The debate in the United States continues over whether Edward Snowden is a whistleblower or a traitor. I previously wrote a column on that question. There appears to be less debate in Sweden where Snowden received standing ovations in the Swedish parliament after being given the Right Livelihood award for his disclosure of sweeping surveillance programs of the United States. The award honors Snowden “for his courage and skill in revealing the unprecedented extent of state surveillance violating basic democratic processes and constitutional rights”. This week, the new movie on Snowden also captured two more awards and critical acclaim.
Snowden appeared by video from Moscow and has left the prize in Sweden hoping that he will someday be allowed to travel personally to pick up the prize. His father however was in the chamber during the award ceremony. Many are hoping that Sweden or another West European country will grant Snowden asylum. Philanthropist Jakob von Uexküll, who established the award in 1980, raised this prospect in his speech when he added “So Mr Snowden, your Right Livelihood Award is waiting for you. We trust that Sweden will make it possible for you to collect your award here in Stockholm in person in the very near future.”
Polls have shown that a majority of Americans share the view of Snowden as a whistleblower despite a concerted effort by the White House, intelligence community, and congressional leaders to the contrary.
Source: The Guardian
I don’t trust the govt. either, but the idea of him being killed by the govt. is just a little bit over the top.
Really. You don’t think that would happen. Really? The government already acknowledged that they have a secret hit list and assert that they have the right to kill. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/05/us-cia-killlist-idUSTRE79475C20111005 Just because it is approved terrorists, I guess it is OK? Snowden can be classified as a terrorist and the government can claim that they have the right……to protect us all. Um. No thanks. This is not the government that I want to live in, where anyone who is proclaimed a terrorist BY the government can be killed BY the government.
Hey! What ever happened to the Bengazi video guy? Not dead (at least). But safely stuck away from public view or memory. Gulags…..next?
Barry, Oh yea, well you smell! What are we two?
I beg to differ. I like that he let the info out, but I think he could have elevated himself to hero status had he stayed and plead his case. He would have had quite a following here. Instead we have a coward hiding. and hey, I don’t trust the govt. either, but the idea of him being killed by the govt. is just a little bit over the top.
Paul C. Schulte
“If Snowden thinks he is a whistleblower instead of a traitor then let him come forward and stand trial. Let him make his stand legally. I am sure there are no end of liberal attorneys who would take the case gratis.”
You must have been really harsh on people fleeing the USSR.
Jim22
“I lost respect for him when he fled. Fleeing is not courage.”
He’s shown more courage than you’ll ever have.
Barry — not sure what people escaping from the USSR have to do with Snowden. I don’t remember any of them claim whistleblower status.
Congrats to Mr. Snowden and to the Swedish government. I hope Sweden will take a further stand and allow Snowden to emigrate there.
Edward Snowden should receive a Nobel Prize… Any ‘pretensions’ that he could ever have gotten a fair trial, if he had returned home, are pure fantasy. He would have been ”accidentally” killed by our government, before that ever happened. He escaped to save his own life. Jim22 & Paul C. Schulte… you need to wake up and realize… that our Gov’t has lied effusively about almost everything….especially our wars! Proof??? Look at the way they treat our Military personnel. Training them to be ‘killers’ then sending then in, to foreign countries to kill for us, and causing them to witness all of the horrors of war, And then, when they come home, physically & or emotionally crippled, and unable to function, again as normal human beings…. they then are abandoned. I know this is true… I have family members in the Military. I also know that suicides among Military personnel are currently causing more deaths than any other reason. Edward Snowden, stay wherever you are… Your life-span in this current United States would only be tentative….
AtheistCurmudgeon – this might come as a surprise to you but the primary purpose of the military is to KILL.
There are better photos of Snowden than this weeny photo which gets used by the folks like MSNBC who call him a traitor. Can we get a better photo?
I lost respect for him when he fled. Fleeing is not courage
Live to fight another day. Did you want a martyr???
Treason is in the eyes of the beholder as well. Of COURSE the government thinks that it is treason to expose the massive illegal unconstitutional spying that they have been conducting on the average American as well as the massive spying on everyone else in the world (almost). Did it hurt the necessary spying that is always being done. Probably. But they could have been spying in a way that didn’t intrude into every single thing we do as ordinary citizens. Did the exposure waken us up to the danger from our OWN government to ourselves. Yes. That is a good thing. (Although there are still many with their heads firmly ensconced in a dark dank place and refuse to see the light.)
Were Snowden to stay and face a trial, it would be nothing more than a show trial similar to those in Marxist Russia. The trial would be rigged and merely kabuki theater to propagandize to the sheeples. The MSM would have a field day with it and we would all be encouraged to have our daily session of Snowden hate. I can hear Katie Couric now….puke….. Predetermined outcome followed by a hanging. Exactly what the people who want to lynch Wilson in Ferguson wanted to do and STILL want to do, despite all evidence.
Snowden exposed the government. Without his exposure, most would still be in the dark about how intrusive and overly oppressive the government has become. Out of control government with people afraid to make any peeps about it, who just keep their heads down and do not try to stop the evil. Afraid of their own government. Afraid to speak in public about anything. Not a future I want to live in.
I count Snowden as not exactly a hero, but as a necessary good.
It’s too bad that Snowden also didn’t release all the emails from Lois Lerner. Communications about Bengazi. Fast and Furious. EPA memos on how they are going to crush the economy. The list goes on and on.
Is disclosing classified information to the enemy during a war treason?
No. Not if done without intent. “Loose lips sink ships.” But we don’t execute these loose lips.
Is disclosing classified information to the target during authorized use of military force (absent a declaration of war) treason?
If done without intent to inform the target of classified information? Inadvertent disclosure? Collateral damage?
I think spinelli’s 8:39 addresses this point well, Paul.
Its a shame that Snowden had to destroy a generation of work the NSA and others did that benefited our intelligence gathering capabilities because the political leaders wanted to resurrect Total Information Awareness. The culture change that needs to take place is the ability of agencies and political leaders to admit they are not all knowing, all seeing, and we live in a country where freedom might mean terrorists can get away with a plot. But the first thing that happens after any major event is we look for someone to blame. It’s no wonder NSA and FBI have gone completely to the dark side and are ignoring basic rights: they don’t want to get blamed at the next 9/11. And there will be one no matter how hard they try or pretend there won’t be. In the meantime, we grow more and more used to the complete loss of control and freedom, the impunity with which government officials and agents break the letter and spirit of the laws they were sworn to uphold, and the degradation of the political tone from leaders, and I use that term loosely, in Washington that care only about their political future and not the 99% of the country they don’t see on a daily basis.
When Putin looks into Obama’s eyes he sees envy.
surimike, Are you really under the illusion that what this country has morphed into is any better than the USSR of old? We look and act more and more like them every day.
@Paul C. Schulte. Were Snowden to come home to stand trial, there is little chance he would even get the see the evidence against him. FISA / secret evidence / Secret courts – how is that any different than KGB/USSR of old?
surimike – that is because Snowden is not really a whistleblower. I am in a book club with a former intelligence specialist who, when he learned, Snowden went to Hawaii, knew it was treason. The security is lower there.
Most people now have the mindset that someone is either a hero or villain. Millenials think it’s SUPERHERO or SUPERVILLAIN. Having been an investigator for decades, and having been taught Shakespeare as a youth, I know people have many layers. We are complex, w/ different motivations. It’s helpful to remember that when discussing Snowden.
I lost respect for him when he fled. Fleeing is not courage.
The intelligence community have made it near impossible to present a defense by making discovery a joke, all records being classified. He would not have even close to a fair chance @ a trial. It’s a rigged game against intelligence whistleblowers.
If Snowden thinks he is a whistleblower instead of a traitor then let him come forward and stand trial. Let him make his stand legally. I am sure there are no end of liberal attorneys who would take the case gratis.
If there were more people of conscience like Snowden, there would hopefully be fewer people of corruption like GWB, Obama, Clapper, McConnell, Fienstein, Boehner, Pelosi……
I hope Sweden will do the right thing. We never will. It is s terrible shame what we have become.