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Argumentative Essay On Edward Snowden

1406 Words6 Pages

Many people do not know what whistleblowers do, why they are important, or how they are protected. A whistleblower is a person who informs people about a person or organization that is in the wrong, like violating the Constitution or the federal law. There are some whistleblowers who try to inform the American public about something that is corrupt in our government, and they are not protected. Edward Snowden is one of America’s most famous whistleblowers and he wasn’t protected under any law when he exposed our government for spying on the American people without our consent or knowledge, this is why we need more laws to help protect whistleblowers when they speak up about the wrong things that our government is doing. Ron Fournier is an associate publisher of Crain's Detroit Business and a former senior political columnist at National Journal and in his article “Off the Grid: A Good Time for Bad News” (January 6 2014), he states “Snowden shouldn’t be charged with treason”. Which since Fournier earlier explained that, “Snowden revealed NSA surveillance of American citizens… He exposed our leaders’ lies” which means that since Snowden was just trying to give information to the American people, like other whistleblowers, he shouldn’t be charged with treason since treason means, the crime of betraying one’s country which is …show more content…

This is only helpful if their state has laws to help whistleblowers, if they don’t have laws to help them then whistleblowers could be fired on the spot for turning in correct information on how their company was in the wrong and since they would not be covered by any law this would be legal. In the article it has every state and their law(s) on whistleblowers, they all tend to vary on what they protect and help

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Ellsberg really was the original whistleblower, setting up a precedent for Assange and Snowden to follow as they too decided to release classified documents for the wellbeing of American citizens. As Ellsberg rightly states, “such leaks remain the lifeblood of a free press and our republic”(CWI Sources). The US was founded on freedom of speech and the press by our founding fathers who revolted against Great Britain because they were prevented from having those basic human rights. Furthermore, Ellsberg’s trial for violating the Espionage Act of 1917 proved how corrupt the US government and CIA were as they violated Ellsberg’s Fourth and Fifth Amendments to land a conviction, but failed, thus leading to a mistrial and all charges dropped. By releasing these Pentagon documents, Ellsberg revamped US citizens’ constitutional rights, making Ellsberg a true

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For example, Edward Snowden exposed the National Security Agency for eavesdropping on Americans and people around the world, despite the possibility of being arrested and charged with heavy crimes. " So, what did the leaks tell us? First, they confirmed that the U.S. government, without obtaining any court warrants, routinely collects the phone logs of tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions, of Americans, who have no links to terrorism whatsoever,"(Source 3). The question is who is truly at fault? The government for doing that or Snowden for ratting them out to the public about

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NSA: a scandal and a debate National Security Agency (NSA) is an organisation formed in November of 1952 by the United States of America in order to gather intelligence about the enemies of the state and their “capabilities,” ensure the ability of the government of the United States of America to communicate without risking a breach, in addition, to protect the United States from cyberspace attacks [1]. The NSA claims that it operates under a number of values such as respecting the law and constitution of the United States as well as being transparent “to the fullest extent possible” [2]. Despite These claims by the NSA, in the last few years, there has been some accusations by a former NSA contractor named Edward Snowden. These accusations

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Giuliani responds by diverting attention away from President Trump's attack on the media and towards former President Obama's attacks on the press. While in the Oval Office, Obama retaliated against whistleblowers and journalists. A notable example is that of Edward Snowden. Snowden leaked classified information about the National Security Agency, including their mass surveillance programs and their partnerships with the United Kingdom’s Government Communications Headquarters. The U.S. government responded to the leak by using the Espionage Act against Snowden, thereby choosing to ignore the unethical nature of the NSA’s programs.

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Mr. Snowden however has been on the run since 2013 from the very country he used to call home. Mr. Snowden knew the consequences he would face, but even at that he still payed the price. Snowden sacrificed his own right to live so that his fellow citizens were aware of what there government was doing. Although many people criticized him as being a traitor, many other people saw the good in his intentions. According to biography.com “…more than 100,000 people signed an online petition asking President Obama to pardon Snowden…”, but even at that, he would still be charged.

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Snowden, who was a computer systems contractor, worked for the National Security Agency and revealed to the public how the American Government was spying on its own citizens and foreigners. Snowden was committed to the truth which allowed him to reason and understand the difference between what is right and what is legal. Snowden was convinced that the truth requires an individual to do the right thing and not necessarily what is legal. However, doing the right thing could sometimes require an individual to break the law.

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The US government broke the law and for years, they hid their spying practices not just from the public, but from parliament. Without Snowden and other campaigners that followed, we wouldn’t have a clue what they were up to. According to eff.org, it is stated that, "information of the NSA's domestic spying programs are found in the media, official government statements and reports, and court actions. " This includes leaked documents, first published by The Guardian in June 2013, that confirmed the domestic spying by the NSA, as well as accounts based on unnamed government officials (eff.org).

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1097 Words | 5 Pages

Hero or Traitor Edward Snowden is a thirty three year old American Computer Professional who had been working for the N.S.A. (National Security Agency) as well as the C.I.A. (Central Intelligence Agency) until 2013. In June of 2013, Edward made a life changing decision by choosing to leak National Security Agency (N.S.A.) documents in Hong Kong to The Guardian and The Washington Post regarding top secret government surveillance. Not only did this leak raise debate over National Security and online privacy, but also raised the debate on whether or not Edward Snowden is a hero or traitor to American citizens. There is no doubt that Snowden should resemble a hero to American citizens. In order to understand why he should be seen as a hero, one

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In the case of Edward Snowden and what he did is somewhat controversial. The controversy on this subject is that some think he should be punished for his actions and others think he should be free and have no charges. The people that think he shouldn’t be punished also think that the government is wrong for doing what it was doing. They also think he shouldn’t be punished for exposing something the government is doing that is against the law. Now if a person is in a government agency and is doing things to keep the mass majority safe will see him as a traitor and want him to be punished.

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American democracy demands transparency in actions undertaken in the name of the US, even when hidden. Covert action, therefore, should not be used when overt means would suffice. The employment of covert action should also be defendable because of the high risk of exposure associated with it. If the political risk that comes with exposure is not worth the use of covert action, then covert action should not be employed. Covert action that does not align with American values and which is later exposed can severely damage US foreign policy.

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893 Words | 4 Pages

Edward Snowden: Whistleblower or Traitor Edward Snowden, was he a whistleblower exercising his right to expose the government for it's unconstitutional actions, or was he simply a traitor who sold our secrets to foreign entities? American opinion is still split over Snowden. Some believe that he should be allowed to return to the U.S., while others believe that he should be tried and imprisoned for exposing state secrets to the world. These contrasting views can be partly attributed to how people view the NSA. Some see the NSA's spying programs as a serious breach of their privacy while others see it as a justifiable response to terrorism.

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608 Words | 3 Pages

It has now been three years since whistleblower, Edward Snowden, copied and released a large amount of classified information being withheld by the National Security Agency. Its domestic and foreign spying caused uproar in the public, private and government sectors due to the unethical practices that the NSA was found to be conducting. The American populace was particularly upset when they found out that the NSA had the capability and was actively recording a significant amount of their digital information or “metadata” like phone, SMS records, and purchases being made. The people felt like the NSA was undermining the privacy of the citizens and ultimately the freedom of the nation.

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1471 Words | 6 Pages

The main issue in the Snowden controversy is the conflicting rights of private individuals and the US government with regard to the use of telecommunications and the internet. There are ethical issues surrounding this controversy and the most applicable ethical approach for this case is “Ethics by Rights Approach”. As a background, the reason why US government had declared Edward Snowden a traitor is his involvement in the leaking of about 1.7 million confidential US documents, 15,000 Australian intelligence files and 58,000 British intelligence files from the National Security Agency (or NSA) to the public. These confidential information were acquired by the NSA through the PRISM program by collaborating with big internet companies such

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but they can not get into the lives of others like them can be for safety but should implement another types of methods. at some point I thought that what Snowden said was a lie that just saying it to look good to the world , but then I was reading and I realized it was all true Mr. Edward Snowden is a very good person who knows the damage the government the American states can lead to people if something should occur. due to the large number of people that the North American government disrespectfully without your permission obtained a metadata (a set of data That Gives INFORMATION ABOUT describe and other data) extensive and long. the Citizenfour movie is an excellent movie that helped us to clarify many doubts we had about WikiLeaks , without that film had not understood very bein the situation that is happening the creator made us a great favor when creating this film.

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991 Words | 4 Pages

Whistleblowing, the act of exposing classified information from the government or corporations, is hotly debated. By nature, whistleblowing is generally used to expose corruption within these agencies. Some believe whistleblowers should be prosecuted for breaching security, while others fully support their legal protection for the sake of preserving ethics. What must be answered to validate either side of this debate is whether whistleblowers cause more harm or good. From example, it can be concluded that they are far more beneficial to society than detrimental, and thus should be protected to the fullest extent of the law.

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