Matt Crowley at the Wall Street Journal, noted today [ http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/12/22/snowden-criticizes-u-s-panel-overseeing-surveillance/ ] that Edward Snowden, criticized the presidential panel reviewing U.S. surveillance programs, saying it was a hand-picked group by the government [and it ] only suggested cosmetic changes". Crowley added that this report came from a Sunday Brazilian TV report, actually done by e-mail through a U.S. attorney. You may remember that Snowden offered to trade information about U.S. involvement in spying for sanctuary in Brazil, but he is now backtracking because he found out that could be construed as traitor-like behavior. Throughout all of this, the Russians are lurching to save themselves the possible difficulty of having reporters show up at his door when the Olympics are going on in Sochi. They may have to say no to the International press, or send them off to interview Pussy Riot instead. They are finally out of jail after criticizing the government.
Snowden shows his age and experience with this type of criticism. The complicated issues the Panel had to try to resolve, were largely born from September 11. We were willing to put away some freedom to prevent airplanes from plowing into the buildings our spouses lived in all day, and most of us haven't forgotten why we did. Mine was in the Pentagon, in the wing where the plane hit and I certainly wanted to get even with someone for what they did that day. It took four hours to find that she wasn't one of the casualties in her office, where several people died. Snowden was 18.
So, he turns spy, figures out how to get hired by NSA, hacking the account of the person who developed the selection criteria, and systematically steal a million pages of documents (not a million documents, as some are saying). Then, he runs to China, pretending that he can protect what he takes with him from the Intelligence Services of China and Russia. He is older by that time, but obviously not a lot smarter.
The ACLU is advertising its stance, saying that Snowden should be considered innocent, until proven guilty, something they seldom do for the Intelligence Community. Any whiff of impropriety by someone in CIA, NSA or the FBI and the ACLU is off and running.
If Snowden is innocent of anything, it is because he is not able to comprehend what he has done. It's coming to him. Spying has a cost, and most spies don't die happy. The Chinese didn't want him to stay. The Russians are trying to give him incentive to move somewhere else. Nobody wants him, because nobody trusts his motivation. Spies will never be trusted by anyone, regardless of how much good they may think they have done. Remember Benedict Arnold, the war hero gone bad.
In 1985, Ronald Pelton, former NSA analyst and contractor, was giving information about the same kinds of communications programs to the Russians. He finally admitted that some of the things he gave them "might have caused some personal jeopardy" to people in the programs. Snowden will realize that some of the things he has given to the press are more than issues about perceived abuses of monitoring. They will hurt the country and a few individuals too.
Having Snowden critique the President's Panel is like having a spy, in any other time, saying how easy it is to steal from a democracy. It is. We are far more open and trusting than most of the other countries of the world. We share information. We debate, in public, about things Russia and China never let their own citizens speak about. Yes, there are other things we do to protect our citizens that we don't talk about, but that is largely because the other countries don't play by the same rules. We need to keep quiet about those things.
He fled to China where the Chinese have internal records of every citizen of their country -- police, their equivalent of the CIA and FBI, IRS and 36 other agencies put information in those files. He hides in Russia, where the press has been beaten up for complaining about the administration of government, corruption is rampant, and crime is as bad as it is in China. I hope he stays forever. Amazon books:
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