In Vanity Fair, Kurt Eichenwald Shows why Edward Snowden is no Hero

If you think that Edward Snowden is a hero, a man who is devoted to preventing an assault on our civil liberties by the omniscient and oppressive state, think again.

If you are among those on both the Left and the libertarian and paleo-conservative Right who think there are no legitimate national security interests at stake, and that Snowden has not harmed the United States, think again.

Before you reach a final conclusion, read this important article in Vanity Fair by Kurt Eichenwald, “The Errors of Edward Snowden and His Global Hypocrisy Tour.” As Eichenwald writes:

To hunt for needles, the N.S.A. needs a global haystack that can be used for data mining. That is what the data collection is all about; no one has any interest in listening in on innocuous calls or reading pointless e-mails. This is all about using computers—massive, massive computers—and using complex models and algorithms to find the needles, rather than hoping to guess how to keep Americans safe, just in case the Ed Snowdens of the world might get upset with more intelligent approaches.

Which brings us back to Snowden’s global hypocrisy tour. I think nothing has more thoroughly damaged Snowden’s “whistle-blower” persona than his bizarre—and, I would say, cowardly—decision to rely on some of the countries with the greatest history of oppression to help keep him out of the Americans’ hands. (Usually, when people engage in civil disobedience for a cause—which Snowden seems to want people to believe he is doing—they accept the punishment that will accompany their decision. Snowden, instead, has acted like a spy, fleeing to countries with deeply strained relationships with the United States.

Thank goodness, the author says, that Snowden was not around on the eve of World War II. Read his article to find out why.

Eichenwald knows his stuff. Let’s not make Snowden a hero- a status he does not deserve- before learning about what is really at stake and how he might have harmed our security by the desperate actions he has taken.