|
Edward Snowden |
|
| Born |
Edward Joseph Snowden
June 21, 1983 (age 30)
Elizabeth City, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Residence |
Russia (temporary
asylum) |
| Nationality |
American |
| Occupation |
System administrator |
| Employer |
Booz Allen Hamilton[1]
Kunia, Hawaii, U.S.
(until June 10, 2013) |
| Known for |
Revealing details of classified United States government
surveillance programs |
| Home town |
Wilmington, North Carolina |
| Criminal charge |
Theft of government property, unauthorized communication of
national defense information, and willful communication of
classified intelligence to an unauthorized person (June 2013). |
Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American
computer specialist who worked for the
CIA and the
NSA and
leaked details of several top-secret United States and British
government
mass surveillance programs to the press.[2][3]
Based on information Snowden leaked to
The Guardian[4]
in May 2013 while employed at NSA contractor
Booz Allen Hamilton, the British newspaper published a
series of exposés that revealed programs such as the interception of
U.S. and European telephone
metadata and the
PRISM,
XKeyscore, and
Tempora
Internet surveillance programs. Snowden's disclosures are said to rank
among the most significant NSA security breaches in United States
history.[5][6]
On June 14, 2013, United States federal prosecutors charged Snowden
with
espionage and theft of government property.[7][8][9]
Snowden had left the United States prior to the publication of his
disclosures, first to Hong Kong and then to Russia, where he received
temporary asylum and now resides in an undisclosed location.
Snowden has been a subject of controversy: he has been variously
called a hero,[10][11]
a
whistleblower,[12][13][14][15]
a dissident,[16]
a traitor,[17][18]
and a patriot.[19][20]
Snowden has defended his leaks as an effort "to inform the public as to
that which is done in their name and that which is done against them."[21]
Some U.S. officials condemned his actions as having done "grave damage"
to the U.S. intelligence capabilities while others, such as former
president
Jimmy Carter, have applauded his actions.[22][23]
Meanwhile, the media disclosures have renewed debates both inside and
outside the United States over
mass surveillance,
government secrecy, and the balance between
national security and
information privacy.
Background
Childhood, family and education
Edward Joseph Snowden was born on June 21, 1983[24]
in
Elizabeth City, North Carolina,[25]
and grew up in
Wilmington, North Carolina.[26]
His father, Lonnie Snowden, a resident of
Pennsylvania, was an officer in the
United States Coast Guard,[27]
and his mother, a resident of
Baltimore, Maryland, is a clerk at a federal court in Maryland.[26][28]
His parents are divorced, and his father subsequently remarried.[29]
By 1999, Snowden had moved with his family to
Ellicott City, Maryland,.[26]
He studied at
Anne Arundel Community College[26]
to gain the credits necessary to obtain a high-school diploma but he did
not complete the coursework.[30][31]
Snowden's father explained that his son had missed several months of
school owing to illness and, rather than return, took and passed the
tests for his
GED at a local community college.[21][32][33]
Snowden worked online toward a Master's Degree at the
University of Liverpool in 2011.[34]
Having worked at a US military base in Japan, Snowden was reportedly
interested in
Japanese popular culture, had studied the Japanese language[35]
and also worked for an
anime
company domiciled in the United States.[36][37]
He also said he had a basic understanding of
Mandarin and was deeply interested in martial arts and, at age 19 or
20, listed
Buddhism as his religion on a military recruitment form, noting that
the choice of agnostic was "strangely absent."[38]
Political views
Snowden has said that in the
2008 presidential election he voted for a
third-party candidate. He has claimed he had been planning to make
disclosures about NSA surveillance programs at the time, but he decided
to wait because he "believed in Obama's promises." He was later
disappointed that Obama "continued with the policies of his
predecessor."[39]
For the
2012 election, political donation records indicate that he
contributed to the primary campaign of
Ron
Paul.[40][41]
Several sources have alleged that Snowden, under the pseudonym
"TheTrueHOOHA," authored hundreds of posts on a variety of political
topics on technology news provider
Ars Technica's
chat
rooms.[42][43][44]
In a January 2009 entry, TheTrueHOOHA exhibited strong support for the
United States' security state apparatus and said he believed leakers of
classified information "should be shot in the balls."[45]
However, in February 2010 TheTrueHOOHA wrote, "I wonder, how well would
envelopes that became transparent under magical federal candlelight have
sold in 1750? 1800? 1850? 1900? 1950?"[46]
On June 17, 2013, Snowden's father spoke in an interview on
Fox TV, expressing concern about misinformation in the media
regarding his son. He described his son as "a sensitive, caring young
man... He just is a deep thinker."[32]
In accounts published in June 2013, interviewers noted that Snowden's
laptop displayed stickers supporting
internet freedom organizations including the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the
Tor Project.[21]
Snowden considers himself: "neither traitor nor hero. I'm an American."[47]
Career
On May 7, 2004, Snowden enlisted in the
United States Army Reserve as a
Special Forces recruit but did not complete any training.[24][48]
He said he wanted to fight in the
Iraq
War because he "felt like [he] had an obligation as a human being to
help free people from oppression."[21]
He was discharged four months later, stating this was the result of
breaking both of his legs in a training accident.[49]
His next employment was as a
National Security Agency (NSA) security guard for the
Center for Advanced Study of Language at the
University of Maryland,[50]
before, he said, joining the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to work on
IT security.[51]
In May 2006 Snowden wrote in Ars Technica that he had no trouble getting
work because he was a "computer wizard." In August he wrote about a
possible path in government service, perhaps involving China, but said
it "just doesn't seem like as much 'fun' as some of the other places."[48]
Snowden said that in 2007 the CIA stationed him with
diplomatic cover in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was responsible
for maintaining computer network security.[52]
Snowden described his CIA experience in Geneva as "formative", stating
that the CIA deliberately got a Swiss banker drunk and encouraged him to
drive home. Snowden said that when the latter was arrested, a CIA
operative offered to intervene and later recruited the banker.[53]
Swiss President
Ueli Maurer said it did not seem likely "that this incident played
out as it has been described by Snowden and by the media."[54]
The revelations were said to be sensitive as the Swiss government was
passing legislation for more banking transparency.[55]
The Guardian reported that Snowden left the CIA in 2009 and
began work for a private contractor inside an NSA facility on a US
military base in Japan[21]
later identified as
Dell.[56]
Snowden remained on the Dell payroll until early 2013.[56]
NSA Director
Keith Alexander has said that Snowden held a position at the NSA for
the twelve months prior to his next job as a consultant,[57]
with top secret
Sensitive Compartmented Information clearances.[58]
According to The New York Times, Snowden took a
Certified Ethical Hacker training course in 2010.[59]
USIS completed a background check on Snowden in 2011.[60]
Snowden described his life as "very comfortable", earning a salary of
"roughly US$200,000."[61]
At the time of his departure from the US in May 2013, he had been
employed by consulting firm
Booz Allen Hamilton for less than three months inside the NSA at the
Kunia Regional SIGINT Operations Center in Hawaii,[62][63][64]
earning $122,000.[65]
While intelligence officials have described his position there as a "system
administrator", Snowden has said he was an "infrastructure analyst",
which meant that his job was to look for new ways to break into Internet
and telephone traffic around the world.[66]
He said he had taken a pay cut to work at Booz Allen,[67]
and that he sought employment in order to gather data on NSA
surveillance around the world so he could leak it.[68]
The firm said Snowden's employment was terminated on June 10, 2013 "for
violations of the firm's code of ethics and firm policy."[65][69]
According to Reuters, a source "with detailed knowledge on the
matter" stated that Booz Allen's hiring screeners found some details of
his education "did not check out precisely", but decided to hire him
anyway; Reuters stated that the element which triggered these concerns,
or the manner in which Snowden satisfied the concerns, were not known.[70]
The résumé stated that Snowden attended computer-related classes at
Johns Hopkins University. A spokesperson for Johns Hopkins said that
the university did not find records to show that Snowden attended the
university, and suggested that he may instead have attended Advanced
Career Technologies, a private for-profit organization which operated as
"Computer Career Institute at Johns Hopkins."[70]
The University College of the University of Maryland acknowledged that
Snowden had attended a summer session at a UM campus in Asia. Snowden's
resume stated that he estimated that he would receive a
University of Liverpool computer security master's degree in 2013.
The university said that Snowden registered for an online master's
degree program in computer security in 2011 but that "he is not active
in his studies and has not completed the program."[70]
Before leaving for Hong Kong, Snowden resided in
Waipahu, Hawaii, with his girlfriend.[71]
According to local real estate agents, they moved out of their home on
May 1, 2013, leaving nothing behind.[31]
Media disclosures
Snowden first made contact with documentary filmmaker
Laura Poitras in January 2013.[72]
According to Poitras, Snowden chose to contact her after seeing her
report on
William Binney, an NSA whistleblower, in The New York Times.
She is a board member of the
Freedom of the Press Foundation along with
Glenn Greenwald.[73]
Greenwald, reporting for The Guardian, said he had been working
with Snowden since February 2013,[74]
and
Barton Gellman, writing for The Washington Post, says his
first "direct contact" was on May 16, 2013.[75]
However, Gellman alleges Greenwald was only involved after the Post
declined to guarantee publication of the full documents within 72 hours.[75]
Gellman says Snowden was told his organization could not guarantee when
or the extent his revelations would be published, and Snowden succinctly
declined further cooperation with him.[75]
Snowden communicated using
encrypted email,[72]
using the codename "Verax".
He asked not to be quoted at length for fear of identification by
semantic analysis.[75]
According to Gellman, prior to their first meeting in person, Snowden
wrote, "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions, and
that the return of this information to the public marks my end."[75]
Snowden also told Gellman that until the articles were published, the
journalists working with him would also be at mortal risk from the
United States Intelligence Community "if they think you are the
single point of failure that could stop this disclosure and make them
the sole owner of this information."[75]
In May 2013, Snowden was permitted temporary leave from his position
at the NSA in Hawaii, on the pretext of receiving treatment for his
epilepsy.[21]
On May 20, 2013, Snowden flew to the
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China,[76][77]
where he was staying when the initial articles about the NSA that he had
leaked were published.[76][78]
Among other specifics, Snowden divulged the existence and functions of
several classified US surveillance programs and their scope, including
notably
PRISM,
NSA call database,
Boundless Informant. He also revealed details of
Tempora,
a British black-ops surveillance program run by the NSA's British
partner,
GCHQ. In July 2013, Greenwald stated that Snowden had additional
sensitive information about the NSA that he has chosen not to make
public, including "very sensitive, detailed blueprints of how the NSA
does what they do".[79]
Motivations
Snowden's identity was made public by The Guardian at his
request[74]
on June 9, 2013. He explained: "I have no intention of hiding who I am
because I know I have done nothing wrong."[21]
He added that by revealing his identity he hoped to protect his
colleagues from being subjected to a hunt to determine who had been
responsible for the leaks.[80]
Snowden explained his actions saying: "I don't want to live in a society
that does these sort of things [surveillance on its citizens]... I do
not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded...
My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their
name and that which is done against them."[81]
When Snowden met with representatives of human rights organizations on
July 12, he said:
The 4th and 5th Amendments to the Constitution of my country,
Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and
numerous statutes and treaties forbid such systems of massive,
pervasive surveillance. While the US Constitution marks these
programs as illegal, my government argues that secret court rulings,
which the world is not permitted to see, somehow legitimize an
illegal affair....
I believe in the principle declared at Nuremberg in 1945:
"Individuals have international duties which transcend the national
obligations of obedience. Therefore individual citizens have the
duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and
humanity from occurring."[82]
Flight from the
U.S.
Snowden left Hawaii for Hong Kong alone on May 20, 2013. He traveled
on to Moscow on Sunday, June 23, 2013, as Hong Kong authorities were
deliberating the US government's request for his extradition.[83]
Hong Kong
Snowden explained his choice of Hong Kong thus:
NSA employees must declare their foreign travel 30 days in
advance and are monitored. There was a distinct possibility I
would be interdicted en route, so I had to travel with no
advance booking to a country with the cultural and legal
framework to allow me to work without being immediately
detained. Hong Kong provided that. Iceland could be pushed
harder, quicker, before the public could have a chance to make
their feelings known, and I would not put that past the current
US administration.
[67]
Snowden said that he was predisposed "to seek asylum in a country
with shared values", and that his ideal choice would be Iceland.[3][21]
The
International Modern Media Institute, an Icelandic
freedom of speech advocacy organization, issued a statement offering
Snowden legal advice and assistance in gaining asylum.[84]
Iceland's ambassador to China, Kristin A. Arnadottir, pointed out that
asylum could not be granted to Snowden, because Icelandic law requires
that such applications be made from within the country.[85]
Snowden vowed to challenge any extradition attempt by the US
government, and had reportedly approached Hong Kong human rights
lawyers.[86]
Snowden told the
South China Morning Post that he planned to remain in Hong Kong
until "asked to leave",[87]
adding that his intention was to let the "courts and people of Hong
Kong" decide his fate.[88]
As speculation mounted that Snowden's departure from Hong Kong was
imminent, media reports emerged that the British government warned
airlines that Snowden was not welcome in the United Kingdom.[89][90]
On June 20 and 21, a representative of
WikiLeaks said that a chartered jet had been prepared to transport
Snowden to Iceland,[91]
and WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange announced that he was brokering a discussion between
Snowden and the Icelandic government for possible asylum.[92]
On June 23, US officials said that Snowden's
US passport had been revoked.[93]
On the same day, Snowden boarded the commercial
Aeroflot flight SU213 to Moscow, accompanied by
Sarah Harrison of WikiLeaks.[94][95]
Hong Kong authorities said that Snowden had not been detained as
requested by the United States, because the United States' extradition
request had not fully complied with Hong Kong law,[96][97][98]
and there was no legal basis to prevent Snowden from leaving.[99][100][Notes
1] On June 24, Julian Assange said that WikiLeaks had paid for
Snowden's lodging in Hong Kong and his flight out.[103]
Snowden's passage through Hong Kong inspired a local production team
to produce a low-budget five-minute film entitled
Verax. The film, depicting the time Snowden spent hiding in the
Mira Hotel while being unsuccessfully tracked by the
CIA and
China's Ministry of State Security, was uploaded to YouTube on June
25, 2013.[104][105]
Russia
On Sunday, June 23, 2013, Snowden landed in one of Moscow's
international airports,
Sheremetyevo.[106]
Ecuador's foreign minister,
Ricardo Patiño, announced that Snowden had requested asylum in
Ecuador.[107]
The United States has an
extradition treaty with Ecuador, but it contains a
political offense exception under which Ecuador can deny extradition
if it determines that Snowden is being prosecuted for political reasons.[108]
Morales plane
incident
Red marked nations (Spain, France and Italy) denied
permission to cross their airspace. Plane landed in Austria
(yellow).
On July 1, 2013, president
Evo Morales of Bolivia, who had been attending a
conference of gas-exporting countries in Russia, appeared
predisposed to offer asylum to Snowden during an interview with
Russia Today.[109]
The following day, the airplane carrying him back to Bolivia from Russia
was rerouted to Austria when France, Spain and Italy[110]
denied access to their airspace due to suspicions that Snowden was on
board.[111]
Upon landing in Vienna, the presidential plane was reportedly searched
by Austrian officials, although the Bolivian Defense Minister denied a
search took place, saying Morales had denied entry to his plane.[112][113]
The refusals for entry into French, Spanish and Italian airspace
ostensibly for "technical reasons", strongly denounced by Bolivia,
Ecuador and other South American nations, were attributed to rumors
perpetuated allegedly by the US that Snowden was on board.[114][115]
Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José García-Margallo, publicly
stated that they were told he was on board but did not specify as to who
had informed them.[116]
Austrian media later claimed the rumor originated with the US
ambassador to Austria.[117]
France apologized for the incident immediately.[118]
The Spanish ambassador to Bolivia apologized two weeks later, citing
inappropriate procedures.[119]
Asylum
applications
On July 1, 2013, Snowden had applied for political asylum to 20
countries.[120]
A statement attributed to Snowden also contended that the U.S.
administration, and specifically Vice President
Joe
Biden, had pressured the governments of these countries to refuse
his petition for asylum.[121]
Several days later, Snowden made a second batch of applications for
asylum to 6 countries, but declined to name them citing prior
interference by US officials.[122][123]
Finland, Germany, India, Poland, Norway, Austria, Italy, and the
Netherlands cited technical grounds for not considering the application,
saying that applications for asylum to these countries must be made from
within the countries' borders or at border stations.[120][124][125][126][127][128]
Ecuador had initially offered Snowden a temporary travel document but
later withdrew it:[129]
on July 1, president
Rafael Correa said the decision to issue the offer had been "a
mistake."[130][131]
On June 25 and July 15, Russian president
Vladimir Putin said that Snowden's arrival in Moscow was "a
surprise" and "like an unwanted Christmas gift".[132]
Putin said that Snowden remained in the transit area of Sheremetyevo,
noted that he had not committed any crime on Russian soil,[133]
and declared that Snowden was free to leave and should do so.[134]
He also claimed that Russia's intelligence agencies neither "had worked,
nor were working with" Snowden.[132][134]
Putin's claims were received skeptically by some observers:[135][136]
one Moscow political analyst said "Snowden will fly out of Russia when
the Kremlin decides he can go"[137]
and in July
Yulia Latynina expressed her view that Snowden was under the "total
control" of Russia's security services.[138]
According to
the Jamestown Foundation, an anonymous source informed them in early
July that Snowden was not, in fact, residing at the airport but at a
safe house controlled by Russia's
Federal Security Service (FSB).[139]
Correa of Ecuador said that Snowden was "under care" of Russia and could
not leave Moscow.[140]
On July 1, 2013 Putin said that if Snowden wanted to be granted
asylum in Russia, Snowden would have to "stop his work aimed at
harming our American partners."[141][142]
A spokesman for Putin subsequently said that Snowden had withdrawn his
asylum application upon learning about the conditions.[120][143]
On July 12, in a meeting at Sheremetyevo Airport with representatives
of human rights organizations and lawyers that the Kremlin helped
organize,[144]
Snowden stated that he was accepting all offers of asylum that he had
already received or that he would receive in the future, noting that his
Venezuela's "asylee status was now formal",[82]
he also said he would request asylum in Russia until he resolved his
travel problems.[145]
On July 16, 2013, Russian
Federal Migration Service officials confirmed that Snowden had
submitted an application for temporary asylum in Russia.[146]
Anatoly Kucherena, Snowden's lawyer, head of Russia's
Interior ministry's public council[147]
and member[148]
of the public council for the FSB,[149]
said Snowden had stated in the application that he faced possible
torture and execution if he returned to the US.[146]
According to Kucherena, Snowden had also stated that he would meet
Putin's condition for granting asylum and would not further harm US
interests.[146]
On July 23 Kucherena said his client intended to settle in Russia.[150]
Amid media reports in early July 2013 attributed to US administration
sources that Obama's one-on-one meeting with Putin, ahead of a
G20 meeting in St Petersburg scheduled for September, was in doubt
due to Snowden's protracted sojourn in Russia,[151][152]
top US officials repeatedly made it clear to Moscow that Snowden should
without delay be returned to the United States to face justice.[153][154][155]
In a letter to Russian Minister of Justice
Alexander Konovalov dated July 23, U.S. Attorney General
Eric Holder sought to eliminate the "asserted grounds for Mr.
Snowden's claim that he should be treated as a refugee or granted
asylum, temporary or otherwise":[8][156]
he assured the Russian government that the U.S. would not seek the death
penalty for Snowden irrespective of the charges he might eventually face
and said Snowden would be issued a limited validity passport for
returning to the U.S., and that upon his return, Snowden would benefit
from legal and constitutional safeguards and not be tortured, as
"torture is unlawful in the United States".[8]
The same day, the Russian president's spokesman reiterated the Kremlin's
position that it would "not hand anyone over"; he also noted that Putin
was not personally involved in the matter as Snowden "had not made any
request that would require examination by the head of state"; according
to him the issue was being handled through talks between the FSB and the
FBI.[157][158]
In late July 2013, Lon Snowden expressed a belief that his son would
be better off staying in Russia, saying he was no longer confident his
son would receive a fair trial in the United States,[159]
and that Russia was probably the best place to seek asylum.[160]
The elder Snowden said that the FBI had offered to fly him to Russia on
their behalf but that he had declined citing a lack of assurance that he
would see his son, and adding that he didn't wish to be used as "an
emotional tool."[161]
Temporary
asylum in Russia
On August 1, 2013, Snowden left the airport after being granted
temporary asylum in Russia for one year.[162]
Snowden's attorney, Anatoly Kucherena, said the asylum could be extended
indefinitely on an annual basis, and that Snowden had gone to an
undisclosed location which would be kept secret for security reasons.[163]
In response to the temporary asylum, White House spokesman
Jay
Carney said the U.S. administration was "extremely disappointed" by
the Russian government's decision and that the meeting scheduled for
September between Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin was under
reconsideration.[164][165]
Some U.S. legislators urged the president to take a tough stand against
Russia, possibly including a U.S. boycott of the
2014 Winter Olympics in
Sochi.[165][166]
On August 7, the White House announced that Obama had canceled the
meeting previously planned with Putin in Moscow citing lack of progress
on a series of issues that included Russia's granting Snowden temporary
asylum.[167][168][169]
Following cancellation of the bilateral talks, Putin's foreign policy
aide
Yuri Ushakov said they were "disappointed" and that it was clear to
him that the decision was due to the situation around Snowden, which
they "had not created"; Ushakov alleged that the U.S. had been avoiding
signing an extradition agreement and had "invariably" used its absence
as a pretext for denying Russian extradition requests.[170][171]
Richard Falk, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton
University, noted that Russia was obligated by law to offer asylum.[172]
Lonnie Snowden praised Vladimir Putin for his courage in standing up
to the United States by granting his son temporary asylum.[173][174][175]
In June, Lon said that although Edward may have broken the law, he was
"no traitor".[176]
On
This Week on August 11, Lon and his lawyer said that, prior to
trial, it would be irresponsible to suggest that Edward had broken the
law. Lon said that his son should fight
espionage charges in an open court in America, "if the justice
system is going to be applied correctly", instead of accepting any deal
from the Obama Administration.[177]
Citing the treatment of
Bradley Manning, Lon Snowden had expressed doubt that his son could
receive a fair trial in the US, and said that recent statements made by
US officials were "absolutely irresponsible and inconsistent with our
system of justice", and have served to 'poison the well' with regard to
a potential jury pool.[178][179]
Lonnie Snowden also revealed to This Week that Russia had granted
him a visa to visit his son in the near future.[180][181]
Referring to labels applied to Snowden by US politicians, his father
replied, "What I would say is that my son has spoken the truth....He has
sacrificed more than either the President of the United States or Peter
King have ever in their political careers or their American lives."[180][182]
Reactions
United
States of America
Executive branch
The U.S.
Director of National Intelligence,
James R. Clapper, described the disclosure of PRISM as "reckless".[183]
The NSA formally requested that the
Department of Justice launch a criminal investigation into Snowden's
actions.[183]
On June 14, 2013, US federal prosecutors filed a sealed complaint, made
public on June 21,[7]
charging Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorized
communication of national defense information, and willful communication
of
classified intelligence to an unauthorized person; the latter two
allegations are under the
Espionage Act.[9]
In June 2013, the U.S. military blocked access to parts of the
Guardian website related to government surveillance programs for
thousands of defense personnel across the country, and to the entire
Guardian website for personnel stationed in Afghanistan, the Middle
East, and South Asia.[184][185]
A spokesperson described the filtering as a routine "network hygiene"
measure intended to mitigate unauthorized disclosures of classified
information onto the
Department of Defense's unclassified networks.[184]
On August 8, 2013,
Lavabit,
a Texas-based secure email service provider reportedly used by Snowden,
abruptly announced it was shutting down operations after nearly 10 years
of business.[186]
The owner posted a statement online saying he would rather go out of
business than "become complicit in crimes against the American people."[186]
He also said that he was barred by law from disclosing what he had
experienced over the preceding 6 weeks and that he was appealing the
case in the
U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.[186]
Multiple sources speculated that the timing of the statement suggested
that Lavabit had been targeted by the U.S. government in its pursuit of
information about Snowden.[186][187][188][189]
Congress
Reactions to Snowden's disclosures among members of Congress were
largely negative.[190]
Speaker of the House
John Boehner[17]
and senators
Dianne Feinstein[191]
and
Bill Nelson[192]
called Snowden a traitor, and several senators and representatives
joined them in calling for Snowden's arrest and prosecution.[191][193][194]
Representative
Thomas Massie was one of few members of Congress to question the
constitutional validity of the government surveillance programs and
suggest that Snowden should be granted immunity from prosecution.[195]
Senators
Ted
Cruz[196]
and
Rand Paul[197]
offered tentative support for Snowden, saying they were reserving
judgment on Snowden until more information about the surveillance
programs and about Snowden's motives were known. Senator Paul said, "I
do think when history looks at this, they are going to contrast the
behavior of James Clapper, our National Intelligence Director, with
Edward Snowden. Mr. Clapper lied in Congress in defiance of the law, in
the name of security. Mr. Snowden told the truth in the name of
privacy."[198]
Paul later called Snowden a "civil disobedient", like Martin Luther King
Jr., but who faced life imprisonment.[199]
Representative
John Lewis made comparisons between Snowden and Gandhi, saying the
leaker was appealing to a "higher law".[200]
On July 25, the
US Senate Committee on Appropriations unanimously adopted an
amendment by Senator
Lindsey Graham to the "Fiscal Year 2014 Department of State, Foreign
Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Bill" that would seek
sanctions against any country that offers asylum to Snowden.[201][202][203]
In response to the information release by Snowden, Rep.
Justin Amash (R-Mich.) and Rep.
John Conyers (D-Mich.) proposed an amendment to the National Defense
Authorization Act[204]
to curtail the NSA gathering and storage of the personal records, but
the House rejected it by a narrow margin of 205–217.[205]
Amash subsequently told
Fox News that Snowden was "a whistle-blower. He told us what we need
to know."[206]
U.S. Senator
John McCain (R-AZ) said on the August 11 edition of
Fox News Sunday that Snowden had become a hero to young
Americans, as he reminded them of the
Jason Bourne character. McCain attributed it to generation change
and a lack of confidence in the federal government. "Right now there's
kind of a generational change," he said. "Young Americans do not trust
this government."[207]
Gordon Humphrey, the conservative Republican senator for New
Hampshire from 1979–1991, expressed support for Snowden.[208]
Glenn Greenwald revealed that Humphrey, a former member of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, had been in contact with Snowden via email.
Humphrey told Snowden, "Provided you have not leaked information that
would put in harms way any intelligence agent, I believe you have done
the right thing in exposing what I regard as massive violation of the
United States Constitution."[209]
Humphrey cited Snowden as a "courageous whistle-blower".[15]
Public
Polls conducted by news organisations following Snowden's disclosures
about government surveillance programs to the press indicated that
American public opinion on Snowden's actions was divided. A
Gallup poll conducted June 10–11, 2013 showed 44 percent of
Americans thought it was right for Snowden to share the information with
the press while 42 percent thought it was wrong.[210]
A
USA Today/Pew
Research poll conducted June 12–16 found that 49 percent thought the
release of information served the public interest while 44 percent
thought it harmed it. The same poll found that 54 percent felt a
criminal case should be brought against Snowden, while 38 percent
thought one should not be brought,[211][212]
while a
Washington Post/ABC
News poll conducted between the same dates as the Pew poll cited 43
percent of respondents saying Snowden ought to be charged with a crime,
while 48 percent said he ought not.[213]
Another poll in early July found 38 percent of Americans thought he did
the wrong thing, 33 percent said he did the right thing, and 29 percent
were unsure.[214]
A
WSJ/NBC
poll conducted July 17–21 found that 11% of Americans viewed Snowden
positively while 34% had a negative view.[215]
A
Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll conducted June 28 –
July 8 found that in the wake of Snowden's disclosures, more Americans
said that government goes too far in restricting civil liberties as part
of the war on terrorism (45 percent) than said that government does not
go far enough to adequately protect the country (40 percent).[216]
That finding was evidence of a massive swing in public opinion since an
earlier Quinnipiac poll, conducted in 2010, when only 25 percent of
respondents had said government goes too far in restricting civil
liberties while 63 percent had said government does not go far enough.
The same poll found that 55 percent of Americans regarded Snowden as a
whistleblower while 34 percent saw him as a traitor.[216]
Quinnipiac showed that a majority of Americans, by a wide margin, still
regarded Snowden as a whistleblower rather than a traitor when it
repeated the poll July 31 – August 1.[217]
Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who received the leaked documents,
praised Snowden for having done a service by revealing the surveillance
on the American public.[218][219]
John Cassidy, also of The New Yorker, called Snowden "a
hero", and said that "in revealing the colossal scale of the US
government's eavesdropping on Americans and other people around the
world, [Snowden] has performed a great public service that more than
outweighs any breach of trust he may have committed."[220]
CNN columnist
Douglas Rushkoff also called Snowden's leak an act of heroism.[221]
Amy Davidson, writing in
The New Yorker, was thankful for the "overdue" conversation on
privacy and the limits of domestic surveillance.[222]
American political commentators and public figures such as
Noam Chomsky,[223]
Chris Hedges,[224]
Michael Moore,[225]
Cornel West,[226]
Glenn Beck,[225]
Matt Drudge,[227]
Alex Jones,[228]
Andrew Napolitano,[229]
Oliver Stone,[230]
Michael Savage,[231]
and
Stephen Walt[232]
praised Snowden for exposing secret government surveillance.
Other commentators were more critical of Snowden's methods and
motivations.[233]
Jeffrey Toobin, for example, denounced Snowden as "a grandiose
narcissist who deserves to be in prison."[234]
Writing in the
The New Yorker, Toobin argued:
Any government employee or contractor is warned repeatedly that
the unauthorized disclosure of classified information is a crime....
These were legally authorized programs; in the case of Verizon
Business’s phone records, Snowden certainly knew this, because he
leaked the very court order that approved the continuation of the
project. So he wasn’t blowing the whistle on anything illegal; he
was exposing something that failed to meet his own standards of
propriety. The question, of course, is whether the government can
function when all of its employees (and contractors) can take it
upon themselves to sabotage the programs they don’t like. That’s
what Snowden has done.[234]
Stewart Baker, a former NSA general counsel in the early 1990s, said
at a July 18, 2013 hearing, "I am afraid that hyped and distorted press
reports orchestrated by Edward Snowden and his allies may cause us – or
other nations – to construct new restraints on our intelligence
gathering, restraints that will leave us vulnerable to another security
disaster."[235]
Former CIA and NSA chief
General Michael Hayden welcomed the debate about the balance between
privacy and security that the leaks have provoked. He said "I am
convinced the more the American people know exactly what it is we are
doing in this balance between privacy and security, the more they know
the more comfortable they will feel."[236][237]
Some former U.S. intelligence officials speculated that Chinese or
Russian intelligence agents might have gleaned additional classified
material from Snowden,[238][239][240]
a view shared by some former Russian agents.[241]
Snowden, however, told Greenwald in July that "I never gave any
information to either government, and they never took anything from my
laptops."[242]
Former US President
Jimmy Carter said: "He's obviously violated the laws of America, for
which he's responsible, but I think the invasion of human rights and
American privacy has gone too far ... I think that the secrecy that has
been surrounding this invasion of privacy has been excessive, so I think
that the bringing of it to the public notice has probably been, in the
long term, beneficial."[243]
The petition to pardon Snowden at the White House website
The editors of
Bloomberg News argued that, while the government ought to prosecute
Snowden, the media's focus on Snowden took attention away from issues of
U.S. government surveillance, the interpretations of the
Patriot Act, and the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court actions, all of
which are "what really matters in all this."[244]
Greenwald accused the media in the U.S. of focusing on Edward Snowden
instead of on wrongdoing by Clapper and other U.S. officials.[245]
In an op-ed, author
Alex Berenson argued that the federal government should have flown a
representative to Hong Kong to ask Snowden to give testimony in front of
the U.S. Congress and offer him a fair criminal trial, with a view to
preventing further unintended disclosures of classified information to
other countries.[246]
A
We the People petition launched on
whitehouse.gov on June 9 to seek "a full, free, and absolute pardon
for any crimes [Snowden] has committed or may have committed related to
blowing the whistle on secret NSA surveillance programs" attained
100,000 signatures within two weeks.[247]
Europe
Governments
British Foreign Minister
William Hague admitted that Britain's GCHQ was also spying and
collaborating with the NSA, and defended the two agencies' actions as
"indispensable."[248][249][250]
Meanwhile, UK Defence officials issued a confidential
DA-Notice to British media asking for restraint in running further
stories related to surveillance leaks including the
PRISM programme and the British involvement therein.[251]
European governments reacted angrily, with German and French leaders
Angela Merkel and
François Hollande branding the spying as 'unacceptable' and
insisting the NSA stop immediately,[250][252][253][254]
while the European Union Justice Commissioner
Viviane Reding sent Washington an official list of questions and
demanded an explanation.[255][256]
European diplomats feared that upcoming EU–US trade talks would be
overshadowed by the disclosures.[254][256][257]
Documents from Snowden show that cooperation between Berlin and
Washington in the area of digital surveillance and defense intensified
considerably during time of Chancellor Merkel. The
Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the foreign intelligence agency of
Germany, is directly subordinated to the Chancellor's Office. Although
Merkel denied knowing about surveillance, Germans take the claims
seriously. According to Hansjörg Geiger, former head of the BND,
findings/claims are
Orwellian and mutual political and economic espionage would be
explicitly forbidden.[258]
Public
Demonstration against PRISM in Berlin, Germany
An opinion poll carried out by
Emnid at the end of June revealed that 50% of Germans consider
Snowden a hero, and 35% would hide him in their homes.[259]
Jürgen Trittin a German Green politician wrote in
The Guardian Europe on July 2, 2013 "Edward Snowden has done us
all a great service. The man who revealed that our US and UK allies are
spying on us ought to be given refuge by an EU country. [...] If ever a
case demonstrated why we need the protection of whistleblowers, this is
it."[260]
Non-government organizations
After
Amnesty International met Edward Snowden in Moscow in mid July 2013,
the organization said:
"What he has disclosed is patently in the public interest and as
a whistleblower his actions were justified. He has exposed unlawful
sweeping surveillance programmes that unquestionably interfere with
an individual’s right to privacy. States that attempt to stop a
person from revealing such unlawful behaviour are flouting
international law.
Freedom of expression is a fundamental right."[262]
Widney Brown, Senior Director of Amnesty, feared that Snowden would
be at "great risk" of human rights violations if forcibly transferred to
the United States,[263]
and urged no country to return Snowden to the US. Michael Bochenek,
Director of Law and Policy at Amnesty International deplored the US
pressure on governments to block Snowden's asylum attempts, saying "It
is his unassailable right, enshrined in international law".[264]
Human Rights Watch said that if Snowden were able to raise the issue
of NSA
mass surveillance without facing espionage charges, he would not
have left the United States in the first place.[265]
Human Rights Watch writes that any country where Snowden seeks asylum
should consider his claim fairly and protect his rights under
international law, which recognizes that revealing official secrets is
sometimes justified in the public interest.[266]
Index on Censorship condemned the U.S. government for its "mass
surveillance of citizens’ private communications" and urged all
government officials to uphold the
First Amendment to the United States Constitution. A statement
released by Index on Censorship said: "Whistleblowers such as Edward
Snowden — as well as journalists reporting on the Prism scandal, who
have come under fire — should be protected under the first amendment,
not criminalised."[267]
Navi Pillay, the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: "Snowden's case has shown
the need to protect persons disclosing information on matters that have
implications for human rights, as well as the importance of ensuring
respect for the right to privacy".[261]
Transparency International, International Association of Lawyers
against Nuclear Arms and
Vereinigung Deutscher Wissenschaftler awarded Snowden the German
Whistleblowerpreis 2013.[268]
Humanist Union awarded him the
Fritz Bauer Prize 2013.[269]
China and Hong
Kong
The
South China Morning Post published a poll of Hong Kong residents
conducted while Snowden was still in Hong Kong that showed that half of
the 509 respondents believed the Chinese government should not surrender
Snowden to the United States if Washington raises such a request; 33
percent of those polled think of Snowden as a hero, 12.8 percent
described him as a traitor, 23 percent described him as "something in
between."[270]
Hong Kong demonstration at US Consulate on June 15 in
support of Snowden
Referring to Snowden's presence in the territory, Hong Kong chief
executive
CY
Leung assured that the government would "handle the case of Mr
Snowden in accordance with the laws and established procedures of Hong
Kong [and] follow up on any incidents related to the privacy or other
rights of the institutions or people in Hong Kong being violated."[271]
Pan-democrat legislators
Gary
Fan and
Claudia Mo said that the perceived U.S. prosecution against Snowden
will set "a dangerous precedent and will likely be used to justify
similar actions" by authoritarian governments.[272]
During Snowden's stay, the two main political groups, the pan-democrats
and
Pro-Beijing camp, found rare agreement to support Snowden.[273][274]
The DAB[clarification
needed] even organised a separate march to
Government headquarters for Snowden.
The People's Daily and the Global Times editorials of
June 19 stated respectively that the central Chinese government was
unwilling to be involved in a "mess" caused by others, and that the Hong
Kong government should follow the public opinion and not concern itself
with Sino-US relations.[275]
A
Tsinghua University communications studies specialist, Liu Jianming,
interpreted that the two articles as suggesting that the PRC[clarification
needed] government did not want further involvement
in the case and that the HKSAR[clarification
needed] government should handle it independently.[275]
After Snowden left Hong Kong, Chinese-language newspapers such as the
Ming
Pao and the
Oriental Daily expressed relief that Hong Kong no longer had to
shoulder the burden of the Snowden situation.[276]
Mainland experts said that, although the Central Government did not want
to appear to be intervening in the matter, it was inconceivable that the
Hong Kong government acted independently in a matter that could have
far-reaching consequences for Sino-US relations. One expert suggested
that, by doing so, China had "returned the favor" for their not having
accepted the
asylum plea from Wang Lijun in February 2012.[277]
The official Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece, the
People's Daily denied the US government accusation that the PRC
central government had allowed Snowden to escape, and said that Snowden
helped in "tearing off Washington's sanctimonious mask."[278]
South America
Robert Menendez, chairman of the United States foreign relations
panel, warned Ecuador that accepting Snowden "would severely jeopardize"
preferential trade access the United States provides to Ecuador.[279]
Ecuador's President
Rafael Correa responded by abdicating US trade benefits.[280]
A government spokesman said that Ecuador would offer the US "economic
aid of US$23 million annually, similar to what we received with the
trade benefits, with the intention of providing education about human
rights."[281]
Correa criticized the US media for centering its focus on Snowden and
countries supporting him, instead of focusing on the global and domestic
privacy issues implicated in the leaked documents.[282]
After Bolivian president Morales' plane was denied access to Spanish,
French, and Italian airspace during a return flight from Moscow, the
presidents of Uruguay, Argentina, Venezuela and Suriname joined Correa
and a representative from
Brazil,
in
Cochabamba, Bolivia to discuss the incident.[283]
Presidents
Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela and
Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua offered Snowden asylum after the meeting.
United Nations
Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon said that "the Snowden case is something I consider to
be misuse" and that digital communications should not be "misused in
such a way as Snowden did."[284]
Birgitta Jónsdóttir, an Icelandic legislator, criticized Ban for
expressing a personal view while speaking in an official capacity. She
said that Ban "seemed entirely unconcerned about the invasion of privacy
by governments around the world, and only concerned about how
whistleblowers are misusing the system."[284]
Other countries
Russia, Turkey and South Africa reacted angrily after it was revealed
that their diplomats had been spied on during the
2009 G-20 London summit.[285]
Whistleblowers
Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower and leaker of the top-secret
Pentagon Papers in 1971, stated in an interview with CNN that he
thought Snowden had done an "incalculable" service to his country and
that his leaks might prevent the United States from becoming a
surveillance state. He said Snowden had acted with the same sort of
courage and patriotism as a soldier in battle.[286]
In an op-ed the following morning, Ellsberg added that "there has not
been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden's
release of NSA material ... including the Pentagon Papers."[6]
Ray McGovern, a retired CIA officer turned political activist,
agreed with Ellsberg and added, "This time today I'm feeling much more
hopeful for our democracy than I was feeling this time yesterday."[287]
William Binney, a whistleblower who disclosed details of the NSA's
mass surveillance activities, said that Snowden had "performed a really
great public service to begin with by exposing these programs and making
the government in a sense publicly accountable for what they're doing."
After Snowden cited a conversation with a "reliable source" about
allegations that the US was "hacking into China", Binney felt he was
"transitioning from whistle-blower to a traitor."[288]
Thomas Drake, former senior executive of NSA and whistleblower, said
that he feels "extraordinary kinship" with Snowden. "What he did was a
magnificent act of civil disobedience. He's exposing the inner workings
of the surveillance state. And it's in the public interest. It truly
is."[288][289]
WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange hailed Snowden as a "hero" who has exposed "one of
the most serious events of the decade – the creeping formulation of a
mass surveillance state."[290]
After charges against Snowden were revealed, Assange released a
statement asking people to "step forward and stand with" Snowden.[291]
Shamai Leibowitz, who leaked details about an FBI operation, said
that the legal threats and "smear campaign" against Snowden are a "grave
mistake" because "If the government really wanted to keep more secrets
from coming out, they would do well to let this man of conscience go
live his life in some other country."[292]
See also