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Edward Snowden: Whistleblower Or Traitor

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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.
Continue reading, and I will attempt to explain the reasoning behind both of these arguments with …show more content…

The defense of Snowden is mainly those comparing him to a muckraker exposing the wrong doings of big businesses during the Progressive Era. Edward Snowden told The Guardian newspaper “I’m just another guy who sits there day to day in the office, watching what’s happening, and goes, “This is something that’s not our place to decide. The public needs to decide whether these programs or policies are right or wrong”.[5] This argues against those saying Snowden thought he had the right to choose what got leaked, he simply wanted the people to choose. Edward’s leaks did not contain any U.S. secret plans, identities of agents or secret algorithms.[6] Also, Edward Snowden did not simply release all the information he could, he studied each document.[6] Edward Snowden purposefully released only documents proving that the U.S. was spying on its people without telling them. Edward Snowden remarked “The only thing I fear is the harmful effects on my family, who I won’t be able to help anymore”.[7] That makes it seem as though leaking this information was so important it took precedence over his family. Most people need a very strong conviction to abandon their family, and also to leave such a “paradise”, as was said about Snowden’s life in Hawaii. When asked, by the Guardian, why he decided to leave his so called “paradise” to leak his information he said “I'm willing to sacrifice all of that because I …show more content…

Those who think that the NSA has the right to act in the way they do would tend to brand Snowden a traitor. Those against the NSA’s national security tactics find that Snowden was a hero, and consider his current circumstance a worthy

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