Snowden: Does he deserve a pardon?
Should former government contractor Edward Snowden be treated as a whistleblower or a spy?
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
“When someone reveals that government officials have routinely and deliberately broken the law,” said The New York Times in an editorial, “that person should not face life in prison at the hands of the same government.” Such, however, is the fate awaiting Edward Snowden, the former government contractor who last year told the world about the shocking depth and breadth of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs. Without Snowden, we’d never have known that the NSA was keeping records of every phone call made in the U.S. and abroad, or that it had tunneled into major Internet data centers and the servers of Facebook, Google, and other private companies, or that National Intelligence Director James Clapper lied to Congress when he denied any systematic surveillance of U.S. citizens. Snowden is clearly a whistleblower, not a spy, yet he faces espionage charges should he ever return to the U.S. from Moscow, where he has temporary asylum. This isn’t a complicated issue, said Kevin Drum in MotherJones.com. Either you believe we’d be better off never knowing about NSA surveillance programs one federal judge has called “almost Orwellian,” or you have to “approve of what Snowden did, warts and all”—and should support a plea-bargain deal or a presidential pardon. Given the public outrage at the extent of NSA surveillance, “I’d say the choice is obvious.”
Edward Snowden is no hero, said NationalReview.com. Only a tiny portion of the NSA “abuses” he revealed were illegal, and those had already been caught and corrected by internal audits and the federal surveillance court. If he felt a need to blow a whistle on some specific practices, he should have contacted the House and Senate intelligence committees. Instead, he perpetrated “the gravest intelligence breach in U.S. history,” stealing as many as 1.1 million documents and defecting to China and Russia. A pardon for Snowden would set a dangerous precedent, said Josh Barro in BusinessInsider.com, effectively telling government workers to use their own judgment in deciding what to keep classified. “I trust the government to decide what needs to be secret more than I trust rogue contractors with security clearances.”
If Snowden had released only information about the NSA’s domestic surveillance, said Fred Kaplan in Slate.com,“then some form of leniency might be worth discussing.” But he went far beyond the role of a patriotic whistleblower. Snowden released classified documents about the surveillance of Taliban fighters in Pakistan, as well as targets inside Iran, showed al Qaida how the NSA uses phone records to map terrorist networks, and revealed that the NSA regularly hacks computers in China, America’s sworn cyberenemy. Then this self-declared champion of individual liberty and government transparency sought refuge in authoritarian China and Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Has this proven liar shared U.S. intelligence secrets with these hostile regimes? Who knows?
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
But look at the bigger picture, said Jonathan Turley in the Los Angeles Times. President Obama chose not to prosecute the CIA employees or Bush administration officials who tortured or ordered the torture of suspected terrorists, on the grounds that these officials believed they were doing their patriotic duty when they committed crimes. The same can be said of Snowden, who has undeniably triggered a critical debate over security and privacy in this country. A presidential pardon would be a welcome signal that wherever we ultimately decide to strike that balance, “the White House is serious about reform, and accepts responsibility for the abuses that have been documented.”
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
Government shutdown odds spike as House GOP hardliners thwart McCarthy, spending bills
Speed Read House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's caucus is in disarray, and the US is now hurtling toward an avoidable debacle
By Peter Weber Published
-
Firefighters save confused delivery robots
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden Published
-
'Rates have peaked'
Today's Newspapers A round-up of the headlines from the UK front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
Trump surrenders in Georgia election subversion case
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries chosen to succeed Pelosi as leader of House Democrats
Speed Read
By Brigid Kennedy Published
-
GOP leader Kevin McCarthy's bid for House speaker may really be in peril
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Are China's protests a real threat for Beijing?
opinion The sharpest opinions on the debate from around the web
By Harold Maass Published
-
Who is Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist who dined with Trump and Kanye?
Speed Read From Charlottesville to Mar-a-Lago in just five years
By Rafi Schwartz Published
-
Jury convicts Oath Keepers Stewart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs of seditious conspiracy in landmark Jan. 6 verdict
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
A look at the White House's festive and homey holiday decor
Speed Read
By Brigid Kennedy Published
-
Bob Iger addresses 'Don't Say Gay' bill, says inclusion is part of Disney's values
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published