Ed Snowden is like those bacteria we harbor in our bodies; they may be disgusting, slimy,and repulsive, but we need them every now and then to keep our healthy balance. His treacherous acts notwithstanding Mr. Snowden has helped us keep freedom, privacy and security in the headlines. Is this man hero? the answer is no, someone with heroic intentions would have stayed home, blown the whistle and faced the consequences instead of fleeing to the enemy with a bag full of embarrassing known secrets.
What worries me most is how passive the intelligence community in this country was a day or two after his defection and surprising re-emergence in Hong Kong, which could be indicative of the very little they knew about how high he had climbed in its structure and how much he actually knew. and this proves once again the ineptness of those we pay to protect us. The president calls him a 29 year old hacker (the term most improperly used) trying to downplay the fact that this punk seems to have had access to a lot of privileged information.
Now we officially get to know what we knew all along: the US government spies on friend and foe alike. The EU is threatening to walk away from an important deal (as if they had a choice) and the European leaders are posturing in their criticism. Ironically, the man who vowed to improve America's image abroad witnesses speechlessly, between one expensive trip and the next, how we rampantly fall to our lowest in popularity since the Vietnam war.
What worries me most is how passive the intelligence community in this country was a day or two after his defection and surprising re-emergence in Hong Kong, which could be indicative of the very little they knew about how high he had climbed in its structure and how much he actually knew. and this proves once again the ineptness of those we pay to protect us. The president calls him a 29 year old hacker (the term most improperly used) trying to downplay the fact that this punk seems to have had access to a lot of privileged information.
Now we officially get to know what we knew all along: the US government spies on friend and foe alike. The EU is threatening to walk away from an important deal (as if they had a choice) and the European leaders are posturing in their criticism. Ironically, the man who vowed to improve America's image abroad witnesses speechlessly, between one expensive trip and the next, how we rampantly fall to our lowest in popularity since the Vietnam war.
