Edward Snowden, Traitor or Hero? (Essay Sample)

Edward Snowden, Traitor or Hero?

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Edward Snowden, Traitor or Hero?
Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Abstract PAGEREF _Toc68067214 \h 2Introduction PAGEREF _Toc68067215 \h 3Thesis Statement PAGEREF _Toc68067216 \h 4Overview PAGEREF _Toc68067217 \h 4Purpose PAGEREF _Toc68067218 \h 5Background PAGEREF _Toc68067219 \h 5Discussion PAGEREF _Toc68067220 \h 6Benefits PAGEREF _Toc68067221 \h 7Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc68067222 \h 9References PAGEREF _Toc68067223 \h 10
Abstract
Edward Joseph Snowden, regarded as the American whistleblower, was born on the 21st of June 1983. In the American Intelligence Sector, Snowden has played several positions, including working undercover with the CIA abroad. In May 2013, he left his home and family in Hawaii to blast the whistle, and most recently, he served as an infrastructure analyst at NSA under a Booz Allen Hamilton deal. Snowden released documents to Americans of Americans during his journey to Hong Kong about the NSA's mass monitoring schemes that have been shown to function without public scrutiny and outside the limit of the American Constitution. The United States government charged Snowden with burglary and two other counts under the Espionage Act, 1917.  (Alexander, 2013). The papers revealed that the government had numerous monitoring systems that opposed and perceived itself against the ordinary man. This research paper seeks to analyze whether Edward Snowden indeed a traitor or hero according to the information provided.
Introduction
Edward Snowden was a programmer working for National Security Agency as a sub-contractor (NSA). Following only three months of NSA work, Snowden gathered top-secret NSA documentation, which he considered worrying and leaked to foreign journalists. The papers have now been released, and Snowden fled to Hong Kong. Snowden was stranded at a Russian airport after Hong Kong, however, attempted to fly to Cuba. He is now in a Russian tech firm and has a Russian advocate; he has been given asylum before 2020 (Biasucci & Prentice, 2020).
Thesis Statement
In his efforts to thwart terrorist attempts, Snowden felt that the United States government was going too far, unnecessarily violating the American people's safety. Snowden's publication of secret materials has shown our opponents' investigation and information collection techniques, affecting areas that cannot be entirely known on U.S. operations. Snowden considered it his sacred obligation to "inform the people of what is done in their name and what is done to them (Scheuerman, 2014). It leads me to conclude that he did this not for his country's love but his reputation, although he said this was his moral responsibility.
Overview
Edward Snowden left his new Hawaii home on the 20th of May 2013 for Hong Kong, China. He didn't tell anyone about his plans, not even his girlfriend at the time. Snowden decided to disclose himself as the source in June 2013. On the 14th of June, the U.S. Federal Prosecutors accused Snowden of government property spying and stealing. Of course, without the extradition that was immediately submitted to Hong Kong, it was challenging to detain Snowden abroad. Snowden, however, changed his plans and, on the 23rd of June 2013, went to Moscow, Russia. He is now in Moscow when his visa is revoked by the United States government and seeks refuge in any country able to offer it (Caster, 2016).
Of course, several legal dilemmas have come to light. Should the traitor who threatened national security plans persecute Snowden? Or is he to be hailed as a hero who has made public plans to spy on innocent people by the government? Some people think his comments regarding government oversight systems are not valid; they think it's a huge hoax. Others, such as the army, arguing that their use by the government is solely for anti-terrorism and national security purposes (Scheuerman, 2014). However, who can be trusted to have that much confidence on both sides of such a case?
Purpose
Snowden's leak of high-secret information led to discussions about whether he's a hero to make Americans aware of NSA's invasive tactics or a spy stopping the state from intercepting terrorist attacks. His activities have raised our privacy concerns dramatically in the modern age (Isin & Ruppert, 2017). As a consequence of Snowden's behavior, improvements in how specific government departments can handle themselves have been made and enforced.
It is reasonable that the United States government will want to defend its people from any severe actions in our present political situation. That being said, Snowden's publicly produced records do not seem to target convicted or suspected criminals but instead record data from innocent people. These monitoring programs. That means that people like you and me are tracked without justification or reason by the government. It's not shocking that Edward Snowden's case was taken up and spread too quickly in our new mass media days (Boehme, 2017). Since being worldwide, there are also different theories about what has been done and what can be done.
Background
In 2015, the Federal Court of Appeals judged that the NSA's Electronic Monitoring Policy and the retention of information and telephone documents under the Patriot Act were unconstitutional. But others contend that the consequences of the disclosures were short-lived and did nothing to improve monitoring procedures. The U.S. Freedom Act now forbids the NSA from gathering phone data as it did once due to Snowden's leakage of sensitive documents. However, Trump Administration reauthorized the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act this year, which permits the government to spy on non-US citizens' electronic communications. While reforms are made, a shift in public perception of online data processing has been the most significant transition (Scheuerman, 2014). Following the fiasco, we are now aware of what internet data are, how insecure, and why it can be exploited.
There have been terrorist attacks more thwarted than the public knows in this world. The investigative authorities are not allowed to report their conclusions because of the proceedings' sensitive nature (Boehme, 2017). Consequently, public understanding of these inquiries is generally lacking. I believe that people have an inherent apprehension that government will overstep those limits in the interests of personal privacy.
Discussion
From the point of view of ethics of duty, Edward Snowden seems to have struggled at first. He was confidential as a federal agent and subsequently agreed to share these top-secret papers with the press. I assume, however, that the principle of situational ethics comes under this circumstance. The ethics of the event follows the ethics is associated with events, which means that right and wrong depends on the situation. Snowden realized that the NSA was essentially spying on ordinary citizens without reason, so he agreed to make the information public for people to be monitored without their consent (Biasucci, & Prentice, 2020). I believe this was the right thing to do in this case. Although I usually do not accept hacking and distributing top-secret papers in government libraries, I think that such material should not be hidden from the public.
Benefits
The fourth amendment would confer American citizens the right to private life and what the government should do to keep us safe. Since Snowden did not cooperate with the government's tactics, he did not want him to jeopardize the rest of us. I think Edward Snowden is a coward and a liar. A hero is a person who is revered or idealized for bravery, outstanding success, or noble virtues (Boehme, 2017). None of these attributes occurs in Snowden. Whether or not we agree with Snowden's motivations, Snowden decided to violate the law by fragmented knowledge on the actions instead of disclosing it through legal channels. He has betrayed and deserves punishment for his country's trust.
From a consequence ethics perspective, I believe that Snowden's case would fall with ethics' altruism. Ethical altruism is the principle that people should always do the best for others, even though their own best interests are sacrificed. By revealing these papers to the media, Snowden took an immense personal risk (Caster, 2016). People in this country have been assassinated for nothing, and I'm not shocked he chose to make his revelations out of Hong Kong, far from being reached by the United States government. His physical health was not only risked, but the media slandered his integrity across America. Snowden was made a liar to his country and its people because he tried, in reality, to only shed light on what has taken place behind closed doors. He will probably never come back to America because he is afraid of jail or worse, but he does not deplore what he did because he knows that it served better.
It is hopefully evident at this stage how I feel about the case of Edward Snowden. As an American citizen, I agree that certain rights are sworn on paper and withheld, in fact, and I do not think I am a liberal protester or militant. I assume fully that the government spies on ordinary people, possibly just for the sake of their control (Caster, 2016). I'm not here to rally for reform, politically speaking, but in Edward Snowden's case, I see something wrong. He is a fellow American citizen who has done an excellent service to the American public by presenting such ...