Snowden Believes in an Exceptional America

Edward Snowden will not return to the U.S. to answer to allegations against him in court — not as long as the 100-year-old Espionage Act undermines his right to a fair trial.

At the same time, Snowden is also defending employees of the National Security Agency and CIA by describing them as “good people trying to do the right thing” who are as concerned as he is about the presumptions of those in power; the problems come from the top.

The 30-year-old former employee of the NSA, who committed high treason and has been benefiting from asylum in Russia since late summer 2013, conducted a live chat on Thursday evening in front of a number of followers.

[His] first live interview since June of last year was scheduled at 9 p.m. on the website “Free Snowden,” but because of supposed technical problems, the chat started 10 minutes later.

Snowden Has a Lot of Respect for Obama

Snowden wanted to make a public speech after a Republican congressman accused him of using Russian assistance to acquire secret information about the NSA’s surveillance program.

President Obama mentioned Snowden twice in his speech on national security last week. He told the world that the U.S. could not disempower its intelligence services and that other states, despite expressing outrage toward America, are hypocritically doubling their efforts.

Snowden also mentioned Obama twice, in a respectful way. He described him as a man who fully understands the actions of the U.S. intelligence services. He also said, “When we’re sophisticated enough to be able to break into any device in the world we want to (up to and including Angela Merkel’s phone, if reports are to be believed), there’s no excuse to be wasting our time collecting the call records of grandmothers in Missouri.”

Snowden described the indiscriminate spying on millions of respectable citizens as pointless; these activities are only taking place because it is “easy to put in place and cheap.” Neither Snowden nor any U.S. citizen for that matter is aware of a terrorist plan or attack that has been successfully prevented thanks to wire-tapping.

The Possible Deal Would Not Please Snowden

To every person witnessing Snowden’s Q-and-A on Thursday, it was obvious that he was trying to portray Obama and former colleagues as his natural allies.

He described them as allies who actually agree with him but cannot [say so], even if they want to. It remains questionable whether the president secretly agrees with Snowden. The official stance, according to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, is obvious: Snowden will not receive amnesty but might see a sentence reduction. So far, this appears to be insufficient for the 30-year-old Edward Snowden. When his options for living in exile narrow, that could change.

Many questions were more sophisticated than those normally addressed to a simple “traitor” (or “hero”). Snowden was asked how to solve the issue of how the state should deal with digital surveillance.

America’s Leading Role

It was noteworthy how Snowden still recognized his country as playing a leading role in such issues. The U.S. in particular should not provide excuses for third-rate dictators; rather, it should help build establish a global, internationally financed forum to adopt standards of digital surveillance. Although such a change should begin with national laws, said Snowden, these alone will not be enough.

“Under observation, we act less free, which means we effectively are less free.” Snowden understands how skepticism about government surveillance both encourages irrational fear and calms it down. He presents himself as a critical patriot, or at least, anything but a traitor.

The US Knows How to Handle Difficult Patriots

One should, however, admire this young lad, who left everything behind to become famous worldwide, hunted and momentarily living a lonesome life. A lot of dirt is being dished about Snowden. Some of it is authentic, as an article in The New Republic suggests.

The man is not a saint and does not act morally superior toward his adversaries. At the same time, he is not scamming you or doing anything for profit. The U.S. is actually accustomed to difficult patriots, and Snowden is one of them: “What makes our country strong,” he said toward the beginning of the chat, “is our system of values, not a snapshot of the structure of our agencies or the framework of our laws.”

Snowden believes in America and is suffering, even though there are worse sins than the ones he allegedly committed. When asked how he dealt with death threats, [he said], there were worse things — namely, the weakening of fundamental rights, but he does not let himself be intimidated, “Doing the right thing means having no regrets.”