Edward Snowden and Memorial Day 2023: Marking an Awful Anniversary
It’s been ten years since Edward Snowden leaked thousands of highly classified documents.
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As we observe Memorial Day this year in the United States and try with great effort to extricate ourselves from the lure of the shopping malls and the enticements of beach and barbecue long enough to honor the sacrifices of our service personnel, it’s particularly appropriate that we mark another day of national significance.
Ten years ago this June, Edward Snowden, the former CIA intelligence officer turned leaker/whistleblower, arrived at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport after having provided investigative reporters with thousands of pages of classified U.S. intelligence documents. His conscience troubled by what he had learned in the course of his work, Snowden had taken it upon himself to share myriad documents of highest national security sensitivity with the press.
Once the stolen documents had been leaked, the U.S. government charged him with violations of the Espionage Act and Snowden bolted for Moscow in June, 2023 where he was, after a month in limbo, granted political asylum.
Vladimir Putin ultimately granted Snowden full Russian citizenship in September, 2022 and Snowden swore allegiance to Russia in December, 2022, just in time for the tenth anniversary of the leak itself.
There’s a particular irony, of course, in Snowden’s having fled the United States owing to his concerns for the illegitimate exercise of power and ending up in Russia, an international pariah and emerging terrorist state where human rights and respect for international law are foreign concepts.
How must it feel to Snowden now to look back ten years after the fact, having once considered himself to be a brave and bold truth teller, only to find himself effectively a captive of one of history’s greatest thugs and a certain war criminal?
Snowden and his supporters claim he struck an important blow for privacy rights and that he raised our country’s consciousness in essential ways regarding our government’s use of data. U.S. officials, on the other hand, have stated that the vast majority of leaked material detailed methodologies for U.S intelligence gathering and endangered U.S. personnel, perhaps even costing lives. Indeed, there is evidence that some of the leaked material was reviewed by the Islamic State.
Even for privacy advocates and those concerned at the extent to which data is being used illegally, the Snowden case is complicated. If the U.S. government was acting illegally and surveilling Americans and their allies, it is essential to bring that to light so that constitutional safeguards can be strengthened.
At the same time, as we honor the memories and sacrifices of millions of American service personnel, it’s pretty damned difficult to raise a glass to Snowden, living in relative comfort with his family and enjoying the fruits of a life that fallen veterans will never know.
Indeed, my thoughts will remain with those who did their jobs, kept faith with their country, tried their mightiest, made the greatest sacrifices and who made their return, one way or another, to the land they chose to love and defend.
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