So why are news organizations still portraying him as a hero instead of a zero (aka traitor)?
Britain has been forced to move some of its spies after Russia and China accessed the top-secret raft of documents taken by former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, British media reported.
The BBC and the Sunday Times cited senior government and intelligence officials as saying agents had been pulled, with the newspaper saying the move came after Russia was able to decrypt more than one million files.
(Agence France-Presse, June 14, 2015)
Reports like this should give all Westerners pause; especially those who have been hailing Snowden not just as a Post-Orwellian folk hero, but as a suitable candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.
But they only give me conniption fits; after all, I’ve been sounding alarms in this regard from the day he became the most celebrated fugitive since D.B. Cooper.
On the one hand, I’ve been trying to put Snowden’s leaks into perspective by pointing out – in such commentaries as “Ignorance Prevails re NSA Spying and Snowden Leaking,” June 14, 2013 – that the spying the NSA does to keep us safe pales in comparison to the spying Google does just to sell us stuff.
On the other hand, I’ve been damning him as a traitorous fraud – in such commentaries as “Judge Ruling on NSA Spying Amounts to Judicial Selfie,” December 18, 2013 – for claiming that his only mission was to inform the American people about the extent of NSA spying … on them. Because he could have legitimately declared “Mission Accomplished” within six months. Yet here we are, almost two years later, and his leaks are doing nothing but providing aid and comfort to totalitarian regimes like China and Russia and terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS – just as some of us warned would be the case.
Nonetheless, I am acutely aware that I cannot speak with any recognized authority on these matters. Therefore, I’m always keen to cite others whose authority is beyond reproach. Accordingly, here is the alarm no less a person than the head of British intelligence, Sir John Sawers, sounded during a public hearing of the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee:
The leaks from Snowden have been very damaging, they’ve put our operations at risk. It’s clear that our adversaries are rubbing their hands with glee, al-Qaeda is lapping it up.
(ITV News, November 7, 2013)
Sawers of MI6 joined other UK spy chiefs back then to testify about the operational risks the Sunday Times reported on forty-eight hours ago.
Which brings me to Snowden’s guardian/paymaster Glenn Greenwald.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald, who helped break the original stories, told the BBC there was ‘zero evidence’ to support claims Russia and China had gained access to the documents.
He criticised what he called ‘anonymous cowards in the British government’ who had spoken to the Sunday Times.
(BBC, June 15, 2015)
For the record, here is an excerpt – from the aforementioned December 18, 2013, commentary – on Greenwald’s mercenary involvement in Snowden’s ongoing treachery.
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Nothing infuriates me more than watching Greenwald spew self-righteous indignation at anyone who questions the propriety, ethics, and national-security implications of his and Snowden’s venal crusade.
After all, the only thing Greenwald is doing now is peddling his country’s national secrets like a street vendor selling hotcakes. And he’s doing it from his safe haven in Brazil, where Snowden devoutly wishes to be…
But just imagine the windfall Greenwald is enjoying or counting on. He convinced some misguided, open-society do-gooder to donate $250 million for him to set up his own online portal to trade on the million-plus bits of NSA documents he keeps teasing/threatening to release from his journalistic quiver. And if you don’t think Snowden himself expects to be greatly enriched by this enterprise, then you probably think people rob banks for charitable purposes.
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Clearly, it’s an understatement to say that Greenwald has a vested, if not an existential, interest in refuting any claim about Snowden’s leaks causing any damage.
But I need to amend my commentary to reflect that, even more infuriating than watching him spew as indicated, is watching reporters swallow all he spews hook, line, and sinker. You’d think at least one of them would challenge him to explain what public service he and Snowden are providing now by continuing to “hide and leak” classified information that only compromises security operations and undermines diplomatic relations.
I am particularly dismayed that reporters are allowing Greenwald to discredit the report in the Sunday Times because its reporters relied on “anonymous cowards in the British government” as sources for their story. After all, not only do all reporters rely on anonymous sources, but Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post relied on an “anonymous coward in the U.S. government” as the (Deep Throat) source for their Watergate stories. And we know the unprecedented public service they provided by doing so.
In any event, am I the only one who thought that, by now, reporters and politicians alike would be treating Snowden like the useful idiot he has become to America’s enemies? Even I had just cause to treat him as such over a year ago in “From Spycraft to Stagecraft, Snowden Debuts as Putin’s ‘Useful Idiot,” April 22, 2014.
Not to mention that I thought Snowden apologists would come to their senses after German Greens MP Hans-Christian Stroebele made such a fool of himself and fellow Germans. Specifically, this politician flew all the way to Moscow (in November 2013) to invite Snowden to inform the German people about the extent of NSA spying on them. But rival leaks later revealed (in August 2014) that the German spy agency (BND) was engaged in the same kind of NSA spying Snowden had so many Germans venting moral indignation about.
I duly commented on this hoisting with one’s own petard in “Germans Exposed as Spying Hypocrites. Others Will Be Too,” August 20, 2014.
Mind you, I tried to warn Germans and indignant citizens of other countries that this was the case in “I Spy, You Spy, We All Spy,” July 2, 2013.
So again, I plead, what is so heroic about the dangers Snowden has wrought?
Related commentaries:
Ignorance prevails…
Judge ruling…
Snowden/Greenwald…
Spycraft to stagecraft…
I spy…
Germans exposed…
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