Edward Snowden, Freedom Fighter

Edward Snowden will have difficult future relationships with his homeland: If he is unlucky, he will disappear behind bars in the U.S.; if he is lucky, he will not have to return there anytime soon.

Snowden showed Americans in grand style “that which is done in their name and that which is done against them” by the National Security Agency’s data collection practices.

His name is often mentioned in tandem with that of Bradley Manning, who was responsible for revealing, among other things, the murder of Iraqi civilians by the U.S. Army. Even though they have never met one another, both men have a lot in common. Their childhood and teenage years were spent in a networked world. For them communications and information are more concretely a part of freedom and democracy than are national borders.

It is no surprise that freedom today is a bogus concept because our communications run through the filter of intelligence services. The greater surprise is that today’s Internet giants are also playing the spying games. Thanks to the likes of Google and company, our entire lives are now a more open book to intelligence agencies.

Washington thinks Edward Snowden is a traitor. The truth is that, like Bradley Manning before him, Snowden is a warrior for real freedom and true democracy.