On September 26th, 2022, Vladimir Putin granted former American NSA employee Edward Snowden citizenship in Russia. To most people, this news is irrelevant and does not impact their lives. But the reality is that this is a highly significant situation and puts the security of the United States and all of our citizens at extreme risk. So who is Snowden and why does all of this even matter?
Edward Snowden was born in North Carolina and grew up wanting to serve his country. As a young man, he enlisted in the Army Reserve, but unfortunately, his dreams were crushed when he could not complete training due to a severe leg injury. To serve his country in a different way, Snowden got a job with the Central Intelligence Agency for a few years specializing in computer science while mastering the technology. He was known to be a genius among genius’s. Following that position, he worked for the National Security Administration through a contract with Dell. During this position, he was exposed to some of the nation’s top security secrets. What he saw alarmed him so much that he could not sit back and let it continue to happen. His work revealed that the NSA was violating the privacy of American citizens, as well as European countries. The agency was secretly recording phone calls, text messages, emails, search histories, and so much more from innocent American people without their knowledge. The NSA claims this was to prevent terrorist attacks and to strengthen the security of the nation. Snowden also discovered that the NSA was spying on European offices located in the US. He felt enraged for the American people and the way their rights were being violated by their own government. Along with these findings, he discovered other information that is still very dangerous to the American government.
After hitting his breaking point, Snowden knew he had to do something. In 2013, he leaked this information to news sources and fled the country. He first went to Hong Kong, where freedom of speech is highly valued. The US government was attempting to get him extradited, but he escaped to Russia. He gained asylum, which kept getting extended until he just recently was granted citizenship. It is predicted that he has almost one million copies of classified government information. The public was outraged with the information he shared. Because of his actions, Obama passed the USA Freedom Act that limits the country’s surveillance on private citizens. He faces up to 30 years in prison in the United States if he ever returned.
Snowden is loved by many, hated by many, and many have mixed feelings toward him. Some Americans feel strongly that he revealed this information in the wrong way by going to the media. Others applaud him for exposing the NSA for violating their rights. Many people believe that his work was a necessary evil. The big issue here is now that Snowden is a Russian citizen, what will he do with all of the top secret information he has from the American government?
https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/26/europe/edward-snowden-russian-citizenship-putin-intl/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/11/us/edward-snowden-fast-facts/index.html
https://theworld.org/stories/2013-07-09/17-disturbing-things-snowden-has-taught-us-so-far
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