Snowden should not be punished for the information leak
By: Marie Schwarz
Managing Editor
Edward Snowden got in trouble back in 2013 for leaking classified material of the National Security Agency.
Some see him as a traitor to his country while others celebrate him as a sort of hero.
Without a doubt, Snowden definitely acted illicitly when he did what he did, but so too did the government in the first place with extreme Internet and phone surveillance behind closed doors.
Instead of facing jail-time, Snowden should be pardoned by the president.
He did something illegal, but he did it for a good cause.
If it wasn’t for him, who else would have spoken up? Let’s not sugar coat it: what the NSA did was an invasion of privacy.
Therefore, the government is the evil player here, not Snowden.
It takes a brave person to step up and say something, or leak something.
Snowden didn’t act out of pure malevolence, but because he believed it was the right thing to do.
And wasn’t it? Wouldn’t you want to know that every step you take might be recorded by a government agency? Because the government wouldn’t have told you if it weren’t for Snowden stepping up — they would have continued in silence.
Pardoning Snowden should set an example for the government that it can’t just do whatever the heck it wants.
There are rules.
And though I understand that some delicate information is not meant to be blown out to the public, that does not give the government permission to act illegally on a colossal scale.
One concern might be that if the president pardons Snowden, there will be some kind of whistle-blow-mania result from this.
No one could share touchy information with anyone anymore, because you don’t know if you can trust each other.
However, looking at the case of Snowden, I don’t think he started working for the government just to look for evidence of illegal activity that we see here.
It was an ethics call to say something once he realized what was going on.
And I’m sure it was not an easy decision to make.
George Orwell predicted a surveillance state in his book “1984,” and maybe because of Snowden, we are one less step away from that reality.
In conclusion, Snowden should either be pardoned or stay in exile.
Seeing him return to the US to face jail time would send out the wrong message and would not provide justice to someone who, in fact, did this country — and the world — a great favor.
