Snowden – Hero or Traitor?

Who Is Edward Snowden?

This weekend Snowden was released in movie theaters across our nation. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Edward Snowden in the latest Oliver Stone film. The controversial film follows the former CIA and NSA employee from 2004 to 2013, when the leak of classified information occurred. The United States hasn’t quite had such a dividing and polarizing figure like this in some time. Some Americans view him as a traitor. Others view him as a whistle blower and a hero. You will have to form your own opinion. Just know that not caring about the government watching you because you do nothing wrong is like not caring about freedom of speech because you have nothing to say.

Life Of Secrecy – Hacks, Espionage, and Lies

Edward Snowden enlisted in the Army Reserves as a Special Forces candidate in 2004. He was discharged from the Army after breaking both his legs in a training incident, although the movie portrays him breaking a single leg while getting out of bed during a early morning drill. Shortly after this event, he is employed by the CIA. He quickly stands out as a computer wizard and is top of his class. He is shipped to Geneva, Switzerland on a diplomatic UN mission. During his time here, he first becomes aware that the United States has the technology to spy on anyone without any prior permissions or warrants. He witnesses first hand how the CIA uses personal information on people to apply pressure on them to become informants. After quitting his job at the CIA, he travels to Tokyo, Japan and becomes a contractor for the NSA, which leads to trouble with him and his girlfriend. Upon returning to the states and fixing things with his girlfriend, he is offered an opportunity to work for the NSA’s operations in Hawaii that monitors China and North Korea. While there, he is able to gather the mass amount of top secret data, and proof that the NSA monitors our own citizens more than other countries, that was eventually leaked to the media. The breaking point is believed to have been when NSA director James Clapper lied to Congress under oath, stating that they do not and cannot monitor the American people.

Whistle Blower In Hong Kong & Asylum In Russia

In May of 2013, Edward Snowden takes a leave of absence from his job to fly to Hong Kong. He stays at the same hotel, rarely leaving his room for nearly three weeks after agreeing to meet with journalists and film makers who would eventually break the stories to The Guardian and The Washington Post. Providing evidence that the NSA was mining data and tapping into anyone’s account via Wireless Carriers or Internet Providers. Eventually all the intel is released and the public is made aware that the US government can tap into any cell phone, laptop, camera anywhere in the world without a warrant. Furthermore, he is able to prove that the United States does their grand majority of spying on it’s own people. After these facts were released, Snowden had to escape Hong Kong on a flight to Russia. He slept at the terminal in Moscow for nearly a month while trying to get a connecting flight to Cuba or Ecuador. After much politics between multiple global leaders, Snowden was granted asylum in Russia. He has lived in Russia ever since and has asked President Obama to please grant him a pardon. Till this day, Obama has denied any notion that a pardon was possible.