The strange case of Edward Snowden:

The strange case of Edward Snowden:

Edward Snowden was back in the news today for again asking Russia for asylum. I have been perplexed by his motive ever since the first news of his leaks came out, and it has got more intriguing as to what his objective was. If it was quick fame, then he has achieved it, but at what cost? Time will tell, and this could be in very quick time too. As per the Guardian, he said that “I can’t allow the US government to destroy privacy and basic liberties”. If it is for a higher good as he claims ‘to inform the public’ of what the US and UK Governments have done, then it is a wash. It is no secret that countries and governments spy, all countries do and the US is obviously no exception. They spy internally on their own people for national security purposes (mostly), and externally as well. It is not even a secret all over the world that US has an organization called the CIA and spying is their core competency. Internal spying (or eavesdropping) has been on going since the time of the cold war (or even before), just that it was not on the electronic format during those days. Every nation does this for their national security, though the level of spying varies from country to country, the US will occupy one of the top 3 spots with Russia and China. In the current post Sept 11 era, this is the new normal, and that is why it was a non-issue even in the partisan US political scene with the republicans hardly shaking a leg on this topic too at a time when they are looking for every opportunity to pounce on Obama.

The amusing part of the Snowden story is that he wanted to seek asylum in a country with ‘shared values’. And what were the first countries he looked at for asylum, China (Hong Kong) and Russia, apart from Iceland. Hmm, I am trying to think of what the ‘shared values’ he has with Russia and China, a very open government?, or a government that does not spy at all?, or a government that has high human rights values? KGB must be a ballet company to Snowden and the Communist dictators of China must have been Buddhist monks. So when that asylum attempt failed, he then turned to any country that could offer him an asylum. He was offered the same at Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, and he is willing to take it if he can get to any of these places. It needs no introduction on what kind of governments are in control in these countries, for sure they are a far cry from the ‘basic liberties’ that he seems to be fighting a lone battle for. Snowden explained his actions saying: "I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things [surveillance on its citizens]... I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. You might be welcome to any of these countries Edward, but every single move of yours will be recorded and tracked, including to the loo, so much for privacy and basic liberties. If you are still trying to break your head on why China and Russia are reluctant to take you in, it is because they are shit scared of you that you will find out that they are much worse, so much worse by miles, that you’d go puking around on all fours with lack of freedom, liberty, human rights and privacy, and that you will end up taking them to the headlines at Guardian for the wrong reasons.

 Oh, and by the way, why are you so against the US government, what about private companies like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, et al. Have you ever looked at gmail? For being someone who is very computer and privacy savy, I’d have assumed that you’d raise a stink about a company like Google, for showing relevant ads based on the content of your email. Try visiting an online shopping site, like The Children’s Place looking for dress for kids. Then you’d find out when browsing later on other sites, including at Guardian, that ads from Children’s Place are popping up everywhere you go. Looks like he missed such things in the midst of his path breaking big privacy discovery, else it could have been shutters for Google. Or maybe not, he was probably aware of this and knew that speaking out against Google would not have gotten him any attention, but going abroad and speaking out against the US government will garner a lot of attention for press that is looking for topics that can spike the eye ball count. Btw, I am not telling that Google and other private firms have a privacy issue, maybe there is an issue, but I don’t feel it is of concern to me as it does help users to get what is to his liking, even if it is ads. I don’t believe that these companies can have any individual scan through emails, which would have been a privacy issue. This is what the goverment does as well, unless they find a security related suspicion in which case they need to dig further. I am fine with that and so are most others, which is why this became a non-issue. Finally, I am not sure of what Guardian is trying to achieve as well, unlike the case of the ‘News Of the World’ phone hacking scandal which was also first reported in Guardian.

 In the strange case of Edward Snowden, there are no big winners, if at all there is some winner it is Guardian, and certainly not Snowden. There are many losers, the biggest of them being the US Government, and the country as such. His employeerBooz also took some hit in the process. So much for Snowden who also claimed to be a patriot. This news took the leverage the US had against China for its cyber spying on US based computers (government and private) and stealing information, as the news coincided with President Xi’s meeting with President Obama. Maybe one day Snowden will provide his real motive for the leaks, it could be as a memoir to make some quick money, but till then I can only think that this was done just for some quick fame and was misguided.

 

-Ramanuja Iyer