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Edward Snowden: Hero Or Hero

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Edward Snowden was single handedly responsible for the largest hack in the digital age. He proved the National Security Agency was performing large scale surveillance on United States Citizens and other nations through Verizon telephone records, Google, and Facebook. In a world where a majority of Americans have a life online, this news of surveillance shook the world. And a 29 year old ex-spy for the Central Intelligence Agency and low-level contractor for Dell, Edward Snowden, was behind the leak. He has been named many different names, from hero to traitor. But what is he really? On the scale from traitor to hero, he falls in the middle, closer to the heroic side. The knowing population is divided in its stance in knowing who really is …show more content…
Was he a traitor for calling out the government for unnecessary surveillance on its people? Well, no. But he wouldn’t be called a hero as well. Some people believe he sold secrets to Russia and China. But in an interview held in October, 2013, he explains after spending some time in Hong Kong, he did not take any classified National Security Agency documents with him to Russia when he fled there earlier, in June. He assured the Russian intelligence officials could not get access to them. He explained he gave all documents to journalists he met in Hong Kong without keeping any for himself “because it wouldn’t serve the public interest”. In the same interview, he mentioned he was able to protect the documents from Chinese spies because he was familiar with the nation’s intelligence abilities. “There’s a zero percent chance the Russians or Chinese have received any documents,” he said. All his intentions were just to let the public know what was going on. He also has a quote saying “I don’t see myself as a hero because what I’m doing is self-interested: I don’t want to live in a world where there’s no privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity.” He is completely correct. “Hero” should be used to describe people who are interested in helping others. But, he was completely in the right for exposing the illegal implications of the National Security Agency. And he believes if he were to return to the United States from Russia, he would not have a fair trial and would be convicted without hearing his side of the story. Which, in human terms, is completely understandable. “I would rather be without a state, than without a

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