Edward Snowden, a complete traitor

‘Snowden’ a newly released movie wrongfully portrays an American traitor, who stole classified material from the NSA, as a hero. Oliver Stone’s movie ‘Snowden’ came out this past September, and many critics say the whistleblower is portrayed as a hero, when in reality he is not. Edward Snowden’s actions were not that of a hero, and he should be brought to justice.

Snowden was a worker for the NSA until he fled to China with several NSA computers. Those computers contained classified NSA material, which was then released to the public when Snowden leaked that information. Snowden is now in Russia after being granted temporary asylum. The information leaked by Snowden revealed methods of surveillance and current operations, which when released, exposed the United States security.

The U.S. House Committee stated Snowden’s leaks “caused tremendous damage” to national security. They even went as far as saying the Snowden is not a whistleblower, but instead someone who gave classified information to US enemies. Among the various pieces of information leaked by Snowden, one of them detailed how the US monitored foreign terrorism.

After that information was made public, several terrorist groups have changed their tactics of communication making it harder for the US to monitor their actions. Clearly, benefitting terrorism is not the actions of a hero. Also terrorist groups will now be more careful with sensitive information knowing the US is monitoring them.

Snowden also released information that damaged the relationship between the United States and its allies. Snowden released documents that showed the US was spying on other foreign leaders, and some of those leaders are allies with the US.

Junior Hunter Wiehe said, “Snowden showed the US was spying on allies, which everyone does, but because this was made public it embarrassed the US.”

Though spying on allies seems like a bad thing, it’s very likely other countries do the same thing. However, because of Snowden’s leak, the information about spying is made public. The intent of the leak was just to shame the U.S. and hurt foreign relations.

Currently Snowden is charged with theft, and two counts of espionage. The last two charges have to do with the communication of defense material and classified documents. All of these charges combined carry a maximum sentence of 30 years. However espionage is a federal crime that can carry the death penalty, though this is not likely.

Wiehe said, “He should go to jail, he broke the law even if he did it for the right reasons, he still broke the law.”

Snowden should face justice for his actions, though he should not face the death penalty. He shouldn’t even serve the maximum penalty because some of his actions were good.

Should Edward Snowden be imprisoned?

• Yes
• No

View Results

 Loading ...

People who say Snowden is a hero and want him to be released, state that what Snowden did was patriotic. They say leaking the information made public the unconstitutional methods of the NSA, that being the unwarranted collection of personal communication of American citizens. Snowden did a service by revealing the collection of metadata, but to say he is a hero ignores the other things he leaked.

Not only did Snowden leak information that benefitted enemies of the U.S. and wounded U.S. foreign affairs, he also went about releasing the information in the wrong way. The way he released the classified material embarrassed the U.S. and he released information that he didn’t need to release. Lastly, Snowden vowed not to share classified material and he knowingly broke that vow.

Whether or not you agree with what Snowden did, one person, or even many, cannot impact the outcome of this situation. However if you ever watch the movie ‘Snowden’ or he comes up in news, just be aware of what he did. And if you watch the movie, take the portrayal of Snowden with a few extra grains of salt knowing the damage he caused, and not just the good.