Reading06: Snowden
Coming from someone who was appalled by the Chelsea Manning leaks, it should come as no surprise that I am not an Edward Snowden supporter. Anyone who willingly compromises US national security as Snowden should certainly not be viewed as an American hero (and perhaps could even be labeled an enemy of the state). However, there are important differences between Snowden’s disclosures and Chelsea Manning’s leaks that I believe make Snowden more justified than Manning.
Though he also released far too much data, Snowden showed far more purpose in assembling his leaks than Manning did. Snowden felt strongly that the NSA surveillance program was both immoral and unconstitutional, and especially given his oath to support and defend the Constitution, he believed that the only moral thing to do was to come forward with the information to inform the public. This conviction was only further justified when John Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence at the time, lied to Congress claiming that the NSA does not collect “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans.” When a concerned individual like Snowden hears a lie like that and has been unsuccessful in his attempts to complain internally about the unconstitutionality of the program, it is easy to see why reporting seems like the only option.
In stark contrast, Manning showed absolutely no discretion and demonstrably less purpose in his leaks. She admitted that she was going through a very difficult period mentally while she was leaking secrets in an attempt to justify her actions. Though there was certainly some troubling information in the Manning leaks, it does not seem as if the foremost purpose of her leaks was to combat a US injustice. If it were, then she could have simply leaked a few documents like the videos showing military attacks that killed civilian targets. Instead, she indiscriminately leaked an enormous trove of data that put Americans in danger and left authorities struggling to protect them.
In the end, though I wish Snowden had done a better job limiting the scope of the documents he released, I am glad that he came forward. I am inherently skeptical of the ability of any government to avoid abusing power, and in today’s age, information is power. Therefore, I do not believe that the government should be able to collect data on millions of Americans without their consent or some sort of warrant. Besides the fact that this is a clear violation of the 4thAmendment, it also places the executive branch of the government one step too close to authoritarianism. As we now know from the Russian election manipulation campaign, a devoted party can do enormous damage when armed with information, so just imagine what the NSA would be capable of with their massive trove of metadata on Americans. Note that I am not advocating for surveillance programs to be shut down – they are an essential piece of our counterterrorism efforts today – but I just think that the government should have to follow the constitution that was put in place to restrain it.