I have not blogged, written, spoken much about Snowden. Mainly because I thought him something of a coward and potentially a traitor. But after reading my mentor's blogpost earlier today (read Saideman's take here), I decided to write something about Snowden. To be fully honest, I must first say that I am a child of the Cold War, I am a former Cold Warrior (having spent the majority of my military service during the Cold War), and I am at the least quite sympathetic to the Realist theoretical perspective on international relations.
I agree with Saideman that Snowden crossed the line. "The line" you say, which line is that line you ask. As my friend and mentor pointed out, Snowden did not just let fly in the media that the NSA was doing what I told my students it was doing since 2001, namely intercepting all of, or a majority of, our electronic conversations and then deciding what to do with these communications and any information that might be gleaned from these communications without informing the public that our communications were being intercepted and stored. If all Snowden did was blow the whistle I would be one of his biggest fans.
The problem is that Snowden first downloaded documents that according to some sources contain information that if examined will exhibit means of intercepting and modes of interpreting information used by intelligence agencies of the U.S. in pursuit of their duty to help secure the population and property of the population of the U.S. After collecting all of this information, Snowden fled the country. From afar Snowden blew the whistle. How much afar, well he was not in Ontario or Mexico City, he was in Hong Kong. The Chinese government told him to get lost--I conjecture, or given that I have a PhD, I analyze this to mean that the Chinese government saw a hot potato that could do nothing good for already fragile relations with the U.S. government. So, where does Snowden go--Russia.
Our current relations with Russia are poor. Much of the poor quality of relations is probably due to poor diplomacy on the part of the Obama administration, the "W" Bush administration, and the Clinton administration (yeah, we've been screwing this one up for a long time). Putin has, in my estimation, shown himself to be a Cold War relic in his diplomatic behavior. He has also shown himself to be a realist in how he leads Russia's response to NATO expansionism in central and eastern Europe, and that places Putin and Russia at odds with U.S. political behaviors (and some might argue interests, but not I). Putin understands that intelligence is weapons grade information that is highly useful in politics. Guess what Putin gets from giving asylum to Snowden? Weapons grade information about how the U.S. intelligence community collects information and processes information. The line Snowden crossed is giving aid to a foreign government. If you think Snowden did not turn over everything he took from the NSA to the Russian's come see me ASAP, because I have a business deal to discuss with you.
Is Snowden guilty of treason? After consideration of the fact that words have meanings and definitions, the answer is no. Russia is not classified as "the enemy" (of course we could have some interesting discussions about defining the word "enemy"). I will point out something, however, Israel is a friend, ask Mr. Pollard how it worked out for him spying on the U.S. on Israel's behalf, and Russia is hardly considered a friend even if not an enemy. For my two cents, Snowden is guilty of espionage because he crossed the line from whistle blower to provider of intelligence to a foreign government. I believe this assessment is a plain, simple reading of the facts we have in evidence. So, as much as I appreciate being proven right by Snowden showing evidence of the NSA interception of domestic electronic communications, he is no hero, he is a spy.
I agree with Saideman that Snowden crossed the line. "The line" you say, which line is that line you ask. As my friend and mentor pointed out, Snowden did not just let fly in the media that the NSA was doing what I told my students it was doing since 2001, namely intercepting all of, or a majority of, our electronic conversations and then deciding what to do with these communications and any information that might be gleaned from these communications without informing the public that our communications were being intercepted and stored. If all Snowden did was blow the whistle I would be one of his biggest fans.
The problem is that Snowden first downloaded documents that according to some sources contain information that if examined will exhibit means of intercepting and modes of interpreting information used by intelligence agencies of the U.S. in pursuit of their duty to help secure the population and property of the population of the U.S. After collecting all of this information, Snowden fled the country. From afar Snowden blew the whistle. How much afar, well he was not in Ontario or Mexico City, he was in Hong Kong. The Chinese government told him to get lost--I conjecture, or given that I have a PhD, I analyze this to mean that the Chinese government saw a hot potato that could do nothing good for already fragile relations with the U.S. government. So, where does Snowden go--Russia.
Our current relations with Russia are poor. Much of the poor quality of relations is probably due to poor diplomacy on the part of the Obama administration, the "W" Bush administration, and the Clinton administration (yeah, we've been screwing this one up for a long time). Putin has, in my estimation, shown himself to be a Cold War relic in his diplomatic behavior. He has also shown himself to be a realist in how he leads Russia's response to NATO expansionism in central and eastern Europe, and that places Putin and Russia at odds with U.S. political behaviors (and some might argue interests, but not I). Putin understands that intelligence is weapons grade information that is highly useful in politics. Guess what Putin gets from giving asylum to Snowden? Weapons grade information about how the U.S. intelligence community collects information and processes information. The line Snowden crossed is giving aid to a foreign government. If you think Snowden did not turn over everything he took from the NSA to the Russian's come see me ASAP, because I have a business deal to discuss with you.
Is Snowden guilty of treason? After consideration of the fact that words have meanings and definitions, the answer is no. Russia is not classified as "the enemy" (of course we could have some interesting discussions about defining the word "enemy"). I will point out something, however, Israel is a friend, ask Mr. Pollard how it worked out for him spying on the U.S. on Israel's behalf, and Russia is hardly considered a friend even if not an enemy. For my two cents, Snowden is guilty of espionage because he crossed the line from whistle blower to provider of intelligence to a foreign government. I believe this assessment is a plain, simple reading of the facts we have in evidence. So, as much as I appreciate being proven right by Snowden showing evidence of the NSA interception of domestic electronic communications, he is no hero, he is a spy.
My first reaction to Snowden was to wonder why Americans were so surprised, given what you told us and how the NSA was portrayed in Dan Brown's "Digital Fortress" (admittedly not the most academic of books, but influential, nonetheless). I agree, though, Snowden went beyond simple whistle-blowing and should be imprisoned under the Espionage Act.
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