Re: Message from Moscow

Posted by Patrick Reilly on Nov 01, 2013; 4:55pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Message-from-Moscow-tp7584171p7584177.html

I'd have much more respect for him if he'd stayed in the US and accepted the attendant risks acting on his ideals.  

On Friday, November 1, 2013, Steve Smith wrote:

The whole thing (Snowden's disclosures and the fallout from it) is riddled with half-truths and misplaced strong rhetoric... I mean the whole situation, not just Snowden's statements... his are perhaps the *least* egregious but egregious nonetheless.

He tries to paint his patently *illegal acts* (disclosing classified information) as "political speech".   I am very sympathetic with his motives and grant him the moral right/unction to do what he did, but not because doing so was not technically illegal.  What he did was technically illegal.  In fact, that is what makes it so powerful... he may have done "the very right thing" against the rule of law and with the threat of dire consequences.  It is up to those who the law represents (we the citizens of the US) to respond by fitting his acts into the framework of our collective morality as well as our laws.   The challenge is either how to *pardon* his illegal acts based on their presumed "greater good" or to find a way to change the laws so that there *is* a way for him to have "done the right thing" without breaking the law and bringing down the wrath of the US Security apparatus.

On the other side, (roughly the "side" presented by officials of the US gov't right up to President Obama) the rhetoric is unforgiving. It does not acknowledge even the possibility that Snowden's "outside the law" acts were anything but traitorous cowardy.   I think to most, this is patently not true.  While the allegations that Snowden might have acted from egotistical and naive motives, I don't think many really can believe that he was honestly trying to harm the US citizenry.  Quite the opposite, even if he might have been misguided (and I don't concede he was), he was *trying* to help the US citizenry, specifically against rogue behaviour by our government.

I am thankful that the world leaders, the world population including much of the US, have stood up in shock and outrage in response to the revelations, no matter how they came about.   While it may be obvious that any security/intelligence apparatus *wants* total information awareness about everyone, friend or foe, and that it is natural for them to believe that they can do their jobs more effectively, it is NOT obvious that the tradeoff is worth it.   It is also not obvious in the least that just because such organizations want and seek that kind of power, that they are granted that level of power by our laws.  Even the Patriot Act and FISA didn't expand their powers that entirely and it seems clear to me that the public debate *will* lead to severe curtailment even of those laws and possibly others which may represent "loopholes" in privacy.

I'm glad Snowden did what he did, roughly the way he did it.  I may be proven wrong, but he is likely to go down as a martyr if not a hero and the US and the world will likely be a better place for his actions.  He may have to suffer for his actions, but that is the definition of "hope" that I subscribe to:  "doing the right thing, whether you think it will turn out well or not".

A high ranking German politician has spoken with Edward Snowden in Moscow. Here is the letter he brought back:
http://www.spiegel.de/media/media-32616.pdf

"I am confident that with the support of the international community, the government of the United States will abandon this harmful behavior."

This is one of: rhetorical, hopelessly optimistic, or disingenuous ... or perhaps some combination of the three.  I got this in the mail this morning:

  Secretary of State Kerry: Reinstate Edward Snowden’s passport!
http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=8711

But I'm having trouble imagining that he'll ever get his passport back or be treated as anything other than a traitor here.


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