Page 51 - Sept Oct Issue
P. 51
The Snowden Effect and Tolerance
actions violate basic human rights. and wife during their most private moments?
Some have suggested that Mr. Snowden should have Let’s say you caught your neighbor in the act of spying
iled a complaint under the Intelligence Community on your wife and daughter. What reasons could your
Whistleblower Protection Act (ICWPA), or at least neighbor give to excuse his actions and prevent you
shared his concerns through the proper chain of from administering serious bodily harm? What if your
command. Mr. Snowden claims to have explored neighbor’s excuse was “I was only peeking through your
those options and others but chose the safest option daughter’s bedroom window and spying on your wife
available to him to inform the public of the US because I wanted to protect them from bad people”?
government’s unconstitutional illegal activity.[5] Would you buy that story? Hardly!
When someone chooses to publicly disseminate The same principle could be applied to the discussion
information that exposes governmental corruption about America’s big brother activities. Collecting the
and dishonesty, an intolerant government swoops metadata of citizens around the globe is in essence
in and identiies that person as a threat to national criminalizing everyone without due process, not
security, and seeks to execute the most severe protecting them. There simply isn’t any justiication for
punishment, even if the punishment violates the most mass surveillance programs. According to US laws, there
basic human rights.[6] must be reasonable cause and a presumption of guilt to
search and seize an individual’s personal information and
Precedence had already been set throughout history property.
in the whistleblowing cases involving Anthony
Russo, Daniel Ellsberg, Russell Tice, J. Kirk Wiebe, A major unintended consequence of a democracy spying
William Binney, Ed Loomis, Thomas Drake, Diane on its own citizens is a rapid deterioration of its polity
Roark, John Kiriakou, Sibel Edmonds, and others. and ability to govern effectively. The inherent stability of
democracies resides in governments governing tolerably.
Mr. Snowden might have concluded that “those Intolerance in any form on the part of any government
in power, whatever their politics, want only to ultimately leads to lawlessness and chaos.
perpetuate it”[7] and would protect their interests by
any means necessary to include lack of due process, The question we should ask ourselves is not whether
character assassination, threats, intimidation, Mr. Snowden violated the laws of his country, because
harassment, torture, and imprisonment. he did, but whether his actions were justiied. Where
the answer is no, he should be held accountable. Where
Many well-meaning people are convinced that the the answer is yes, we have the right to question the
US government’s blanket surveillance programs are legitimacy and legality of the US government’s wide-
designed to protect individual freedom. Mr. Snowden reaching surveillance programs.
argues that this is exactly what the government wants
people to believe. In reality, the very act of collecting If spying on citizens around the world becomes the
metadata not only violates one’s constitutional and normal today, then what other forms of intolerance will
human rights but also undermines the foundation of become the normal tomorrow? Former US President
democracies. Jimmy Carter said, “I think that the secrecy that has been
surrounding this invasion of privacy has been excessive,
Consider the following rationale. How would you so I think that the bringing of it to the public notice has
feel if you suspected that your neighbor was looking probably been, in the long term, beneicial. I think the
through your daughter’s bathroom and bedroom people deserve to know what their [governments] are
windows? What if he were spying on your wife as doing.[8]
well? You’d be enraged, wouldn’t you? Maybe the
better question is what would you do if you found In a debate on state surveillance,[9] Alan Dershowitz,
out that your neighbor was spying on your daughter
51
actions violate basic human rights. and wife during their most private moments?
Some have suggested that Mr. Snowden should have Let’s say you caught your neighbor in the act of spying
iled a complaint under the Intelligence Community on your wife and daughter. What reasons could your
Whistleblower Protection Act (ICWPA), or at least neighbor give to excuse his actions and prevent you
shared his concerns through the proper chain of from administering serious bodily harm? What if your
command. Mr. Snowden claims to have explored neighbor’s excuse was “I was only peeking through your
those options and others but chose the safest option daughter’s bedroom window and spying on your wife
available to him to inform the public of the US because I wanted to protect them from bad people”?
government’s unconstitutional illegal activity.[5] Would you buy that story? Hardly!
When someone chooses to publicly disseminate The same principle could be applied to the discussion
information that exposes governmental corruption about America’s big brother activities. Collecting the
and dishonesty, an intolerant government swoops metadata of citizens around the globe is in essence
in and identiies that person as a threat to national criminalizing everyone without due process, not
security, and seeks to execute the most severe protecting them. There simply isn’t any justiication for
punishment, even if the punishment violates the most mass surveillance programs. According to US laws, there
basic human rights.[6] must be reasonable cause and a presumption of guilt to
search and seize an individual’s personal information and
Precedence had already been set throughout history property.
in the whistleblowing cases involving Anthony
Russo, Daniel Ellsberg, Russell Tice, J. Kirk Wiebe, A major unintended consequence of a democracy spying
William Binney, Ed Loomis, Thomas Drake, Diane on its own citizens is a rapid deterioration of its polity
Roark, John Kiriakou, Sibel Edmonds, and others. and ability to govern effectively. The inherent stability of
democracies resides in governments governing tolerably.
Mr. Snowden might have concluded that “those Intolerance in any form on the part of any government
in power, whatever their politics, want only to ultimately leads to lawlessness and chaos.
perpetuate it”[7] and would protect their interests by
any means necessary to include lack of due process, The question we should ask ourselves is not whether
character assassination, threats, intimidation, Mr. Snowden violated the laws of his country, because
harassment, torture, and imprisonment. he did, but whether his actions were justiied. Where
the answer is no, he should be held accountable. Where
Many well-meaning people are convinced that the the answer is yes, we have the right to question the
US government’s blanket surveillance programs are legitimacy and legality of the US government’s wide-
designed to protect individual freedom. Mr. Snowden reaching surveillance programs.
argues that this is exactly what the government wants
people to believe. In reality, the very act of collecting If spying on citizens around the world becomes the
metadata not only violates one’s constitutional and normal today, then what other forms of intolerance will
human rights but also undermines the foundation of become the normal tomorrow? Former US President
democracies. Jimmy Carter said, “I think that the secrecy that has been
surrounding this invasion of privacy has been excessive,
Consider the following rationale. How would you so I think that the bringing of it to the public notice has
feel if you suspected that your neighbor was looking probably been, in the long term, beneicial. I think the
through your daughter’s bathroom and bedroom people deserve to know what their [governments] are
windows? What if he were spying on your wife as doing.[8]
well? You’d be enraged, wouldn’t you? Maybe the
better question is what would you do if you found In a debate on state surveillance,[9] Alan Dershowitz,
out that your neighbor was spying on your daughter
51
