Who Is Edward Snowden A Real Hero

Edward Snowden took advantage of his access the government’s vast electronic surveillance operations. Snowden had access to more sensitive information than Manning but, in his dealings so far with the Washington Post and The Guardian, he has made a key point of not releasing all the documents he had which is saving him from harsher punishment. ("What Bradley Manning Leaked.”) Many of the documents that Edward Snowden had exposed were related to our military capabilities, operations, tactics, techniques and procedures. Even a confidential Pentagon report written by military intelligence officials claims that Edward Snowden's leaks had put U.S. soldiers at serious risk and encouraged terrorists to change their strategies. ("Snowden Leaks Could Cost Military Billions: Pentagon.") However, in the middle of 2014, the NSA's director, U.S. Navy Admiral Michael S. Rogers, said that while some terrorist groups had changed their communications to avoid surveillance techniques revealed by Snowden, the damage done was not significant enough to claim it as an immediate threat or danger. Still, in February 2015, “the NSA director said that Snowden's disclosures created "blind spots" in the NSA's surveillance by revealing U.S. strategies to monitor terrorism”.( "What NSA Director Mike Rogers Doesn't

After September 11th, Americans looked to the government for protection and reassurance. However, they did not expect to find out thirteen years later that the government did this by using technology to spy on Americans, as well as other countries. George W. Bush began the policy shortly after the terrorist attack and Barack Obama continued it. There have been many confrontations over the years about the extent of the N.S.A.’s spying; however, the most recent whistle-blower, Edward Snowden, leaked information that caused much upset throughout America (EFF). It has also brought many people to question: is he a hero or a traitor?

Edward Snowden is responsible for exposing these government secrets. Many call this an act of treason, but it can also be seen as an act of civil disobedience. The most peaceful nature of his rebellion, and the unconstitutional behavior that it consequentially exposed qualify his actions. Although it was wrong of him to escape the consequences of his actions by fleeing to Hong Kong, his actions were ultimately beneficial to the American public. Being spied upon by the government is a direct violation of our right to privacy, and hiding it from the public is wrong as well. From John Cassidy’s article, “Why Edward Snowden is a hero,” he quotes Ellsberg; “‘This wholesale invasion of Americans and foreign citizens’ privacy does not contribute to our security; it puts in danger the very liberties we are trying to protect.’” The act of bringing these facts to light is an act of trying to preserve our liberty, and that’s what civil disobedience is all about.

Edward Snowden isn’t the only person who believes what the U.S. had done was wrong, but also many American leaders, and other nations around the world. The United States had not only been collecting data on their own citizens, but also of other countries leaders and citizens. The release of these documents had strained political relationships between the U.S. and other allied nations. The knowledge and truth other leaders and nations had gained

The leaks by Snowden were to inform the American people and the rest of the world just how much the government is spying on them. Aside from the privacy violations without any evidence to justify Snowden wanted to point out the flaws with this system, one important flaw being America is spying on countries it is allied with. I would argue that the knowledge of our government's spying outweighs the leak of private information, the end justifies the means. Snowden read each document carefully as to not leak how the systems work or any private information about any N.S.A. agents before leaking them. This is an example of how our government isn’t pure and should be exposed when needed, thus civil disobedience is required to get information similar in nature to

Therefore, Snowden’s true intentions are evident by his rash decision to trade significant information to other countries in return for his financial and personal safety. This is not surprising of “A grandiose narcissist,” who saw an opportunity for fame under the excuse of “serving his country” (Toobin 1). Moreover, any educated individual knows that “the entire mission of the agency is to intercept electronic communications” (Toobin 1). Therefore, Snowden can be characterized as a villain because he not only disrupted a legal process because of his ignorance but also sabotaged his own homeland. As can be seen, Snowden is, above all, a traitor; he deserves to be punished for his irresponsible, illegal, and rash action. If his idea was doing what is morally right, then he could have achieved it legally inside his own country, even if it took twice as long. That is what heroes do; they don’t inflict damage on their nation and simply run away from reality. If the

Edward Snowden was a man who worked for the NSA and exposed all of the information that the NSA was accessing from U.S. citizens and those people around the world. Through his actions Snowden did break the law, “He has been charged with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence” (BBC News). Even though Snowden knew he would be charged for his actions, he still wanted to do the right thing and expose to the people what the NSA was doing. Snowden was looking at the information that was being collected and realized it was not necessary to keep Americans safe. Instead, collecting this information was abruptly digging into their lives and going against their rights as human beings. When this information was exposed, the citizens wanted the government and the NSA to ultimately change what exactly they were accessing and how they were accessing it. This event that Snowden

Edward Snowden’s leak urged Americans to consider cybersecurity more seriously or at least be aware of it (gizmodo, Adam Clark Estes, 2014.) Americans were divided according to The HuffPost/YouGov online poll, 38 percent percent of respondents said Edward Snowden did a right thing, whereas 35 percent thought Edward Snowden was wrong and 28 percent were not sure (Huffingtonpost, 2013.) Pew Research Poll found that just little over 50 percent of the Americans were concerned about NSA surveillance, whereas 46 percent were not at all concerned (The Washington Post, 2015.) According to Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll majority of the Americans fear that their privacy is shrinking but they see the government surveillance

Edward Snowden showed that by disclosing government programs like these, the public to decide whether or not we want are government to have the right to do this. As a result of the NSA data collection leaks, Snowden has changed some of our views on government policies and how they effect our private lives. Knowing what we know now, about how the government has been spying on the American public, we are able to discuss all of these issues and bring up our concerns and possible feelings of being violated in un constitutional ways by our own

The article “Why Edward Snowden is a hero written” by John Cassidy gives more insight on the motives and thoughts on his reveal about the N.S.A. and its mission and responsibilities as a part of the government. Though Edward snowden was looked upon as either a hero or villain due to his actions of informing the citizens of the United states about the N.S.A. and their abilities to tap into anyone’s security, passcodes, and such, he was not constitutionally violating any law. The constitution and privacy laws clearly states that we citizens as individuals have the right to privacy. This alludes to the idea that citizen’s personal information is to be kept safe and protected from the public. Edward Snowden had acted on behalf of the United States citizens and believed the best

First of all, in the contents of this debate, we support that Snowden’s actions were necessary. We understand that there must be a balance between privacy and national security. However, the NSA and government were overstepping their mandate to protect American citizens. Checks and balances in intelligence agencies deteriorated, resulting in secrecy, abuse of power, and stretched interpretations of the

In Edward Snowden's case, I believe that his situation will have a positive effect for the citizen's of the United States. It opened people to the fact that the NSA is indeed looking into the personal lives of not only innocent American citizens, but people all over the world.

Critics of Edward Snowden label him a traitor and a coward. They condemn him for irreparably harming government security operations and setting of a worldwide chain of events that weakened the American position on the world stage. While America now has blight on its records due to the leaks, the topic that should be addressed is should the whistle-blower, the man who uncovered and exposed the questionable and wrong activities, be blamed or should those who allowed the illegal and immoral activities be held accountable for what they started. Edward Snowden had the justification and conviction to do the correct thing and present the incriminating evidence straight to the public. When one takes in consideration everything that Snowden has lost because of his decision, there was little gain for him to make the immoral activities public. Snowden’s crime is breaching the trust of his government contract to expose egregious monitoring by the government on the American public. In an interview conducted by the Washington Post, Snowden speaks out about his goal in releasing the files: “All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say in how they are governed,”

Some people may feel what Edward Snowden did was not so beneficial for the government.

While working for the NSA, Snowden became aware of their extensive trespasses against the privacy of U.S. and international citizens alike. Upon considering the extent of these trespasses, Snowden felt that it was his moral duty, as he stated, “to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them”. His provided information showed the use of Internet surveillance programs, and the evaluation of phone records in the form of “metadata”. Many argue that Snowden’s leaking of information has hindered our government’s ability to intercept terrorist plots, by informing the world of the NSA’s capabilities, and therefore allowing terrorist groups to plot attacks beyond the reach of U.S. surveillance. In light of this, Snowden’s leak has indeed made us more vulnerable to terrorist attacks, but does this justify the NSA’s chosen use of power? Since Snowden’s revelations, it has become evident that the NSA consistently uses their surveillance abilities to unjustified ends. One function of the NSA’s electronic data analysis is to find targets for the military’s Joint Special Operations Command to strike with lethal drone attacks. Many innocent civilians in middle-eastern countries have lost their lives as a result of this military sect’s reliance on the NSA’s data, rather than human correspondence. According to an anonymous former drone-operator, the victims of these attacks “might have been terrorists, or they could have been