Too many words about Edward J. Snowden? The man responsible for telling the world that the NSA makes routine requests to various media companies (Verizon, Google, et al.) for “meta-data” about phone calls, email and other communications generally thought to be protected by the Fourth Amendment has the media in a frenzy. Mr. Snowden is on the run from authorities, skipping the US for Hong Kong, then onto Moscow and who knows where next–maybe Ecuador? Cuba?–as journalists jimmy for position on the great hide-and-seek junket, manufacturing excitement where there is little.
Snowden exposed details about a program that was understood, if a bit vaguely, to be underway since the Bush administration pushed through the Patriot Act. The current administration says there is nothing illegal about the program–and defends its use on the grounds that it operates in a manner that protects both the privacy and security of US citizens. Snowden hasn’t specifically endangered any lives, the way the leaker of Valerie Plame’s identity did in 2003 (putting at risk not only Plame, but her former contacts). Snowden’s contract required him not to reveal what he knew of the program, but beyond breaking that promise he seems to have done little more than let people know that their information was being accessed–access that the government insists is legal and necessary for national security. (Why does no one mention the fact that the corporations being queried have and hold this data in the first place?) In fact, Snowden assured people who might otherwise have been concerned that national security procedures which have been authorized for over a decade are in place and working. Now rescinding the Patriot Act is a different story…
