The Patriotism of Edward Snowden's Case

Edward Snowden. One name, one man, a person almost everyone in the information technology field has herd about. That one name can fill peoples mind with hatred or with respect and gratitude, sparking a debate that will last for years to come. How can one man create such polarizing opinions? It all started on June 5th 2013 the British newspaper The Guardian releases information that the United States National Security Agency (NSA) that showed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) issued a court order that required Verizon to hand over the metadata from the phone calls of millions of Americans. Over the course of the next few days even more damning but sensitive information was released by The Guardian and The New York Times showing that the United States was collecting bulk data on United States citizens as well of those of other countries and Heads of States of certain countries.1 All of this top secret information was released by one man, his name: Edward Snowden. Who is this man, how did he get access to top secret information and why did he choose to release it?

Many studies have been conducted on whether people have heard if Snowden and agreed or disagreed with what he did. What many of these studies show is that many people do not even know who Edward Snowden is. An ACLU report2 asked millennial's in different countries different questions regarding Snowden. In Germany 95% of Millennial's and Adults 18+ had heard, read, or seen either a great deal, some or a little about him. Compare that to the United States, where these leaks occurred, only 60% of millennial's and 64% of Adults 18+ have at least a little familiarity with the subject. 40% of Millennial's and 36% of adults overall have never even heard about Edward Snowden. When such large amounts of people have not even heard about a person who conducted one of, if not the largest data breaches of classified information you can not help but worry. If almost half of the people don't even know this occurred or who did it then having an informed discussion about it is extremely hard. It's almost impossible to know why this is, is it that people don't have access to this information, are they ignorant to the information and not know it exists, or do they just simply not care and would rather go on with their lives? Some questions just can not be answered, but what the question we can answer is “Who is Edward Snowden?”

History

Edward Joseph Snowden was born in North Carolina on June 21, 1983.3 He was born to his father Lonnie, and his mother Elizabeth. Snowden was known to be a smart kid, twice scoring above 145 on IQ tests but in the 10th grade dropped out of high school due to the illness mononucleosis which caused him to be out of school for 9 months.3 During this period between 1999-2001 he began developing a passion for technology and computers and became friends with others similar to him. It is during this time that he registered on the website Ars Technica, which is a forum dedicated to the hacking world and technology in general.4 Rather than returning to school a grade behind he took the GED test.5 On May 7th 2004 he enlisted in the Special Forces of the Army Reserve. Soon afterwords he broke both of his legs in a training accident and was later discharged.3 After Snowden was discharged he began working for the Center for the Advanced Study of Language at the University of Maryland as a Security Guard in 2005. The center has close ties with the NSA. To get this job required a security clearance, in which he claims he had to even pass a polygraph test, making this his first glimpse into the world of high level clearance. He attends a job fair for intelligence agencies and a job was offered to him at the CIA.

This begins Snowden's access to classified and highly sensitive information, the first of many dominoes to fall. He was assigned to the global communications division of the CIA. Through his top tier work here, he was sent to the secret CIA school for technology specialists. Once his training was completed, in the spring of 2007 he was sent to Geneva, Siwtzerland under diplomatic cover. He claims this is the first time he considered becoming a whistle-blower after seeing CIA agents doing less than moral things in order to recruit people into becoming CIA informants. Things such as getting targets drunk so they wind up in jail or putting them into debt.3 While considering himself more of a conservative he held of on the whistle-blowing because Barack Obama was about to be elected, and part of his message was that we would no longer be sacrificing rights in order to catch a small percentage more of terrorists.3 This did not turn out to be true and Snowden eventually left the CIA in 2009. He now begins working for Dell computers as a contractor to the NSA. He was first assigned to the Yokata Air Base in Japan, but ended up working at several U.S. Locations and went from supervising computer upgrades to consulting with high level government officials on cyber strategy and counterintelligence. From there Snowden was reassigned to Hawaii where he started working at the NSA's Hawaii regional operations center. After leaving Dell, Snowden went to work for Booz Allen Hamilton at the same Hawaiian operation center. It is right after this when one of the largest data breaches will occur because during all of this work for the government, Edward Snowden was collecting pieces of highly sensitive information.

Timeline of Leak

• On June 5th 2013 the leaks start with the Guardian publishing an article about the collection of domestic email and telephone metadata from Verizon customers.
• On the 6th of June 2013 both The Guardian and Washington Post publish articles about the program PRISIM which the NSA uses to make US internet companies to provide them with data on domestic users.
• The Guardian publishes slides of a program called Boundless Informant, which show that the NSA collected nearly billion pieces of intelligence information from inside the
• U.S. From just February 2013.
• The Guardian, at his request, reveals that Edward Snowden is the source of this information on June 9, 2013.
• June 14, 2013 Edward Snowden is charged with espionage and theft of government property.
• On the 23rd of June 2013 Snowden takes a plane from Hong Kong to Moscow, the very same day his passport is revoked and he is stuck in the Moscow airport.
• July 24, 2013 he is allowed to enter Russia while is asylum request waits to be considered.
• On August 1st, 2013 Snowden's asylum request is approved.

Current Status

Currently Snowden resides in an undisclosed location in Russia. He has been granted asylum until the year 2020. But the main question is, did his hopes for after the leaks come true? The answer is yes and no. Snowden wanted people to know that these breaches of their own information was occurring to create a debate and a dialogue on the matter. This worked to an extent but I do not believe it had the lasting impact that he wanted it to have. In the government sector many stood by the NSA and other intelligence agencies explaining that they were in the interests of the country. Other politicians on both sides of the political spectrum were openly critical about how these programs were allowed to happen. In the end though, it just seems like it is business as usual.

Personal Opinion/Conclusion

When I started on this subject, I did not know just how far down the rabbit hole I would go. I found myself in over my head a lot and even considered scrapping everything and moving to something easier. There is so much information on this one man that it is almost impossible to know everything, but in the end I am glad I stuck with it. During the course of this research I had my opinions of the matter change over time. What impacted me the most was the interviews conducted by the Guardian in the early days of the leaks. This man with a very comfortable life faced a moral and ethical dilemma on whether his loyalties lied in the people of his country, or the Government. Personally I believe the government overstepped its bounds here and what he did was the right thing to do. There should be steps in place someone should be able to take if they have clear evidence something sensitive and top secret is occurring within the Government that is violating the Constitution of the United States. Without any avenue to take, Snowden saw that the only way to uncover something illegal going on was to do something illegal himself. I am not saying two wrongs make a right, because they don't, but when you put these two illegal things on a moral scale, the violation of Constitutional Rights weighs heavy. Standing up for the rights of others might be one of the most Patriotic things you can do.