Edward Snowden CaseEssay Preview: Edward Snowden CaseReport this essayThe basic facts are that Snowden was a high level computer programmer who worked for Dell Corporation and was contracted by the National Security Agency (NSA) for work in their intelligence sector. He later performed work for the Booz Allen Hamilton company where he collected and subsequently leaked classified government documents that showed the the NSA was spying on United States citizens (Landau, page 66). We also learned through Snowdens leaked information through The Guardian that the NSA was spying on Chinese computers and that the NSAs British equivalent used internet cafes to spy on political leaders who attended the G20 summit. It was also revealed that the NSA was collecting this information using a “top secret” interpretation of the fourth amendment that very few Americans would understand if it was explained even in laymans terms. All of this information was provided by Snowden through acquired data that he got through downloading gigabytes of information from computers while he was working. He stated that he saw activity that seemed suspect and thought that the American public deserved to know that they were being spied on.
The public response to this leak of information was that the NSA initially lied, but as more and more information came to light, it was eventually proven to be true. The government was relatively lackadaisical in their response about the content of the leaked information, although they used their resources to go after Snowden with their full might, accusing him of treason and charging him with treason and releasing classified national security documents, and the media declaring him “the most wanted man in the world”. According to Barbara Fister, “we learned in 2005 that the National Security Agency was engaging in large-scale domestic warrantless wiretapping, and we were troubled, but the Bush administration adamantly defended its legality and Congress shrugged” (Fister, page 2).
What Snowden did brings up a discussion of morality and right versus wrong. Should Snowden have leaked that information that he did for the sake of the freedom of information? If a computer technician knows the type of activity that the government is doing, does he have the right to release that information to the public. If he does release information that the government is illegally spying on its citizens and members of other countries, should he be declared a treasonist? According to Steve Vladeck, there is no doubt that Snowden broke the law and he states, “If the question is whether Snowden is a criminal, the answer is yes. If the question is whether he is a traitor – which is also a legal question – the answer appears quite clearly to be no. So, at least according to Vladeck, when is comes to Snowdens actions, he seems to tow a VERY grey line. In the government and Vladecks eyes, he is without a doubt a criminal, but in Vladecks and the publics eyes he is also a “patriot” and a “hero.”
Another issue that comes up with this topic is “us versus them.” Snowden represented the average citizen he and was “fighting” the governmental agency of the NSA. To the public, he was releasing information about us that should have been public knowledge and that was also being illegally collected by the NSA. The NSAs stance was that they were providing the much needed national security that we have lacked since September 11, 2001. The bottom line is that the NSA was collecting their information illegally and that they shouldnt have been doing this in the first place. According to the article Making Sense from Snowden” when interviewed by Senator Ron Wyden, James Claptor, director
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Senator Wyden said the US government is only about collecting what is important in national security interests. Senator Wyden did not ask for any of the information he needed to make his case. For example, for a classified report like this, he wanted to know what was the public opinion opinion on the topic. The NSA had a lot of people that were saying that the NSA had used data that was classified — we should know this, we should know that we should know. . . . Senator Wyden asked for information on when and how much data the NSA collected that was classified, because the NSA did no such information. I am sure he learned something from that. Also, Senator Wyden had to ask my questions about the metadata as well, in some cases, because the NSA had done a lot of work. . . Senator Wyden asked in some different ways, about the surveillance techniques that the NSA employed. He asked for a more complete picture of the activities this NSA’s activities were taking. I would guess it is about as much information we have about how the programs and what they were doing. There are certain types of information that people get to share about their activities, and a lot of the information is that they are taking photos or video of their cell phones and collecting metadata about their conversations and what their friends do, if there is video in their cell phone. And we got to a point where we have a system where you know that you are not going to be receiving classified information, but classified information just for the information we provide. In the NSA program, there was a very large increase in the collection, in terms of both when we were at the beginning of the program — I think what started out with the 9/11 attacks, as early as November of 2001 — and when we ended it. After we started off, we had to say to the NSA that we needed to look at some of these information that we may want to look at, and ask if we can help them with something to look into. The more people that are collecting some of these things and getting more information from this source, and then we begin to figure out what kind of information we can then use that as a tool to help them better understand the information that they are collecting, what their data looks like, and to better understand the data and how it might affect the security of our country. As senators, that may well be what we do about this. The fact that the US government does this is a big and serious scandal. My experience with what the NSA is doing over the last 6 months is that they are giving out information only. The NSA is putting the metadata on that data. Now that we have all this information collected in this program and you have it collected in some capacity, that can serve