Greetings!
Did Edward Snowden watch and learn from the lessons of Bradley Manning? More importantly, have we?
Manning leaked information to WikiLeaks anonymously, and it wasn’t until his arrest two months later that we learned his name. That was the beginning of a three-year Kafkaesque odyssey, three years of silence from Manning as Julian Assange tried to make his case, and three years in which the government sequestered and tortured Manning and stonewalled the substance of his leaks. Manning’s trial finally began on June 6, but even with U.S. war crimes exposed, his military oath to report them has been overruled and the questions raised have withered and died.
Contrast this with Edward Snowden, who dropped his data bomb in a glare of publicity. He’s been available to defend his revelations and motivations instead of relying on surrogates to do it. By staying out of the government’s hands he’s able to push back as they try to paint him as a traitor and divert the discussion from the abuses he revealed. If he (and we) can focus on the core issue, the unmitigated power of the Security State, then maybe his actions will matter.
As Big Brother makes himself more and more comfortable on our couch, the need for oversight from an informed and engaged public becomes ever more critical. Let’s assume Snowden is Satan himself. After he’s shipped to Gitmo for indefinite detention, we’re still left with the reality of the NSA program he revealed. Do we (can we?) rein it in somehow, or do we leave our freedoms to Al Franken’s “assurances” that it’s all okey-dokey? Whatever happens to Snowden we now face a momentous choice. And as Rush (the band, not the bloviator) says, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”
Let’s hope we don’t lose the privilege of that choice in the increasing glare of our “follow the shiny object” media.
Take Care and Make a Great Day!
