WESTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY

America Divided
Edward Snowden

Jesse Poole
4/28/2014







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Controversy continues regarding Edward Snowdens decision to out the United States
National Security Agencys (NSA) internet and telephone metadata surveillance programs that
spied on millions of U.S. and foreign citizens (Greenwald, MacAskill, & Poitras, 2013). The
decision to leak thousands of classified NSA documents to The Guardian Post has divided the
countrys opinion as to whether Snowden is a hero or a traitor (Jarvis, 2013). This text will
describe the opinion of the U.S. and other countries, according to online polling, as well as the
U.S. governments position. Additionally, actions by James Clapper, Director of National
Intelligence, situated in the NSA, and Keith Alexander, Director of the National Security Agency
will be dissected. The primary purpose of this paper is to outline the facts surrounding the NSA
leak and defend the position that Edward Snowden is not a traitor to the United States, and key
leaders in the NSA have not been held accountable for implementing an illegal program and
lying under oath at a congressional hearing.
What the People Say
While it is unlikely the U.S. government will rescind the warrant for Edward Snowden
solely based on the opinion of the U.S. people, it is important to discuss how the everyday citizen
feels about the situation. According to Edwards-Levy (2013), results from an Angus Reid
Global online poll in 2013 show that 51percent of Americans believe that Snowden is
something of a hero who should be commended for letting the public know that our
governments are running electronic surveillance programs that threaten peoples privacy, while
the other 49 percent stated that he is more of a traitor who should be condemned for publicizing
security activities and threatening western intelligence operations (Edwards-Levy, 2013);
however, the article does not state how many people were polled. Interestingly, 54 percent of
Americans agree that security and anti-terrorism efforts mean we may sometimes have to

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infringe on civil liberties such as personal information privacy; however, a small number are
content with the idea. Specifically, 60 percent of Americans say that extensive electronic
government surveillance programs, like the one leaked by Snowden, would be inappropriate.
Finally, an equal amount of people put very little to no trust in the current U.S. governments
abilities to guard the citizens personal information (Edwards-Levy, 2013).
Although some polls show close to equal division of support, others suggest little support
for Snowdens actions. For example, an online poll by The Huffington Post indicates that 30
percent of Americans believed that Snowdens decision to release top-secret information about
the NSA government surveillance program was the right thing to do, while 35 percent of those
polled stated that it was the wrong thing to do. Twenty-eight percent stated they were not sure
(Blumenthal, 2013). One notable difference between The Huffington Post poll and the one
conducted by Angus Reid Global is The Huffington Post allowed for an unsure response,
where the Angus poll did not. Respondents that reported paying a lot of attention to the leak
story were more likely to say that Snowden did the right thing (50%), compared to those that did
not state they followed the story closely (34%).
Similar polling echoes the notion that the U.S. is unsure what to think. Results from a
Gallup poll showed that 44 percent of respondents believed that Snowden did the right thing,
while 42 percent believed he did the wrong thing, and 14 percent were neutral (Newport, 2013).
An online poll by Reuters/Ipsos reported that 31 percent of respondents were prepared to label
Snowden a patriot, 23 percent a traitor, and 46 percent who could apply neither (Sullivan,
2013). Finally, a poll conducted by Time Magazine showed that 54 percent of respondents
believed that Snowden did a good thing by leaking the classified information, compared to 30
percent that disagreed (Miller, 2013). Perhaps the most interesting set of data is an almost

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identical number of respondents, 53 percent, believed that Snowden should still be prosecuted,
while 28 percent do not (Miller, 2013). These polls provide valuable insight into the opinion of
the U.S. people; however, it also is apparent that the topic is not black and white.
He is a Traitor
As seen in the polling numbers, it is clear many people believe that Edward Snowden is
in fact a traitor. There are multiple arguments supporting the belief that the 29 year-old NSA
contractor sold out the United States. One common argument is that Snowden did not work
within the already structured system to correct the problem. This argument is reiterated by
former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who publically announced his views on the topic by
calling Snowden a traitor (Epatko, 2014). Gates went on to say that neither the House nor the
Senates intelligence oversight committees had indicated any wrongdoing by the NSA or any
lack of awareness of its surveillance programs (Epatko, 2014, p. 1). Adding to his original
comment, Gates stated the government has built an institution of oversight over intelligence-
gathering for the past 40 years, and there are avenues for people to pursue with the authorities if
they believe a law has been broken (Epatko, 2014, p. 1). These types of statements by high
ranking defense staff reaffirm the governments position that Snowden was wrong in his actions.
In addition to the notion that Snowden did not follow the proper channels to voice his
concerns, several high-ranking officials in the defense and intelligence communities claimed the
leaks put lives at risk. Buck McKeon, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, shared his
opinion after a classified NSA briefing by stating Snowden has given our enemies an edge and
put our warfighters at risk (Wong, & Herb, 2014, p. 1). While the chairmans statements appear
bold regarding the level of risk Snowden put American soldiers in, McKeon went one step
further and asserted the data leaks aided terrorists (Wong, & Herb, 2014). McKeon and the

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United States government are not standing alone with the idea that Snowden risked peoples
lives. Britains Security Minister, James Brokenshire, claims Snowden leaked information that
put his countrys people at risk by revealing a shared intelligence program that tapped into fiber-
optic cables carrying international phone and internet traffic (Holden, 2013). Brokenshire added
the Disclosure of highly sensitive information can be damaging. It can certainly undermine our
security, certainly it can put lives at risk (Holden, 2013, p. 1). A third high-ranking official in
the Australian government has also claimed that Snowden put Australian lives at risk by leaking
the highly classified NSA information. George Brandis, Australias Attorney General, publically
announced that Snowden is a traitor to his country. Brandis was quoted saying through his
criminal dishonesty and his treachery to his country, [Snowden] has put lives, including
Australian lives, at risk (Keane, 2014, p. 1). Interestingly, the armed services committee,
Britains security minister and Australias attorney general all claimed Snowden put peoples
lives at risk, but failed to provide evidence to support the allegation (Wong, & Herb, 2014;
Holden, 2013; Keane, 2014).
Another claim made by the United States government is that Snowden committed an act
of espionage (Williams & Bratu, 2013; Finn & Horwitz, 2013; Goyette, 2013). Federal
prosecutors charged Snowden with three crimes in June, 2013. Snowden is facing one count of
theft of government property and two counts under the Espionage Act that include giving
national defense information to someone without a security clearance and revealing classified
information about communications intelligence (Williams & Bratu, 2013). If convicted,
Snowden faces a maximum of ten years for each offense.



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What About the NSA?
While the U.S. government and other allied countries continue to spotlight Snowdens
illegal activities, critics of the now public NSA intelligence program are directing their attention
to key players in the programs creation and knowledge of existence. The two most notable
NSA officials are James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, and Keith Alexander,
Director of the National Security Agency. Alexander, at the annual 2013 Black Hat conference,
told the public that NSAs intelligence-gathering programs prevented 54 terrorist attacks (Kelly,
2013). Unfortunately the statement was completely false. Almost two months later, the four-star
Army general stood before a Senate Judiciary Committee and admitted that his staff released
numbers that significantly overstated the success of the intelligence program as it relates to
counterterrorism effectiveness (Waterman, 2013). In other words, the general lied about the
intelligence program stopping 54 terrorist plots from occurring. When pressed for a more
accurate number, Alexander cited one, maybe two (Waterman, 2013).
Committee Chair, Senator Patrick Leahy, displayed skepticism toward the validity of the
data gathering intelligence program by stating there is no evidence that [bulk] phone records
collection helped to thwart dozens or even several terrorist plots adding that the initial 54
incidents werent all plots and they werent all foiled (Waterman, 2013). The mass-data
collection program is so disconcerting that Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr., author of The Patriot
Act, is working with the committee chair on drafting a bill that would remove the authority under
the act to allow bulk data collection (Waterman, 2013).
General Alexander is not the only one in the hot-seat regarding deception. James
Clapper, former Lieutenant Air Force General and current Director of National Intelligence,
openly lied under oath and committed perjury in a congressional hearing in June, 2013. Nearly

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eight months later, Clapper admitted that the NSA should have told Congress and the American
people about the surveillance program (Ackerman, 2014). Although it is clear that Clapper
committed perjury when answering Senator Ron Wydens question regarding the mass collection
of any type of data on millions of Americans, the United States government has shown no
intention of pursuing charges against Clapper. This was made clear when President Barack
Obama appointed Clapper to oversee an independent NSA review of its surveillance activities
(Lee, 2013). Some would consider this a slap in the face, seeing that, months before, Clapper
obviously deceived Congress and the American people regarding its data mining activities. Now
the intelligence director is in charge of reviewing NSA intelligence programs similar to the
illegal one he lied about to congress.
He is not a Traitor
Despite the overwhelming evidence stacked against Edward Snowden, there are millions
of Americans that firmly believe he is not a traitor. The most recent and damning piece of
evidence against the U.S. government comes from the ruling of a federal judge asserting the
NSA intelligence data gathering program is unconstitutional (Johnson & Wolf, 2013; Mears &
Cohen, 2013; Savage, 2013). U.S. District Judge Richard Leon stated that the NSAs metadata
collection and intelligence program apparently violates privacy rights (Mears & Cohen, 2013).
Leon describes the invasion of privacy by stating "I cannot imagine a more 'indiscriminate' and
'arbitrary invasion' than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on
virtually every citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval"
(Mears & Cohen, 2013).
In addition to striking down the governments argument that a 1979 Maryland ruling set
precedents for the constitutionality of collecting phone metadata, citing the significant increase

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in phone use over the last three decades, the government has failed to provide one instance in
which the program stopped an imminent attack on the U.S. or other allied countries (Mears &
Cohen, 2013). Although such statements provide indirect support for Snowden supporters, the
judge suspended his ruling, pending an appeal by the U.S. government. Senator Mark Udall of
Colorado, who has shown skepticism toward the data mining program, reflected on the judges
ruling by stating the bulk collection of Americans' phone records conflicts with Americans'
privacy rights under the U.S. Constitution and has failed to make us safer and proposed
legislation to ensure the NSA focuses on terrorists and spies - and not innocent Americans
(Mears & Cohen, 2013).
The federal judges ruling, coupled with statements and actions made by top ranking
NSA officials, including the apology made by James Clapper regarding his deceitful
congressional testimony, indicate that while Edward Snowdens method of revealing the illegal
data gathering program is questionable, he is not a traitor. The foundation of this argument is
rooted in the actions of senior NSA officials, and the suspended ruling by U.S. District Judge
Leon that the intelligence program violates privacy laws and is unconstitutional. Perhaps the
biggest question posed to the opposition is how can [the U.S. Government] charge a man with
espionage for revealing a spy program that has been deemed illegal and unconstitutional by a
federal judge?
Implications
Snowdens decision to leak classified information regarding the actions being taken by
the NSA to spy on millions of Americans, illegally, has sparked concern throughout, not only the
average American home, but the digital world as well. It is no secret the U.S. government has
the power and ability to gather a significant amount of digital information related to American

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activities; however, privacy laws prevent such actions from being taken without proper judicial
approval. Unfortunately, this NSA program was a warrantless collection of protected data of
millions of Americans. As society and information continues to transition into a digital world,
more information will be readily available with the click of a button. Adding to the ambiguity,
The Patriot Act has now set the tone for unprecedented access to Americans private lives with
vague and obscure verbiage.
Technology has become a part of our daily lives. The average American would have to
significantly go out of their way to avoid using digital technology that is connected to the
internet. Government, private companies, non-profits, schools, and even libraries have been
adapting to the digital world in order to make information more readily available and improve
their processes. While this type of progression is often seen as a good move, it may also come at
a cost the price of knowing how easy your behavior and information online can be accessed.
Prior to the digital age, the government would have to come to your house or visit your work in
order to obtain physical documentation regarding your activities. Because a significant amount
of documentation is now recorded online, instead of on paper, government officials and
illegitimate users are able to access digital information without leaving their office.
The outing of the NSA intelligence program has brought to light real concerns that many
Americans have had over the last decade regarding the prevention of illegal access to the
everyday Americans data by the U.S. Government without knowledge or consent. The NSA
metadata collection program validates concerns that government agencies with advanced
intelligence programs do not have the proper oversight. Although, President Obama has ordered
an independent review to determine whether the United States is properly employing its
technical collection capabilities in a manner that optimally protects our nations security and

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advances our foreign policy while appropriately accounting for other policy considerations
(Johnson, 2013). Unfortunately, the move provides little comfort to those closely following the
situation seeing as President Obama appointed James Clapper to head the development of the
review group; the same man that mislead Congress, and the American people, about the
existence of such programs.





















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