June 19, 2013

Snowden a Fool, Not a Spy

It would make things so much easier for everyone if Edward Snowden were working for China. And that’s certainly a possibility. His decision to flee to Hong Kong – a Chinese vassal – was an odd one, given that China is hardly a bulwark of transparency and civil rights. It’s a bit like complaining that Boston is too Catholic and then moving to Vatican City in protest. Then there’s the nature of the crime itself. Informed sources I’ve spoken with are generally aghast by what they say is the scope of information Snowden stole, material some believe he couldn’t have gotten by himself. That doesn’t mean he’s the Manchurian IT Guy, but it does cause some to wonder whether he had help – and from where.

It would make things so much easier for everyone if Edward Snowden were working for China.

And that’s certainly a possibility. His decision to flee to Hong Kong – a Chinese vassal – was an odd one, given that China is hardly a bulwark of transparency and civil rights. It’s a bit like complaining that Boston is too Catholic and then moving to Vatican City in protest.

Then there’s the nature of the crime itself. Informed sources I’ve spoken with are generally aghast by what they say is the scope of information Snowden stole, material some believe he couldn’t have gotten by himself. That doesn’t mean he’s the Manchurian IT Guy, but it does cause some to wonder whether he had help – and from where.

Last, there’s the nature of the disclosures. The initial story broke at precisely the moment President Obama was meeting with the new Chinese president, undermining Obama’s effort to press the issue of Chinese hacking (a practice Snowden seems mysteriously indifferent to). Soon thereafter, Snowden went from “whistleblowing” on alleged domestic data-mining abuses to leaking embarrassing information. Indeed, the latest disclosures seem perfectly timed to vex America and Britain at this week’s Group of 8 summit.

It’s one thing for an American to claim it’s his patriotic duty to expose a breach of trust with the American people. It’s another thing entirely for an American to unilaterally decide what foreign espionage America or its allies should or should not be doing and then divulge the bits he doesn’t like. We elect a president and a Congress to make that kind of decision.

It’s plausible that Snowden was shocked and dismayed to discover that the National Security Agency was monitoring Americans on U.S. soil. Are we really to believe, though, that he was shocked that the NSA was monitoring foreigners on foreign soil? That’s what the NSA does.

Still, the Chinese dupe theory depends on an enormous number of assumptions, starting with the notion that the Chinese are that sophisticated. Also, while it’s always fun to ask cui bono after events like this, it’s rarely all that illuminating.

An easier explanation is that Snowden is a fool. I don’t mean he’s stupid. All of the pundits and politicians attacking Snowden as a high school dropout sound silly. First, it’s not true (illness caused him to miss too much school, so he later got his GED instead). Second, this guy ain’t dumb. You don’t get and keep the jobs he had if you’re a moron or a slacker.

No, when I say he may be a fool, I mean he may be a fool for love – love of an idea. When you look back on the various spies and turncoats in U.S. history, many acted out of a foolish loyalty to an idea. The most obvious examples are the many communists who betrayed America during the Cold War. Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs weren’t Russian nationalists at heart, they were (very smart) fools for communism.

One thing that comes through in Snowden’s remarks so far is his affection for a set of ideals that transcends nations. He claims he did what he did to protect the “Internet freedom and basic liberties of people around the world.” In a Q&A session with readers of the Guardian, Snowden strongly suggests that foreigners be granted rights under our Constitution. “US Person/foreigner distinction is not a reasonable substitute for individualized suspicion,” he asserts. “Our founders did not write that "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all U.S. Persons are created equal.”

I suspect that most Americans do see a real distinction between foreigners and Americans.

In short, it looks like he sees himself as a digital-era Diogenes. Like Diogenes, he sees himself as a citizen of no place, save a citizen of the (cyber) world.

One irony is that Obama campaigned on similar ideas. In his 2008 Berlin speech, he spoke to the German people as a “fellow citizen of the world.” His analysis of the Cold War was a bizarre extended metaphor about the evils of “walls” between peoples.

Snowden says he delayed divulging NSA operations because he hoped Obama would follow through on that philosophy. But Obama disappointed Diogenes. Obama discarded some of his cheap cosmopolitanism when he learned it might come at the cost of American security.

If Snowden were a traditional spy, it’d be very easy to put him in a traditional box. But my hunch is that he represents an altogether more complicated challenge.

© 2013 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.