Published 2015-11-08 00:05
Has made the United States a great service.
For more than two years, Edward Snowden lived in exile in Moscow. The US should give his whistleblower a decent opportunity to return home.
For more than two years, Edward Snowden lived in exile in Moscow. The US should give his whistleblower a decent opportunity to return home.
As a journalist, it is often an advantage to be a bit naive: it can lead to better results. But to Report on States’ hard core, it is also appropriate to be paranoid, at least a little.
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You could be bugged , you can be shaded, you may be exposed to harassment – and not just by security services in dictatorships. The British newspaper The Guardian, which has been a leader in reporting on Snow Dens historical leak from the American Security Agency NSA has been exposed to very nasty pressure. The worst attacks have been from the UK authorities, yes, from the government level. The constitutional protection of freedom of the press is not as strong as many seem to think.
When the big brother feels threatened he hits.
It knew Edward Snowden before He alerted the NSA’s methods. He chose a life on the run in order to reveal that the United States controls its own citizens’ calls and messages in an unprecedented scale.
“Of course I have paid a price. I can not go home, “said Snowden in DN interview.
When Edward Snowden in 2013 leaked, the outcome against him extremely hard. He was branded as “traitors” by Secretary of State John Kerry, conservative columnists raged.
Today, noises in more mixed. President Obama has nuanced Kerry’s criticism. And the Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has been in debate with Hillary Clinton even taken Snowden in defense. As a whistleblower, he has played an important role in disseminating knowledge to the American people about the evils noted Sanders recently.
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On our side of the Atlantic, support is even greater. A majority in the European Parliament voted last week on a resolution that gives Snowden the recognition he deserves. EU member countries are encouraged to discontinue any criminal charges against him, ensuring protection against being extradited and confer the status of whistleblower and defenders of human rights.
Clearer than this could hardly be, even if the resolution is not legally binding.
But also the symbolism is important. Who is regarded as a terrorist or a freedom fighter, who is seen as criminal, or oppositional, who described as traitors or whistleblower has enormous significance.
Often the boundaries be fluid and need to be reassessed over time. But Edward Snow’s case, it became clear early on that he has done his country a great service by allowing the public to become aware of serious abuses in the state apparatus.
As a consequence of the NSA leak to put President Obama an external advisory panel to go through the charges. Its conclusions and comprehensive recommendations can be read as a scathing criticism of the security agency’s work; itself a kind of confirmation that Snowden had been right.
The conclusion is not that democratic states should cease to terror threats seriously. But the purpose can not automatically justify the means. And above all, there must be parliamentary support behind the security services. Citizens can not be left out, there must be monitoring mechanisms and a clear balance of power.
All power corrupts, and absolute monitoring power has little in common with democracy.
There was this Edward Snowden reminded everyone. His actions can be problematized; exactly where the limits of a leak to be drawn is not obvious. States have legitimate security needs that could be damaged by transparency. Total transparency is not a desirable goal. But basically made Snowden right: he served with the US Constitution’s best interests, as in previous whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg (the Pentagon Papers) and Mark “Deep Throat” Felt (Watergate).
US can end the humiliation and offering Snowden amnesty. It would at a stroke strengthen American democracy.
In Russia, where he now lives in exile, there is neither a free press or the balance of power that characterize American democracy. President Putin is pursuing a propaganda war against both its own citizens and to other states. Edward Snowden is in the Kremlin’s world a grateful trophy in the global PR work – or as Putin put it: “An unwanted Christmas present”.
Is Snowden one of Putin’s propaganda tool? If so unwittingly. Some tributes to the Russian regime, he has never been known for. Their Moscow is a consequence of Snowden – literally – can not get on in the world without the risk of being extradited to the United States. He got stuck in Moscow during a stopover and applied for asylum in 22 countries – but only one said yes: Russia.
“I chose not Russia,” says Edward Snowden to DN’s Lena Sundström.
The situation is unworthy . But the blame for the bears do not whistle blower without the Western democracies that allowed Russia assume the role of fake protectors of human rights.
The United States can end the humiliation and offering Snowden some form of amnesty. It would at a stroke strengthen American democracy.
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