Trevor Timm - Snowden's leaks forced NSA reform on Congress. The US would still jail him
The catalyst for Congress’ historic
vote on NSA reform on Tuesday – the same person who led to a federal
court to rule that NSA mass surveillance of Americans was illegal –
remains exiled from the United States and faces decades in jail. The crime he’s
accused of? Telling the American public the very truth that forced Congress to
restrict, rather than expand, the spy agency’s power for the first time in over
forty years.
The passage of the USA Freedom Act is
quite simply a vindication of Edward Snowden, and it’s not just civil
libertarians who have noticed: he’s forced even some of the most establishment-friendly
commentators to change their opinions of his actions. But it’s a shame
that almost everyone nonetheless ignores the the oppressive law under which
Snowden was charged or the US government’s outrageous position in his case:
that if he were to stand trial, he could not tell the jury what his
whistleblowing has accomplished.
The White House told
reporters on Thursday that, despite the imminent passage of NSA
reform, they still believe Edward Snowden still belongs in prison (presumably
for life, given his potential charges), while at the same time, brazenly taking
credit for the USA Freedom Act passing, saying that “historians” would consider
it part of Obama’s “legacy.” Hopefully historians will also remember, as Ryan
Lizza adeptly documented
in the New Yorker, that Obama was handed every opportunity to reform the
NSA before Edward Snowden, yet behind the scenes repeatedly refused to do so.
Instead, the Obama administration was dragged kicking and screaming across the
finish line by Snowden’s disclosures, all while engaging
in fear-mongering that would make Dick Cheney proud. Snowden is now the most influential whistleblower of his
generation. Even his biggest detractors, the same people who once all but
refused to utter his name, have recently had to concede his influence. Take,
for example, this amusing
article at the Huffington Post quoting various Senators across the
political spectrum who were forced to begrudgingly admit that they wouldn’t
even be having the debate over reforming the NSA’s surveillance practices if it
wasn’t for Snowden. You can almost hear the contempt coming out of their mouths
as you read their reactions.
Sadly, even those in Congress who were campaigning for
stronger NSA reform than the bill that passed the Senate are afraid to directly
credit Snowden and, in many cases, still condemn him. Some cling
to the erroneous belief that Snowden should come back to the US if
he’s really a whistleblower because he could “tell his story to a jury.” But
since he was charged under the draconian Espionage Act – a World War I-era
statute meant for spies, not leakers – Snowden would not even be able to utter
the word “whistleblower” in court, let alone tell a jury why he did what he
did. Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg explained
in great detail how any evidence Snowden wanted to bring up to a judge
would be ruled inadmissible, thanks to the incredibly restrictive way the
Espionage Act is written.
And don’t kid yourselves when the White House talks about
bringing Snowden to “justice”; his case has never been about “justice” when it
comes to leaking government secrets to journalists. As US officials have shown
repeatedly over the last year, they will happily leak classified details to
newspapers more
sensitive than what Snowden leaked if it means glorifying and
defending their policies. Glenn Greenwald noted late last
month that so many politicians and pundits in Washington DC seem to
dislike Snowden not because what he leaked, but because he was able to shift
the dominant narrative about national security away from the
all-fear-all-the-time norm that so dominated in Washington for the last decade.
Establishment DC, by and large, still hates him because he
has continued to not only participate, but thrive in the debate about US
national security, despite being exiled from his home country. How he managed
to do so is remarkable in itself: thanks to technology, Snowden can appear
at Princeton one day and Sweden the next and comment on the day’s news
and developments, instead of being gagged from speaking to the press like
Chelsea Manning was while
she was tortured, awaiting her court martial. Snowden is cracking jokes on
Reddit instead of rotting in solitary confinement at a maximum
security prison.
Without Edward Snowden, there would be no debate about the
mass surveillance of Americans by the NSA. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals
would not have ruled
such surveillance illegal, tech companies would
not encrypt our phone calls and text messages, and Congress certainly would
not have passed the USA Freedom Act - no matter how
meager its reforms actually are. Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which
the NSA used to secretly vacuum up every American’s phone records, would have
been renewed in a landslide with little fanfare – it always was in the past –
and the American people would have been none the wiser.
But there also might have not been an Edward Snowden if it
wasn’t for the whistleblowers who risked it all before him. Lost in the
national discussion about Snowden’s leaks and NSA reforms has been the US
government’s deplorable treatment of the NSA whistleblowers who came before
Snowden: Thomas
Drake,Bill
Binney, J
Kirk Wiebe, Diane
Roark and others. They were investigated, had their phones wiretapped,
were pulled
out of their houses at gunpoint, and in one case, was charged under the Espionage
Act for internally protesting the NSA’s illegal and unconstitutional
actions after 9/11. The USA Freedom Act vote was just as much vindication for
those men and women whose lives were destroyed for telling the truth but who
never became household names.
It is an ongoing travesty that the Espionage Act – a bill
meant to punish spies who sell secrets to foreign governments – can be used in
such a vindictive and draconian way against someone who wanted to hand the
truth to the American people. Snowden told
the Guardian two weeks ago that he saw the USA Freedom Act as the
beginning and not the end of NSA reform. Hopefully Congress will one day soon
also have the courage to give whistleblowers their normally-guaranteed right to
defend themselves in court, and not send them to straight to jail or worse.
