view to preventing further unintended
disclosures of classified information to other countries.
[199]
A
We the People petition launched on the
White House
website on June 9 to seek "a full, free, and absolute pardon for any
crimes [Snowden] has committed or may have committed related to blowing
the whistle on secret NSA surveillance programs" attained 100,000
signatures within two weeks.
[200]
Europe
Governments
British Foreign Minister
William Hague
admitted that Britain's GCHQ was also spying and collaborating with the
NSA, and defended the two agencies' actions as "indispensable."
[201][202][203] Meanwhile, UK Defence officials issued a confidential
DA-Notice to British media asking for restraint in running further stories related to surveillance leaks including the
PRISM programme and the British involvement therein.
[204]
European governments reacted angrily, with German and French leaders
Angela Merkel and
François Hollande branding the spying as 'unacceptable' and insisting the NSA stop immediately,
[203][205][206][207] while the European Union Justice Commissioner
Viviane Reding sent Washington an official list of questions and demanded an explanation.
[208][209] European diplomats feared that upcoming EU–US trade talks would be overshadowed by the disclosures.
[207][209][210]
Public
An opinion poll carried out by
Emnid at the end of June revealed that 50% of Germans consider Snowden a hero, while 35% would hide him in their homes.
[211]
Jürgen Trittin a German Green politician wrote in
The Guardian Europe on 2.7.2013
Edward
Snowden has done us all a great service. The man who revealed that our
US and UK allies are spying on us ought to be given refuge by an EU
country. [...] If ever a case [were] demonstrated why we need the
protection of whistleblowers, this is it.[212]
Human rights organizations
Human Rights Watch said that if Snowden were able to raise the issue of NSA
mass surveillance without facing espionage charges, then he would not have left the United States in the first place.
[213] Human Rights Watch
writes that any country where Snowden seeks asylum should consider his
claim fairly and protect his rights under international law.
International law recognizes that revealing official secrets is
sometimes justified in the public interest.
[214]
The Global Principles on National Security and the Right to Information
(2013) protect people from punishment if they disclose information of
public concern.
[215]
Widney Brown, Senior Director of
Amnesty International,
feared that if Snowden was forcibly transferred to the United States,
it would put him at "great risk" of human rights violations.
[216]
Snowden seems to be charged by the US government for revealing US
government unlawful actions that violate human rights. Amnesty fears
there is a serious risk of ill-treatment in the US and no country should
return Snowden in the USA. Snowden is a whistleblower. He has disclosed
issues of enormous public interest in the US and around the world.
Besides filing charges against Snowden, the US authorities have revoked
his passport – which interferes with his right to freedom of movement
and to seek asylum elsewhere. Amnesty criticizes US attempts to pressure
governments to block Snowden's attempts to seek asylum.
[citation needed] Amnesty states:
“We
know that others who have been prosecuted for similar acts have been
held in conditions that not only Amnesty International but UN officials
considered cruel inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of
international law.”[217]
The
World Service Authority issued a
World Passport to Snowden on July 7, saying that his immobilization in the Moscow Airport is a violation of Article 13(2) of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that his situation is "highlighting individual sovereignty" and "exposing the fiction of nation-state frontiers."
[218]
China and Hong Kong
The
South China Morning Post
published a poll of Hong Kong residents conducted while Snowden was
still in Hong Kong that showed that half of the 509 respondents believed
the Chinese government should not surrender Snowden to the United
States if Washington raises such a request; 33 percent of those polled
think of Snowden as a hero, 12.8 percent described him as a traitor, 23
percent described him as "something in between."
[219]
Hong Kong demonstration at US Consulate on June 15 in support of Snowden
Referring to Snowden's presence in the territory, Hong Kong chief executive
CY Leung
assured that the government would "handle the case of Mr Snowden in
accordance with the laws and established procedures of Hong Kong [and]
follow up on any incidents related to the privacy or other rights of the
institutions or people in Hong Kong being violated."
[220] Hong Kong
Democrat legislator
Albert Ho
denounced the "unlawful, unjustified and unscrupulous" interference,
and demanded the "the whole truth ... an unconditional apology ... and
an assurance this interference will stop"
[221] and
pan-democrat legislators
Gary Fan and
Claudia Mo
said that the perceived U.S. prosecution against Snowden will set "a
dangerous precedent and will likely be used to justify similar actions"
by authoritarian governments.
[222] During Snowden's stay, the two main political groups, the pan-democrats and
Pro-Beijing camp, found rare agreement to support Snowden.
[223][224] The DAB even organised a separate march to Government headquarters for Snowden.
The
People's Daily and the
Global Times editorials of
June 19 stated respectively that the central Chinese government was
unwilling to be involved in a "mess" caused by others, and that the Hong
Kong government should follow the public opinion and not concern itself
with Sino-US relations.
[225] A
Tsinghua University
communications studies specialist, Liu Jianming, interpreted that the
two articles as suggesting that the PRC government did not want further
involvement in the case and that the HKSAR government should handle it
independently.
[225]
After Snowden left Hong Kong, Chinese-language newspapers such as the
Ming Pao and the
Oriental Daily expressed relief that Hong Kong no longer had to shoulder the burden of the Snowden situation.
[226]
Mainland experts said that, although the Central Government did not
want to appear to be intervening in the matter, it was inconceivable
that the Hong Kong government acted independently in a matter that could
have far-reaching consequences for Sino-US relations. One expert
suggested that, by doing so, China had "returned the favor" for their
not having accepted the
asylum plea from Wang Lijun in February 2012.
[227] The official Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece, the
People's Daily
denied the US government accusation that the PRC central government had
allowed Snowden to escape, and said that Snowden helped in "tearing off
Washington's sanctimonious mask."
[228]
South America
After
Robert Menendez,
chairman of the United States foreign relations panel, warned Ecuador
that accepting Snowden "would severely jeopardize" preferential trade
access the United States provides to Ecuador,
[229] Ecuador's President
Rafael Correa responded by abdicating US trade benefits.
[230]
A government spokesman said that Ecuador would offer the USA "economic
aid of US$23 million annually, similar to what we received with the
trade benefits, with the intention of providing education about human
rights."
[231]
Correa criticized the US media for centering its focus on Snowden and
countries supporting him, instead of focusing on the global and
domestic privacy issues implicated in the leaked documents.
[232]
The presidents of Uruguay, Argentina, Venezuela and Suriname joined Correa and
Evo Morales
after the Bolivian president's plane was forced to land in Austria,
after Spain, France, Italy and Portugal refused it entry into their
airspace during a return flight from Moscow. The presidents, joined by a
representative from Brazil, met in
Cochabamba, Bolivia to discuss the incident.
[233]
Presidents
Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and
Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua offered Snowden asylum after the meeting.
United Nations
Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon
said that "the Snowden case is something I consider to be misuse" and
that digital communications should not be "misused in such a way as
Snowden did."
[234] Birgitta Jónsdóttir,
an Icelandic legislator, criticized Ban for expressing a personal view
while speaking in an official capacity (he was meeting with the Foreign
Affairs Committee of the Icelandic Parliament in
Reykjavik
at the time he made the comments). She said that Ban "seemed entirely
unconcerned about the invasion of privacy by governments around the
world, and only concerned about how whistleblowers are misusing the
system."
[234]
Other countries
Russia, Turkey and South Africa reacted angrily after it was revealed that their diplomats had been spied on during the
2009 G-20 London summit.
[235]
Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower and leaker of the top-secret
Pentagon Papers
in 1971, stated in an interview with CNN that he thought Snowden had
done an "incalculable" service to his country and that his leaks might
prevent the United States from becoming a surveillance state. He said
Snowden had acted with the same sort of courage and patriotism as a
soldier in battle.
[236]
In an op-ed the following morning, Ellsberg added that "there has not
been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden's
release of NSA material ... including the Pentagon Papers."
[9] Ray McGovern,
a retired CIA officer turned political activist, agreed with Ellsberg
and added, "This time today I'm feeling much more hopeful for our
democracy than I was feeling this time yesterday."
[237]
William Binney,
a whistleblower who disclosed details of the NSA's mass surveillance
activities, said that Snowden had "performed a really great public
service to begin with by exposing these programs and making the
government in a sense publicly accountable for what they're doing."
However, after Snowden cited a conversation with a "reliable source"
about allegations that the US was "hacking into China", Binney felt he
was "transitioning from whistle-blower to a traitor."
[238]
Thomas Drake,
former senior executive of NSA and whistleblower as well, said that he
feels "extraordinary kinship" with Snowden. "What he did was a
magnificent act of civil disobedience. He's exposing the inner workings
of the surveillance state. And it's in the public interest. It truly
is."
[238][239]
WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange
hailed Snowden as a "hero" who has exposed "one of the most serious
events of the decade – the creeping formulation of a mass surveillance
state."
[240]
After charges against Snowden were revealed, Assange released a
statement asking people to "step forward and stand with" Snowden.
[241]
Shamai Leibowitz,
who leaked details about an FBI operation, said that the legal threats
and "smear campaign" against Snowden is a "grave mistake" because "If
the government really wanted to keep more secrets from coming out, they
would do well to let this man of conscience go live his life in some
other country."
[242]
Personal life
Prior to his flight from the U.S. in May 2013, Snowden had a
girlfriend, Lindsay Mills, then a 28-year-old performance artist whom he
had planned to marry.
[243][244]
See also
Notes
- ^ Hong Kong's Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen
argued that government officials did not issue a provisional arrest
warrant for Snowden due to "discrepancies and missing information" in
the paperwork sent by U.S. authorities. Yuen explained that Snowden full
name was inconsistent, and his U.S. passport number was also missing.[66]
Hong Kong also wanted more details of the charges and evidence against
Snowden to make sure it was not a political case. Secretary for Justice
Rimsky Yuen said he spoke to US Attorney General Eric Holder by phone to
reinforce the request for details "absolutely necessary" for detention
of Snowden. Yuen said "As the US government had failed to provide the
information by the time Snowden left Hong Kong, it was impossible for
the Department of Justice to apply to a court for a temporary warrant of
arrest. In fact, even at this time, the US government has still not
provided the details we asked for."[67]
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