Edward Snowden: Hero or Traitor - Assignment Example

Edward Snowden- Hero or Traitor After leaking high profile information about NSA’s surveillance, Edward Snowden sparked a debate over the morality of his actions. While some people regarded him as a traitor, some saw him as a hero who risked his freedom to expose appalling abuses by the US intelligence agencies. This paper looks at the reasons why Snowden should be treated as a global hero for taking a step that none before him had managed to take. Questions 1. Did Snowden ask for money for his disclosures? 2. Do his disclosures attack any specific individual? 3. Was he mistreated by the NSA before and decided to hit back? 4. Is the information he discloses true? 5. Are there other parties who have experienced what Snowden exposed? 6. Does he disclose the information to specific parties? 7. Could the US whistleblowers’’ policies have protected him? 8. Were there other options that he could have exploited? 9. Is the disclosure beneficial to the US people? 10. What are the arguments of those who regard him as a traitor?

Cassidy, John. The New Yorker. Why Edward Snowden is A Hero. June 10, 2013. Web. 2 November 2014. Cassidy argues that by exposing the colossal scale of the illegal surveillance carried out by the US government, Snowden’s services to the Americans outweighs any violation of work ethics he may have committed. According to him, Snowden deserves the title of a hero for managing to accomplish what few would do. Wright, David & Kreissl, Reinhard. Surveillance in Europe. UK: Routledge, 2014. Print.

Wright and Kreissl liken Snowden to Ellsberg who in 1971 revealed to the New York Times documents that showed that the US government had lied about the Vietnam War. While these kinds of whistleblowers are first regarded as traitors, the fruits of their actions are only realized much later after they are gone. Jarvis, Jeff. The Guardian. The debate continues on Edward Snowden: Hero or Traitor. 26 November 2013. Web. 4 November 2014. According to Jarvis, considering that official oversight of information privacy in the US and the UK have failed, the two countries can only rely on the protection of last resort who according to him are individuals such as Snowden.

Jarvis argues that only heroes such as Snowden who are ready to expose abuse of power once they detect it will ensure restoration of information privacy.