This is going to start off with a recap of something explained in my previous article, Whistleblowers: Thomas Drake – what a whistleblower is. Again, understanding what a whistleblower is will be critical to understand this article. On the most basic level, a whistleblower is a person that exposes fraud, abuse, corruption, or dangers to public health and safety. This can be exposed to a superior, a government official, the public, or essentially anyone who has the power to change the wrongdoing. Under US law, whistleblowers do have some protections. However, these protections exist at all different levels and have various definitions and procedures. Because of this, many whistleblowers don’t actually get the level of protection they often anticipate, and can often be retaliated against for blowing the whistle.
In 2013, several important things happened in the political and security scenes of the United States. Barack Obama was inaugurated as president, the government shutdown, tragedy struck the annual Boston Marathon, and NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed some of the US Intelligence Community’s (IC) most confidential secrets, orchestrating the biggest leak in NSA (National Security Agency) history.
Right now, Snowden is living in Russia after leaking sensitive information that exposed the incredible scale of US intelligence monitoring and the threat that it poses to the security of Americans. I want to take the time to look at what Snowden did, why he did it, what it means, and why it matters. Let’s understand the leak that brought the US IC under intense scrutiny, and brought to light some of the most expansive, serious abuses committed by the agencies acting in the name of defending the nation and those who live within it.
What Happened?
On the surface, it seems simple. An intelligence contractor revealed the secrets of the NSA, specifically regarding their intelligence-gathering programs. But it’s more than that.
Edward Snowden was initially CIA, where he worked as a systems administrator and gained top secret clearance. While working in Geneva, Snowden started doubting the morality of US intelligence methods after witnessing CIA techniques employed to simply gain assets, regardless of the value or necessity of such assets. In 2009, Snowden became a contractor for the NSA, working for private companies such as technology giant Dell and military contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. During this time, Snowden began to truly see the vast capability that the NSA, and the rest of the IC, held.
Using his positions as an intelligence officer and technology specialist, Snowden began gathering information on NSA surveillance – the warrantless collection of American’s information, deception of public officials, and court orders that granted access to metadata from internet providers.
The information that Snowden gathered proves several things. First, that any analyst has the ability to access the information held by the NSA. Snowden’s own words simplify: “Any analyst at any time can target anyone.” Second, the scale of collection far surpassed what the public, and many public officials, were ever aware of. The NSA approach was quite simple: collect it all – phone records, internet history, texts, emails, location. Third, NSA actions were arguably illegal. One of Snowden’s principal concerns was that NSA collection violated the Fourth Amendment (no unreasonable search or seizure) on an increasing scale, without any meaningful oversight or even knowledge from officials.
On March 12, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified under oath before Congress. When asked if the NSA collects any kind of data on millions of Americans, Clapper responded with no. When questioned further, his answer is, “Not wittingly.” A blatant lie, and one that Edward Snowden was about to expose.
In May, Snowden took medical leave and flew to Hong Kong with the purpose of exposing his cache of NSA secrets to the public. He conducted interviews with journalists from the Guardian, turned over hundreds of NSA documents, and sent the US IC into chaos. Snowden revealed some of the most sensitive information, and also some of the most concerning. Programs and secrets came into the light, under the eyes of the watchful public. A court order that gave the NSA access to Verizon’s metadata was leaked. NSA practices, such as sharing the metadata of Americans with Israeli intelligence, turning the families of Palestinian or Israeli Americans into targets became exposed. PRISM, a data-mining program that gave not just the NSA, but the FBI and the GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters – essentially Britain’s equivalent of our NSA) access to the servers of Internet giants such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple, was now public information. And the development of the MonsterMind program, a cyber defense and attack system that could inadvertently start a war, was no longer secret.
Understandably, the US government (among others) was not happy. When, on June 9th, Snowden stepped out from behind the previous veil of anonymity, the response was near-immediate. Five days later, Snowden was charged by the US government under the Espionage Act for espionage and theft of government property, and the Department of Justice moved to have Snowden extradited back to the US. However, the government of Hong Kong was unresponsive, and Snowden flew to Russia, intending to go from there to Ecuador. But when the US canceled his passport, Snowden was stuck in Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin was also uncooperative with US extradition proceedings, and Snowden applied for asylum in dozens of countries. One of those applications was accepted by Russia, and Snowden was granted temporary refugee status. This status was renewed in 2017, Snowden got permanent residency in 2020, and just last September, was naturalized as a Russian citizen.
Societal and Security Implications
First, let’s start with the issue of the NSA’s mass collection of information – not just critical, justified collection, but the collection of unwarranted information that threatens the privacy and security of US citizens. The NSA and various other members of the IC have defended their practices regarding privacy – the argument here is that by collecting all information, by knowing as much as they can as often as they can, the federal government is much more able to protect the people and security of the nation. While this may be true to some extent, there is no avoiding the fact that these kinds of programs also jeopardize the right to privacy and security as well. The idea that Snowden was defending when he blew the whistle was that people should be able to choose if they are willing to give up their rights to privacy and security for the purpose of stronger national security. But the status quo undermines the public’s ability to make that choice, and because of that it becomes clear that the government has granted itself power that it is not entitled to.
Second, despite the controversy surrounding Snowden’s decision to blow the whistle, it did lead to beneficial change within the IC. While critical of Snowden’s methods, President Obama created an independent panel to examine the surveillance practices of the intelligence agencies two months later in August of 2013. The panel recommended the suspension of the mass collection of Americans’ phone records, more oversight of sensitive programs, and further Congressional review. Furthermore, the leak led to updates of the Patriot Act and reform of the Foreign International Surveillance Court.
And third, on the front of international security, some have speculated that Snowden shared some of the sensitive information he’d gathered with his host country – Russia. Perhaps as a way to gain residency, or perhaps to threaten the United States, many fear that Snowden’s journey to Russia has threatened the security of the United States. However, Snowden has always denied these claims, saying he destroyed his access to the archive of secrets. Without any evidence that he shared access to sensitive information with Russian intelligence, there’s no room to make a substantive claim that Snowden betrayed the US while in Russia. Besides, it’s worth considering the alternatives to Snowden’s actions. Rather than exposing data collection and seeking asylum, it’s entirely possible that Snowden could have taken his stolen information, then sold the secrets to the highest bidder. Dozens of countries would undoubtedly pay handsomely for access to US intelligence secrets, but we haven’t seen that happen. Snowden acted with almost entirely altruistic intentions, and took steps to minimize any harm caused.
Edward Snowden has unquestionably had a significant impact on US intelligence practices and oversight. By publicly revealing the sheer expanse of collection programs, Snowden returned some of the power to the people that they rightfully deserve. While the implications of his actions are still highly politicized and debated, there’s no denying that IC practices have put American rights in danger in the past, and transparency and accountability are going to be key in order to remedy that.
Bibliography
(2013) DNI Clapper tells Wyden the NSA does not collect data on millions of Americans. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwiUVUJmGjs (Accessed: January 2, 2023).
Bamford, J. (2020) Edward Snowden: The untold story, Wired. Conde Nast. Available at: https://www.wired.com/2014/08/edward-snowden/ (Accessed: January 2, 2023).
Davies, D. (2019) Edward Snowden speaks out: ‘I haven’t and I won’t’ cooperate with Russia, NPR. NPR. Available at: https://www.npr.org/2019/09/19/761918152/exiled-nsa-contractor-edward-snowden-i-haven-t-and-i-won-t-cooperate-with-russia (Accessed: January 2, 2023).
Greenwald, G. and Poitras, L. (2013) Edward Snowden: The whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations, The Guardian. Edited by E. MacAskill. Guardian News and Media. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance (Accessed: January 2, 2023).
Ray, M. (2022) Edward Snowden, Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Snowden (Accessed: January 2, 2023).