Edward Snowden: Hero or Traitor?

Whistleblower and NSA contractor, Edward Snowden, got into a sticky situation last summer when he shared classified NSA documents with journalists. Long story short, Snowden caused a world-wide controversy by his actions which resulted in his flee to Russia, where he now remains. Last week at the TED conference, he spoke about his intention behind the leek of NSA documents and the ethical and moral drive behind that decision - to inform the American people of the corruptness within the NSA.

The one question I think on most people's minds is: Is Snowden an American hero or a traitor? I think of this question in the lens of service. I will speak on behalf of both aspects of hero or traitor.

Hero

On one side of the coin Snowden realized the agency he was representing was not being truthful to the American people. He cites several programs within the NSA that blatantly lie to the amount of data they collect. Snowden must have felt his moral compass was being compromised in his work as a contractor, thus he spoke out about the truth. By fleeing to Russia, Snowden gave up his anonymity and freedom as an ultimate sacrifice for the American people's digital freedom.

Traitor

Of course the NSA, and United States government think that Snowden is a threat because he called them out on their lies. At this point we can assume that the American government must have in place a sick justification for their lies with a 'we do no harm regardless' mentality.

The US Govt is currently trying to extradite him back from Russia to stand trial for treason! We will see where this goes.

Service Relevance

Maybe we are entering a time when lies are justified when coming from the government. Is it service if someone calls Big Brother out on their lies? Is that person a hero? I think for the case of Edward Snowden that it is all too early to tell. I still fall back on the old question of service - Do the benefits out weight the costs. I believe in this case they did. Snowden, while acting as a rogue, sacrificed his personal life to tell those at stake the truth - that's service. But only time will tell if the costs of this decision will creep up on the American people's safety and security.