Snowden: Does he deserve a pardon?
Should former government contractor Edward Snowden be treated as a whistleblower or a spy?
“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.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
The new powers to stop stalking in the UK
The Explainer Updated guidance could help protect more victims, but public is losing trust in police and battered criminal justice system
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Criminal trail?'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
Grindr 'shared user HIV status' with ad firms, lawsuit claims
Speed Read LGBTQ dating app accused of breaching UK data protection laws in case filed at London's High Court
By Rebecca Messina, The Week UK Published
-
Arizona court reinstates 1864 abortion ban
Speed Read The law makes all abortions illegal in the state except to save the mother's life
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump, billions richer, is selling Bibles
Speed Read The former president is hawking a $60 "God Bless the USA Bible"
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published
-
Henry Kissinger dies aged 100: a complicated legacy?
Talking Point Top US diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner remembered as both foreign policy genius and war criminal
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Last updated
-
Trump’s rhetoric: a shift to 'straight-up Nazi talk'
Why everyone's talking about Would-be president's sinister language is backed by an incendiary policy agenda, say commentators
By The Week UK Published
-
More covfefe: is the world ready for a second Donald Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question Republican's re-election would be a 'nightmare' scenario for Europe, Ukraine and the West
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published