Dear America, Would You Please Give Edward Snowden His …

2013: A government task force is preparing legislation that would pressure companies such as Facebook and Google to enable law enforcement officials to intercept online communications as they occur. 2014: Politically, its plutonium now for a member of Congress in this environment to be supporting something that would enhance the governments ability to conduct electronic surveillance.

What happened? You guessed it: everyones favorite hero/villain/demon/saint, Edward Snowden, who was granted asylum in Russia exactly one year ago. This week, the tech industry threw its weight behind a bill that proposes sweeping curbs on NSA surveillance and would represent the most significant reform of government surveillance authorities since Congress passed the USA Patriot Act 13 years ago. And it could actually pass again, thanks to Snowden.

So when does the man get his medal?

A lot of people, including Dianne Feinstein and John Kerry (and Marc Andreessen), still think of Snowden as a traitor. Mind you, in theory, treason requires helping or supporting an enemy. Im not sure which enemy they have in mind: Russia? China? Edward Epstein insinuates that the Snowden affair was a foreign espionage operation all along, but the man himself claims he took no secret files to Russia and was able to protect them from Chinese spies as well.

Do the people of Earth count as an enemy?

The anti-Snowden brigade generally claim that he should have worked within the system to blow the whistle on it, and/or should have returned to the USA to face the subsequent music although it has since become apparent that the NSA has not been completely forthcoming about Snowdens attempts to express his concerns without going public.

Quite aside from self-preservation, its pretty obvious that Snowden would have been enormously less effective over the last year if hed returned and been clapped into solitary a la Chelsea Manning. (The law he has been charged under doesnt let him make his case in front of a jury, according to the EFFs Trevor Timm, accepting a Crunchie on Snowdens behalf.) Instead hes been able to chat with Sergey Brin at TED, appear on panels with Daniel Ellsberg, etc., and get his message out via telepresence.

But you know what? Its a moot point. Even if Snowden was an outright foreign spy all along, on a results-based analysis, he would still deserve a medal because, despite our vestigial Cold-War anti-commie knee-jerk reactions, the truth is that we live in a time when the greatest threat to the American way of life is America itself.

(No, not Al-Qaeda and their ilk. Sure, they are a problem, but they pale before Americas irrational, paranoid, xenophobic, massive overreaction to them and similar threats. You have to wonder exactly how long American authoritarians believe they should have carte blanche to do whatever they want in the sacred name of national security because a bunch of crazed madmen got lucky thirteen years ago. Another decade? Another century? Forever?)

There was a fascinating Foreign Policy article this week about Singapores attempts to use mass surveillance and good old Big Data to engineer a more harmonious society. Thats essentially what the pro-NSA people are supporting, even if they dont realize it:

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Dear America, Would You Please Give Edward Snowden His ...