John Adams once said “government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.” Would John Adams agree with something that a man, who goes by the name of Edward Snowden, did to protect the rights of the people (or so he claims)? On June 5, 2013 Edward Snowden leaked approximately hundreds of thousands of confidential documents to the public about the wrongdoings of the government, the NSA to be more specific. Snowden supporters argue that the people had the right to know that their own government was watching them and violated the fourth amendment which outlines “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”Representative Jerrold Nadler states “Snowden revealed illegal, I would say unconstitutional, action by the government, which had been secret for years. Because of his revelation, people found out about this and Congress reacted to it, and we changed the law to make clear that they couldn't do what they were doing." Even though Mr. Nadler and other Snowden defenders make reasonable points, the fact that Snowden just gave out confidential information almost like it was nothing is inexcusable and in the eyes of many he is a traitor. 

Edward Snowden left the country before revealing the documents he obtained. At the time he was living in Hawaii working for a major U.S. government contractor. According to CNN he left the country without explaining to his girlfriend or family why he was leaving. From the start this makes him seem guilty of being against the United States because not only was he not willing to face the consequences of his actions, but he also just up and left everything he ever knew behind which suggests an unknown motive.  In his first ever interview on the topic Snowden told the Guardian the following: “I’m willing to sacrifice [my former life] because I can’t in good conscience allow the United States government to destroy privacy, internet freedom, and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building.”  Here Snowden claims that he just wants what’s best for the people of his country and even the people who live outside of it. If he really cared about the country then why didn’t he stay in the country to face the consequences? When Snowden began working at the NSA, national security agency, he signed an agreement saying that he fully understood what the consequences were for releasing confidential information. Not owning up to the consequences doesn’t make sense if you’re really trying to be a patriot and do the right thing. Edward Snowden believed that he would receive the death penalty if he was to return to the United States.  Attorney General Eric Holder wrote to Russian authorities, at the time and still to this day Snowden resides in Moscow, that he would not receive the death penalty. He described how the charges against Snowden aren’t strong enough to get him the death penalty and even with more charges he would not be sentenced to that kind of punishment. The traitor expressed that he’s seeking asylum because he fears being tortured and receiving the death penalty for returning to the country. Being a man of the law Snowden most likely knows that the death penalty is rarely given, even to people who have committed the most heinous of crimes against others. Using fear as an excuse not to return home does not really make much sense. The fact that other whistleblowers haven’t received the death penalty should be taken into account as well. If Snowden were to come home he would face three charges under the espionage act. He would not be granted a jury and the charges alone would get him 30 years in prison. If Snowden knew the consequences and wasn’t ready to face them then why release the documents in such an eccentric way? Edward Snowden to this day still refuses to return to the United States for what he says is the fear that his case will be handled unjustly, but the other facts don’t seem to quite match up with this claim.

After Pearl Harbor, the National Security Agency was created to protect the american citizens from foreigners. Then September 11th, 2001 came and the agency had felt as if they had just failed because the whole point of the agency was to protect americans from outside forces wanting to harm them. After this tragic event the George Bush administration and the NSA worked together to devise a plan that would have be bulletproof. In a documentary “,United States of Secrets,” it discusses how the NSA operations unfolded along with the events leading up to Edward’s big revealing of the confidential information. Michael Hayden, a former NSA director, came up with the plan to start a domestic surveillance program along with a foreign surveillance program. By Snowden releasing all of these documents it made it much harder for the agency to do their job. The nature of the crime was different because with other similar cases, the whistleblowers actually went to the man in charge before giving out any information to the public to make sure what they were doing wasn’t going to be harmful to americans in any way. For example in the “United States of Secrets” a guy by the name of Bill Benetook, who was a high ranked official in the NSA, realized that the they were doing something totally illegal after extensive investigation. Instead of revealing it to the whole world in an effort to arouse people and allow them to become more cautious in personal affairs, Mr. Bill took his findings to Congress. He located Ms. Diana Roark, who was on the House Intelligence Committee, and she ruled it totally illegal. This was a much simpler way to get the information out to someone while protecting the nation’s security. Because of Snowden’s information release we found out along with the rest of the world that the United states was watching the European Union and many countries, specifically in Asia. It was also brought to the attention of the public that the the U.S. tapped into Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany's cell phone. There was no need for Snowden to reveal information that had to do with other countries. His justification for giving up confidential documents in the first place was because it was a violation of the rights of Americans. What was the purpose of taking the extra step and giving out information about United States’s activities involving the surveillance of other countries? Foreigners aren’t under the protection of the Constitution so the fact that he gave out unnecessary information also shows that his true motives may not have been solely based on the conservation of the principles the United States was founded on. Snowden expressed in an interview that he knew he didn’t understand the true extent of what he took so he gave all of the documents to the Guardian, a British newspaper. Just giving away thousands of confidential U.S. documents to a foreign country is definitely a two steps forward one step back kind of deal. Yes, the British are viewed as one of our top allies, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t turn their backs on us. Allowing the British paper to have possession of these documents just does not make any sense. Even though Snowden reached out to national newspapers and didn’t receive go positive feedback, there was definitely another way to release the necessary information while keeping the documents in the hands of the Americans. In the Hong Kong interview with Glenn Greenwald, Mr. Snowden expressed how he never gave any information away having to do with foreign countries when that just clearly isn’t true because this statement doesn’t match up with things the press released about the United States government spying on foreigners later on. In a way, by allowing foreigners and even Americans to know that they’re being closely watched through their electronics can have a serious domino effect. An article from the Telegraph, a newspaper in the united kingdom, discusses how Snowden’s actions have actually had serious consequences. For one, people just in general are finding newer ways to communicate private affairs for the fear of being tracked by the U.S. government. For example, Ms. Merkel changed her phone number and is very cautious in the ways she goes about communicating now. Snowden releasing this information to the foreign press also allowed actual terrorist groups to hear about it. They have also changed a lot of the way they communicate through electronics which has made it a whole lot harder for the government to track their whereabouts and what exactly they're up to. Maybe if Snowden would recognize the fact that he totally compromised national security with his “harmless” stunt he wouldn’t seem so guilty of being the bad guy, but he continues to believe that what he did was the absolute right thing. Edward Snowden was not in a top position of the national security agency so there’s no way that he knew everything that pertained to the department of the government on this regard was wrong. For all we know they could have actually been onto something important and just by leaking these documents all the information the NSA got was useless because there was no longer a way to follow up on it. Snowden went out of his way to give foreign governments access to U.S. secrets and that is not someone with a sense of pride in his country would do.

Once Snowden left the U.S. for Hong Kong, the United States government terminated his passport. The government says they revoked it while he was in Hong Kong, but Snowden still somehow managed to make it to Moscow. The United States is not on the friendliest terms with China or Russia. Snowden claims that the reason he was (is) in Moscow is because his passport was revoked while he was in the Moscow airport so he had no choice, but to stay. How does a guy with sensitive knowledge in his mind about the United States end up in Moscow, Russia? The United States signed an agreement with Hong Kong concerning extradited citizens so that was Snowden’s justification for being there. Once Snowden realized that he “wasn’t safe,” he got on a flight to Moscow, but was in route for a different destination. He ended up in Russia. The Russians now have hold of a very valuable person because his brain is basically the key to infiltrating national security. In an interview he claims that President Putin hasn’t even attempted to approach him about what he knows or hasn’t offered any ransom for information pertaining to the confidential documents. Most would find this very difficult to believe considering the fact that Putin is the type of person to take advantage of situations such as this. Another interesting thing is that Russia said they will continue to grant Edward asylum for as long as he needs it. This is odd and suggests that something is happening out of the limelight. The fact that Snowden went to two different foreign countries that aren’t the friendliest towards the U.S with all that information in his head just doesn’t seem like something a person for America would do.
Edward Snowden is the type of person that would punch a woman, say he’s guilty, and then not want to deal with the consequences. Because, in a sense, he punched America. He gave away a lot of secrets that we still don’t know the extent of. He literally admitted to the crime in a different country so that he would be one step ahead of U.S. authorities. Snowden won’t even use a cell phone to call the NSA and try to explain what exactly he took because he is too afraid of being tracked. This alone shows that he’s willing to risk the safety of the country just to protect himself. Snowden proves to be self-centered and a coward for not accepting that he has done something wrong. He gave the information to the press without even consulting some sort of representation to make sure what he was giving away wasn’t harmful information. His justifications for doing what he did really aren’t strong enough points in terms of releasing the information for the right reasons. The fourth amendment covers the right to privacy, but an ongoing conflict is whether or not it also covers the internet and cell phones. Since it currently doesn’t, technically speaking, the NSA actually did not violate the constitution, but they did break a number of other rules having to do with stealing from companies like google and yahoo. Maybe, just maybe, if Snowden had brought up only the surveillance technology having to do with Americans, he wouldn't be seen as a traitor.

Works Cited
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