Ride the Lightning

Wikileaks and Edward Snowden: Natural Bedfellows

June 25, 2013

As reported yesterday, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange told reporters in a 75-minute telephone conference call that Edward Snowden is “healthy and safe.” As I type, we don't know where the former NSA contractor is.

Assange clearly wanted to highlight the assistance that Wikileaks is providing to Snowden, facilitating his departure from Hong Kong. Assange spoke from Ecuador’s embassy in London, where he has spent the past year fighting extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges, which many believe to be inflated. He confirmed reports that Snowden has been given travel papers by Ecuador pending his asylum claim there – a necessity since the U.S. Government (a tad late) revoked his passport. Snowden has also applied for asylum in other countries, no doubt a smart insurance policy.

As usual, the U.S. government is doing itself no favors. Having treated Private Bradley Manning despicably in the recent past, the government now fumbles about publicly with ironies abounding on both sides. Governments which are known to be hostile to the U.S. (and often inhumane) become the natural refuge for someone branded a traitor. Assange sees no irony there, but I do.

On the other side of the coin, the government which champions American values and the Constitution has apparently spied on one and all with impunity for years. Did we think it would never come out? There would inevitably be a Snowden, by any other name. And do we really think the man himself is the problem? Forget his laptops – the data is surely already in the hands of his natural allies, including Wikileaks and the press.

Edward Snowden is not the government's biggest worry – while they must deal with him one way or another (and let us not think black ops here), the far bigger concern is the now-proven activity of the government.

We have heard John Kerry hurl words like "traitor" against someone who, while probably committing a criminal act, gave us proof of widespread government conduct that is likely unconstitutional, appalling to those who value privacy and certainly worrisome to other governments who now perceive the frightening extent of America's communication interceptions of friends and enemies alike. If, as President Obama says, we must focus on checks and balances, where are they? In secret courtrooms?

We do the indefensible and wrap in a cloak of patriotism at our own peril.

“In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it."
– George Orwell, 1984