Ever since technical contractor Edward Snowden leaked details about the massive government surveillance program that the NSA has used against American citizens, the U.S. government has been in a frantic frenzy to capture him. Since the NSA leak, the U.S. government has charged Edward Snowden with "espionage" under the the Espionage Act of 1917, the unconstitutional law passed by President Woodrow Wilson which made it a crime to be against U.S, involvement and participation in World War 1. By charging Edward Snowden with "espionage" and demanding that countries who have Edward Snowden in their borders (like Russia or China) extradite him, the U.S. government is showing the whole world it's dangerous fangs and it's blind hubris. To the Washington elites, it is okay for if the government spies on you and snoops through your emails, letters or phone conversations. But if anyone dares to challenge the American police state or reveal the massive unconstitutional violations of our civil liberties, why you are a spy!
That is what is essentially Edward Snowden's "crime": telling the truth and revealing to the American people the massive violations of civil liberties by the U.S. government in the name of "security". To the elites in Washington D.C., the private lives of private citizens are not a concern when it comes to "national security". You can't keep secrets, but the government apparently can. And if you reveal these secrets, then you are a traitor! That is how I am interpreting the behavior of the U.S. government during this whole episode with Edward Snowden. The U.S. government is behaving in a similar manner to when Bradley Manning and Julian Assange leaked "classified" information about the U.S. government and it's activities around the world.
The revelation that the NSA has been spying on American citizens along with the revelation that the IRS has been targeting opponents of the President is further evidence of the Obama Administration's poor record when it comes to constitutionally protected civil liberties. It should be noted that the NSA program of spying has been around for over a decade, and that a failure to either wind down or dismantle such unconstitutional operations is evidence that the popular perception that leftists Democrats care about civil liberties is false. President Obama even initially promised to protect "noble" and "patriotic" whistle-blowers while guaranteeing transparency in government. But as the Obama Administration's actions towards Julian Assange of Wikileaks and Bradley Manning illustrate, the Obama Administration never really intended to protect whistle-blowers. As Glenn Greenwald has pointed out,
Prior to Barack Obama's inauguration, there were a grand total of three prosecutions of leakers under the Espionage Act (including the prosecution of Dan Ellsberg by the Nixon DOJ). That's because the statute is so broad that even the US government has largely refrained from using it. But during the Obama presidency, there are now sevensuch prosecutions: more than double the number under all prior US presidents combined. How can anyone justify that?
Indeed, the U.S. government believes that Edward Snowden's actions constitute "espionage". How exactly is revealing to the American people about an unjust, unconstitutional and secret government effort to spy on citizens "espionage"? It isn't. As Glenn Greenwald reminds us, espionage constitutes working at the direction of a foreign government, selling the information to a foreign intelligence service, or covertly passing the intelligence to America's "enemies". So far, Edward Snowden has done none of these things. Instead, Edward Snowden, believing that the government has become unjust and corrupt and that the law in question is a tool of injustice, took great personal risks to reveal to the America people the violations of privacy by the U.S. government.
It is interesting to note that Edward Snowden has been pretty good at avoiding the wrath of the U.S. government. Edward Snowden's escape from the U.S. government shows how powerful an individual can be against the lumbering leviathan state and it's bloated bureaucracy. Writes Professor Butler Shaffer of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity:
What amuses me the most in the current Snowden episode, is that the American government, with all of its supposed intelligence-gathering capacities - the revelations of which are at the core of the case against Snowden - cannot locate this man's presence. "All the king's horses, and all the king's men" - even with access to all communications of all Americans - can no more find him than could they anticipate the collapse of the Soviet Union or the attacks of 9/11. The entire affair - along with the actions of Bradley Manning, Julian Assange, and other whistleblowers - helps answer the pessimists who ask "but what can one person do?
So how exactly is the U.S. government's efforts to spy on American citizens, or even non-citizens, unconstitutional? Keeping tabs on the traffic of communications and content that people engage in and actually examining such content and communication violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which states the following: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” In this case, governmental spying on the phone calls, emails and other forms of communications is in essence "search and seizure" that requires a warrant that is supported by Oath of affirmation.
As Ivan Eland explains,
The NSA evidently did obtain an order from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court to acquire data on phone traffic of most Americans. But we should not be under the illusion that this court can correctly read even the text of the Constitution. Granting this order either means that the court stretched the “probable cause” requirement beyond all recognition—every American with a phone cannot really be legitimately suspected of being a terrorist or committing another crime—or did not use the standard at all, the more likely case but just as unconstitutional. A provision in the 2001 PATRIOT Act made it easier to obtain a court order for the government to get business records if they are considered merely relevant to a national security investigation. Yet the aforementioned Fourth Amendment makes no exception for national security matters, and the courts should have thrown out not only the request for the order but this section of the PATRIOT Act as unconstitutional for violating the more strict “probable cause” standard.
Many believe that government spying programs are necessary to fight terrorism. Certainly, terrorism presents a threat to the safety of the United States. But the main reason terrorism is even a threat to begin with is because of a militaristic and interventionist foreign policy of war and empire, especially in the Middle East. American foreign policy is the main motivating factor that drives people, especially young Muslim men, to commit violent acts of terrorism like 9/11. If we wish to combat terrorism, the wars of empire in the Middle East and around the world must come to an end and American military personnel must withdraw from the 800-1000 military bases in 135 countries around the world to return to a foreign policy of armed neutrality, where the military is limited to defending our country from invasion and attack, not actively going abroad in search of monsters to destroy.
Also, constitutionally protected civil liberties should never be violated in the name of "national security". There should always be a bias toward liberty. Part of living in a free society (as the United States should have) means that some amount of risk must be taken if freedom is to survive and thrive. Edward Snowden's efforts demonstrate the need to defend the Constitution and it's limits on government power along with civil liberties now more than ever. Edward Snowden is a hero.
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