Wikileaks : Innocent Or Guilty?

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

In an article published by “Opposing Viewpoints,” Michael Reagan, son of former president Ronald Reagan, wrote that “If found guilty [Bradley Manning and Julian Assange] deserve nothing less than death sentences for their unspeakable crimes.” Bradley Manning, a private in the United States Army released classified information to Julian Assange, the editor of the controversial Wikileaks website. Reagan suggests that if America had a president stronger willed than president Obama, Julian Assange and Bradley Manning would be found guilty of treason and be “stood up before a firing squad.” The release of classified information by Pvt. Bradley Manning, Reagan argues, gave aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States. “By [Manning and Assange’s]

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,”

I chose this topic to research because I plan on entering the world of information technology for a career. More specifically, I want to be a Cyberspace Operations Officer in the United States Air Force. My original topic was to also include the “WikiLeaks” whistleblower, Julian Assange. I took him out of my research because I felt it focused on two separate scenarios and it was just too much to cover into this paper. Whether you like or dislike Snowden, what he did was big, which for me reasons, I felt I should have researched his incident and learn more about

Edward Snowden released classified information from the National Security Agency. The information released by Snowden caused American citizens to question the legality of the actions taken by the government. Suddenly, people were concerned with their privacy and what information to which the NSA had access. Soon after Edward Snowden released the classified information, the government took action and declared several NSA practices to be illicit as stated by Beatrice Edwards (McCutcheon 113).

Unless you were hiding beneath a rock in 2014, you saw the nation’s reaction to the release of classified NSA documents by the infamous whistleblower Edward Snowden. Snowden, who worked as the lead technologist for Dell, managed their accounts with the Central Intelligence Agency. It was in this position that Snowden began to notice some classified documents that didn’t make sense. These documents contained information on the National Security Agency illegally spying on their own citizens. It was at this time in 2012 that Snowden began downloading some of these files for himself. It is estimated that he downloaded somewhere between 50,000 and 200,000 files on the espionage efforts of the United States (Borrough, Ellison, Andrews, 2014). Now, Snowden needed to get the files out to the people. He attempted to contact a few media outlets around the world who would not go through the trouble to follow his strict encryption methods. Snowden eventually contacted documentarian Laura Poitras, who had recently written an article on a separate whistleblower that caught Snowden’s attention. Poitras states in an interview with Salon.com that, “…he’d contacted me because my border harassment meant that I’d been a person who had been selected. To be selected –and he went through a whole litany of things — means that everything you do, every friend you have, every purchase you make, every street you cross means you’re being watched” (Carmon, 2013). This connect lead to Snowden being

Once an unknown Australian, it didn’t look like there was much going on with this man. However, by age 19, this fugitive had already hacked into the United States most secret military agencies, and was well on his way to creating the infamous ‘WikiLeaks’. He’s known worldwide, in some eyes a terrorist, others, a hero. The man, the myth, the legend, Julian Paul Assange.

Just as United States has the freedom of speech, they also have the freedom of information; it is not exactly the same type of meaning. The Freedom of Information Act was established in 1966 and signed by President Johnson and in 1996 a more modern act was constructed, the Electronic Freedom of Information Act. These acts were designed for an individual to have the ability to obtain unreleased information or documents controlled by the United States government. An organization named WikiLeaks has changed the law to a whole new level. Government transparency is their goal. The WikiLeaks website has released undocumented files in large amounts to the public. According to author of “From FOI World to WikiLeaks World”, WikiLeaks "…has been

It caused a lot of chaos because the documents released revealed their secrets. One revealed that Verizon gave NSA access to their customers phone records. Others revealed information about several of NSA’s programs that allow them to intercept phone calls, collect 200 million text messages a day and see almost everything someone does online. People didn’t realize how violated their privacy was. The government was watching everything they did on their phone and on their computer. While it is important that they do what they can to keep us safe, it is also important that they respect our privacy. The government should not be allowed to access our personal information unless it is

Edward Snowden was a former CIA agent and government contractor who leaked classified information from the US national Security agency NSA to three journalists. The US Government decided to file a criminal case against Snowden which included theft of Government property and two counts of violating the espionage charge. The espionage charge involved giving classified defense information to unauthorized persons.

It is reasonable to argue that, governmental institutions or people with authority are subject to withhold a great deal of information from society. Many may argue that secrets are kept to ensure the safety of the nation. Thus, upholding the governmental duty of protecting the nation against possible threats. On the other hand, many believe that secrets may exist which violate our constitutional rights. Over the last year, Edward Snowden, has made headline news for leaking sensitive governmental information to the press. Edward Snowden is a 29-year-old high school drop-out, who was a tech specialist for the National Security Association. Snowden had discovered and later exposed the NSA for monitoring the nations e-mails, phone calls, and

Case 6-B titled “WikiLeaks” discusses the controversy surrounding Julian Assange, CEO and editor of an organization called WikiLeaks. Assange started his career as an Australian hacker, with the ethical thought that keeping secrets, especially national secrets were bad. Assange was first brought to media attention after WikiLeaks released video footage of Iran citizens gunned down by an American Apache

In 2013 a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA) by the name of Edward Snowden stole copies of hundreds of classified documents detailing the extent of the NSA’s digital mass surveillance program. After stealing the documents, he traveled to Hong Kong to meet with several journalists. While in Hong Kong they went over the documents, and the news was published several days later. As the documents revealed, the NSA obtained access to the records and data of many large internet companies, including, but not limited to, Microsoft, Google, and Apple. This enabled the NSA to essentially view all electronic data, private or public, on any American citizen or foreign citizen, whether or not they had a search warrant as per the Fourth Amendment. While Edward Snowden should be punished for illegally leaking classified information which revealed the extent of government surveillance of the common American; the government was still wrong in violating the American people’s constitutional right to privacy and there could be severe consequences for their actions.

We already have proof that the government spies on us. The Snowden “Reveal” in May 2013 leaked documents to the public showing us we are not as safe as we were promised in the constitution. The fourth amendment protects American citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures, which internet spying falls under, and any form of unauthorized data storage is against the law. Some of the known examples of this comes from Mitchell shaw’s writings, “ The U.S. government agencies routinely spy on everyone including American citizens. Programs with names such as PRISM, MYSTIC Boundless Informant, and Xkeyscore wiere in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment's guarantee”(Shaw). These agencies were said to have been brought to a new checking system

Claimed by its founder to be a non-profit organization/website, Wikileaks was firstly launched in 2006. Some call it an open government group that enables public witnessing (Nayar, 2011; Rosewall & Warren, 2010), while others see it as a representation of a new type of “sovereignty in the global political and economy sphere” (Bodó, 2011, p. 3). The website uses the term “wiki” which was followed after Wikipedia due to its anonymous contributors and