Snowden – traitor, patriot or whistle-blower?

Traitor, patriot, or whistle-blower? Americans took to the streets in protests over Zimmerman’s acquittal, yet reactions to the National Security Agency (NSA) covertly collecting phone and email records has been greeted with a mediocre response. How should those who leak confidential information to the media be regarded?

“[T]he Obama administration has gone after more watchdogs, leakers than any previous administration by far. And that raises serious questions,” Dan Rather, retired CBS news anchor said during a CNN interview on August 1, 2013.

Pfc. Bradley Manning, John Kiriakou, Thomas Drake, Edward Snowden, and others have been pursued by the Obama Administration. The Justice Department has unapologetically used warrants to obtain phone and email records of Associated Press (AP) journalists in an effort to quash governmental sources leaking confidential information to reporters.

The political parties are divided on whether whistle-blowers should be regarded as traitors or patriots.

Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.), concurring with the Obama Administration, criticized Snowden for revealing sensitive information to the news media, saying, “This was not an act of a patriot; this was an act of a traitor.”

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), during a FOX News Sunday interview, said, “As far as Congress is concerned, sure, [Snowden’s] a whistle-blower.” Rep. Amash sponsored the Limiting Internet and Blanket Electronic Review of Telecommunications and Email Act (LIBERT-E Act), which narrowly failed, 217-205, during a July 24, 2013 bi-partisan House vote. The legislation would have restricted the NSA’s carte blanche data collection under the Patriot Act and required Congress to be briefed on NSA and FISA Court activities.

Edward Snowden

By definition, a government employee (whistle-blower) is protected from retaliation when that employee discloses employer wrongdoing, illegalities, or abusive conduct. As a comparative example, the Colorado Employee Protection Act (1979) requires a whistle-blower to make a good faith effort to disclose information to a supervising authority or member of the General Assembly.

Pfc. Manning stole more than 700,000 secret foreign affairs and war documents in 2010 and gave them to Julian Assange, who published the information on the Wikileaks website. The documents revealed U.S. troop movements and soldiers’ identifications, along with exculpatory diplomatic cables filled with colorful adjectives describing foreign government officials.

Pfc. Manning was found guilty of 19 criminal charges on July 31, 2013.

John Kiriakou, a former CIA officer, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison in January 2013 for leaking classified information to a member of the AP in 2008. The leak included the operative’s name who participated in creative forms of interrogation during the initial stages of the War on Terror.

Thomas Drake, formerly an NSA executive, was prosecuted in July 2011, under the Espionage Act for ‘willful retention of national defense’ secrets.’ Drake and three cohorts, exposed the NSA Trailblazer program, which was a billion-dollar computer-based program to analyze Internet content, particularly email and cellular phone communications.

Drake leaked classified info to members of Congress and the New Yorker. The action complied with the federal whistle-blower legislation. The night before his sentencing hearing, 60-Minutes broadcast a feature report on Drake which resulted in the Justice Department dropping nearly all the charges. Today Drake works in a Washington, DC Apple Store. Incidentally, Drake recently ran into Attorney General Eric Holder, who was shopping for iPhones.

The Justice Department has yet to apprehend Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor, who leaked information about the NSA Prism program and the FISA secret warrants for Verizon customers’ data to London’s Guardian newspaper and theWashington Post. The Obama Administration cancelled Snowden’s passport, which resulted in Snowden spending a month in the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. Despite requests from the White House to extradite Snowden to the US, Russia recently granted Snowden a one-year asylum passport.

Manning, Kiriakou, Drake, Snowden attempted to be whistle-blowers, yet only Drake arguably was legally a whistle-blower, as he made a good faith effort to inform superiors and members of Congress prior to going to the press.

Should the analysis pivot on whether revealing domestic email and phone data gathering programs ought to be considered government-wrongdoing, illegal activity, or abusive conduct?

If one believes people are better off knowing the truth, then there is value to society in leakers revealing such information as the military operations in Vietnam outlined in the Pentagon Papers, the Watergate scandal, abuses at Abu Ghraib, or the Obama Administration’s efforts to block all leaks of information to reporters, including those revealing NSA collection of phone and email data.

A gentleman’s agreement exists between the free press and interests of national security. This agreement is a delicate and fragile one and precedential pursuits of the Obama Administration should make even the ardent liberal nervous. The media balance a fine line of aiding these so called ‘whistle-blowers’ and providing the scrutiny that Congress willfully turns a blind eye to providing.

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M. Soper. 'Snowden – traitor, patriot or whistle-blower?' Op Ed. Western Slope Watch Dog. <http://westernslopewatchdog.com/2013/08/guest-editorial-snowden-traitor-patriot-or-whistle-blower/> 10 August 2013