Who Is This Edward Snowden Guy?

Today I decided to figure out why I keep hearing the name Edward Snowden so much. I had always assumed it was just another made-up media witch hunt, and I didn't need to pay any attention. I changed my mind when I recently heard a story about President Obama (supposedly) cancelling a meeting with President Putin because of him.

The Obama-Putin story raised several questions. First of all, when did President Putin replace President Medvedev? I completely missed that. I mean, Putin was always pulling Medvedev's puppet strings, so he's effectively been the leader of Russia since 2000, but I guess he finally went and officially become president again. Wikipedia says this happened last May (2012). (Medvedev, incidentally, became the "Leader of United Russia," whatever that means.)

I also found the story notable because it illustrates again the deteriorating relationship between the U.S. and Russia that has gone on over the last ten or fifteen years, which most people don’t even know about (being distracted by terrorists and economic misery). I can’t help but wonder just how far this relationship is deteriorating.

Back to Edward Snowden. This guy must be somewhat important if presidents are cancelling meetings because of him. So who is he? It all started with an article in The Guardian. Remember a while back when I wondered why everyone was freaking out over the NSA monitoring our phone records, when we’ve known they’ve been doing that since the Patriot Act was first signed in 2001? Well, I still wonder about that. Everyone was blissfully ignorant of their electronic activities being monitored until a June 2013 article appeared in The Guardian. I can only assume that article got the nation’s attention more than any others because it had the words “Apple” and “Google” in the headline, so technology media ran with it, too. The article basically said that the NSA had direct access to the Apple and Google servers (and many others).

I recall that I heard that story … and I immediately thought, “That’s typical government conspiracy rubbish … overblown, misinterpreted, mixed up facts.” I said something like that in that blog post, then I didn’t think any more about it.

But even as I ignored the story, it continued to grow. It turns out that the article was based on “a top secret document obtained by the Guardian.” That document was apparently supplied by one Edward Snowden, who was an NSA contractor. He came forward several days after the initial story. As we’ve seen time and again, our government is utterly incapable of even the most basic of computer security, so he was able to walk out with tons of sensitive information. Once the story stopped being about government surveillance, it turned into a story about this fugitive who stole files from the NSA, a story formula that has worked at least twice in the past. Snowden then rocketed to the top of the government’s most-wanted whistle-blower list, previously held by predecessors Bradley Manning and Julian Assange. (One of those two is now on trial for treason* and the other is still a fugitive.)

I think whistle-blowers in general are an important part of a balanced society. Someone occasionally needs to take one for the team and say, “Hey, you, powerful secret government organization, are you sure you should doing that?” So in that sense I have to admire Edward Snowden. Of course, every situation is different. Sometimes a government needs to keep secrets from its own people.

Mostly I feel sorry for Snowden. He basically ruined his life revealing these NSA programs - but I don’t think our government is technically competent enough to pull off anything that sinister. So he might have wrecked his life for nothing.

As for whether I think he should be arrested and tried … well, technically, he probably did break the law. If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime, yadda yadda. Do I think it’s worth potentially wrecking our relations with Russia over this guy? Not especially, no. They still have a lot of nukes over there, you know. And a scary Mafioso of a president.

• UPDATE: My mistake - Bradley Manning was actually found guilty of almost everything except aiding the enemy. He’s now awaiting sentencing. (A high cost for virtually no benefit.)