A Traitor to the Government
The greatest leaks of government secrets in American history occurred when Edward Joseph Snowden, a former N.S.A. employee, discovered classified documents regarding the U.S government running global surveillance programs. Code named PRISM, he believed that this is an unlawful act, an invasion of privacy being executed by the United States. His belief will eventually motivate him to disclose those documents to journalists and begin the biggest manhunt in decades.
Growing up in a family with a governmental background, Snowden's father was an officer in the coastal guards while his mother worked as a clerk at the U.S district court of Maryland. Edward Snowden himself willingly joined the N.S.A. however, his intentions were much more complicated. He sought this position in order to uncover proof that the United States government is cyberspying on its citizens.
A Secret Disclosed
If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.
-Thomas Jeffereson
Upon gaining hard evidence, Snowden said he tried to raise his concerns legally through internal channels but he was not taken seriously. After his attempts failed to receive recognition, he decided to expose those documents to journalists. However, he wanted someone trustworthy, and fortunately for him, Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian agreed to meet up with him after being pestered by Snowden for days.
On May 20, 2013, Snowden flew to Hong Kong from Hawaii after taking leave from his job at N.S.A. His objective was to meet up with Glenn Greenwald and several other journalists and hand over thousands of classified documents. Greenwald never met Snowden prior, and their first meeting turned out to be quite unexpected, Snowden was holding a Rubik's Cube in his hand and looked barely old enough to shave. He led them to his hotel room, closed the windows, and told them his story.
Greenwald soon recognized how big this news is going to be, but he also realized the dangerous position Snowden has put himself in. The United States has a record of not treating whistleblowers too kindly. Snowden understands this and did not ever expect himself to ever make it out of Hong Kong; being caught and sent back to the States to face the music is the masterplan.
En Route for Russia
“Ultimately, saying that you don't care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different from saying you don't care about freedom of speech because you have nothing to say.”
-Edward Snowden, Permanent Record
When WikiLeaks caught a whiff of Snowden's stories, they began ploy for his escape. Sarah Harrison, a journalist working at wiki leaks flew over to Hong Kong and convinced Snowden into flying over to Russia, after some hesitations, he agreed. China has not issued an arrest warrant on him, although the United States is increasingly pressuring them to do so.
On June 23rd, Snowden and Harrison left for the airport en route for Russia. By a miracle, the US government misspelled Snowden's middle name as "James" instead of "Joseph". They also did not cancel his passport until after he boarded the plane and with such, Snowden passed through the checkpoint smoothly.
Russia was not meant to be their final destination, they originally hoped of getting to Latin or South America, however, getting there is not a breeze, as European nations forbade any plane carrying Snowden from entering their air space; they will shoot them down if necessary. He found himself trapped in the Moscow airport with the US government likely to kidnap him, journalists and paparazzi hoping to catch him for interviews, and Russia denying his entry.
Snowden and Harrison lived in the airport hotel for nearly forty days before finally granted temporary asylum in Russia. He found a private place to stay before reuniting with his partner Lindsay Mills, they were married sometime later. Sarah Harrison who aided Snowden was unexpectedly quiet after the incident and lived in Germany ever since. The formal British journalist lived an exiled-like life away from her home in Britain, she has been forbidden to return since. "If you forced her to choose between disowning her principles or being burned at the stake," Snowden writes, "I think she’d hand you a match.”
Images used in this post are from Unsplash, royalty-free images. All sources are embedded in the images.
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