Glorifying Snowden Damages Our Interests

Edward Snowden is not the messiah, as anti-imperialists would like. What he does is under the control of the Russian secret service. He knows the material is to be used for Moscow’s purposes.

In terms of the National Security Agency (NSA) scandal, it is high time that we return to political reason and straighten out some delayed measures. The whistle-blower Snowden, who was visited this week in his Moscow asylum and thus made spectacularly more valuable by the German Green Party MP [Member of Parliament] Hans-Christian Ströbele, is no hero of freedom.

He is also not an all-knowing messiah, all of whose accusations against the alleged malicious superpower, the United States, one can believe indiscriminately — even if veteran “anti-imperialists” like Ströbele would happily take them as confirmation of their view of the world.

Rather, Snowden plays adroitly with Western publicity. He and his allies in the media dispatch his actual or supposed knowledge bit by bit in order to keep up the level of excitement surrounding criticism of America. The fact that Snowden operates from Russian exile, where he is under the control of the Russian secret service, the FSB, doesn’t make him more believable.

Putin Wants To Alienate Europe from the U.S.

Any German politician who wants to use Snowden as a witness must be clear that Vladimir Putin and his agents are fully aware of the material their protégé has for disclosure and know how best to use it for their own purposes.

Putin’s regime, which supports his reign of lawless, clandestine capriciousness, wants to turn the Western democracies against each other and decisively undermine the transatlantic mutual trust. If Europeans were only alienated enough from the U.S., Russia could considerably extend its influence over Europe and come a step closer to the realization of its own dreams of great power.

It may well be that groups like those in the leftist parties in the tradition of the old SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany) yearn for such relationships. The democratic parties, however, should be wary of frivolous damage to the transatlantic relationship.

An Orchestrated Fiery Confrontation

It belongs to the haunting aspect of the ongoing debate that, although clear outrage rules over the American breaches of trust, the espionage of antidemocratic powers like Russia and China against our country is as seldom mentioned as whether we are sufficiently protected against it.

Washington’s excess in the surveillance of its allies must lead to a new code of conduct among Western partners in their secret service dealings. However, that cannot happen in an orchestrated fiery confrontation, but rather is to be regarded as a responsibility shared by Europeans and Americans.

This is all the more so, since the joint responsibility of the European services in regard to the proliferation of espionage is still to be cleared up. On the other hand, those who oppose it, the most recent example being a German conservative politician who pilloried the U.S. as a “digital occupying power,” merely stir up resentment.

The NSA’s offense can’t efface the United States’ immense services to freedom and wealth in Germany. Only one who appreciates this can truly and responsibly represent German interests — not least vis-a-vis Washington.