There aren’t many things I like about Russia. For one, it is cold. Really, really cold. They also aren’t very good at that whole government thing, although at the moment we aren’t either. They have a highly addictive and flesh-eating opiate called Krocodil that seems to have made its way to the U.S. But there are some good things about Russia. They pushed back those crazy Germans during WWII. (Ask my family, I do a very fun retelling of WWII.) They were of assistance to the U.S. during the catastrophe with Syria. But what I really like about them is that they are giving Edward Snowden asylum.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t approve of countries hiding criminals from being prosecuted. But I also don’t approve of countries prosecuting someone for informing the general public of things going on in their own country.
The New York Times released new information about the National Security Agency collecting personal data from American citizens. The publication claims that for nearly three years the NSA has been tapping the data it collects to map out American’s social connections. This allows the government to know a person’s location at certain times, their traveling companions, their associates and other personal information.
However, this wasn’t always what the agency was meant to do though. The mission of the NSA was to eavesdrop certain forms of communication in order to collect data that may lead to security threats to the country. The NSA has always been heavily involved in cryptanalytic research and codes and in 2008, President Bush signed a directive making them the lead agency to monitor and protect all the federal government’s computer networks from cyber terrorism.
In 2011 though, a memorandum indicated a policy shift intended to help the agency “discover and track” connection between people in the United States and threats from abroad. The public was made aware of this shift from documents leaked by Snowden stating that the NSA began allowing the analysis of phone call and email logs of citizens.
With this much power, there is bound to be some abuse. Claims have been made of employees using their power to spy on love interests or personal enemies. While no one has proven this, it is not out of the realm of possibility. Two polls conducted in June 2013 by Rasmussen Reports and Gallup each found over 50 percent of Americans disapprove of the NSA’s secret data collection.
Whether or not the NSA should be allowed to conduct this secret data collection is really not my biggest problem with the situation though. I believe that the public should be aware of these things. When the organization itself will not disclose the information, it is up to the press to inform the public. No one should be punished for trying to get the information to the people.
Snowden knew this and tried to inform the people of what was going on behind closed doors. To me, that is honorable. He should not face treason charges as an ex-patriot. He may answer for disclosing information against the rules but he was doing the American people a favor, not trying to hurt anyone.
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