Edward Snowden is the individual responsible for the biggest leaks in US political history. He was an employee of the defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden is responsible for handing over information from NSA, which is one of the world’s most secretive organizations. He believes that his disclosure of what the US government is doing in installing massive surveillance machine is something the public should know and discuss, and he is not apologetic or ashamed about that. Snowden made his declarations while in Hong Kong, which is a city that promotes freedom of political speech. However, he is scared that the Chinese government might whisk him away for questioning, or the US could catch up with him, which is why he moved to Russia.
Regardless, he still does not regret what he did as he believes the US government is doing more harm than good to the world and its people. He also believes that every document he leaked is in the public interest and people should concentrate on that other than him. The information that Edward Snowden gave is critical to the United States citizens because massive surveillance programs damage the US economy as it shakes consumer confidence, which leads to US trade partners distancing themselves from companies that have a probability of being compromised by the NSA. Therefore, NSA surveillance leads to some companies losing their competitive edge, yet they are mainstream economic drivers. The US citizens need to work against this.
Lastly, I hold the opinion that Edward Snowden did what he see as the right thing for the US citizens to be aware of and act upon, and it is high time they act against NSA surveillance as it is hurting the economy. NSA surveillance is very crucial to the American economy in order to shape the future of this nation in terms of privacy, business, and communication.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance
Hesham, I agree with your opinion in regards to whether or not what Edward Snowden did was right or wrong. In my opinion, what he did was morally correct but ethically wrong. In the article you cited, Edward Snowden said, "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," he said. He is a firm believer in his decision to leak thousands of documents and betray his country. He will forever be known as one of the United States biggest whistleblowers in addition to Bradley Manning. If it wasn’t for him working in the one of the most secretive organizations, no one would have ever been reading about him or even know of him.
ReplyDeleteIn a separate article I read about Snowden, it was saying that he is suing the country of Norway so that he wont be extradited to the United States. He is suing Norway because he may speak at a ceremony, which he is receiving an award in the United States. According to Tech Times and Norsk PEN, "With this year's Ossietzky Prize Norwegian PEN wants to highlight that surveillance may only be carried out within the framework of internationally accepted legal standards for the protection of individual civil liberties."
Source: http://www.techtimes.com/articles/153155/20160424/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-is-suing-norway-to-prevent-extradition-to-us.htm
I think you bring up a good point about the economic detriments that these programs could cause. Trust, when lost is incredibly hard to get back. However, there is a thing to be said about the necessity of surveillance. Every country spies on it Citizens and other countries as well. The question that is important is how the government will balance he necessity and the rights of it citizens
ReplyDeleteIn June, 2013, Snowden's opinion was different than it is now. More to the point, the government is toning down their rhetoric. Snowden will only come back if he is granted a fair trial.
ReplyDeleteAs for the PEN award, my guess is that Snowden won't collect it as he is not guaranteed saftey while in Norway. Heck, he didn't use Microsoft because he couldn't be sure they didn't have a backdoor (regardless if they did or not). I don't think it's safe to say every country spies on their citizens, however I would not say the same thing about ISPs. But not all governments are in bed with ISPs, like us, of course.