What does a leaker look like? Sometimes, people who reveal secrets remain in the shadows, and the public is left to guess at their motivations, agendas and states of mind.
Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old man behind the recent revelations about the National Security Agency’s pursuit of phone and computer data, upended that history. He is a new kind of leaker of the wired age: an immediately visible one with a voice and the means to go direct with the public. In a era of friction-free Web communication, he disdained the shadows and stepped into view with a lengthy video interview he gave to The Guardian, which broke the story based on information he provided. He stated his motivation plainly, saying, “The public needs to decide whether these programs and policies are right or wrong.”
By identifying himself as the leaker, Mr. Snowden is helping to ensure that the debate occurs in the public common and goes beyond a closely held government investigation followed, perhaps, by prosecution. The video, which can be seen by all, means that he will be judged by all in real time.
The video presents a portrait of a man who was not a marginal loser lashing out as he flailed in his personal life: he gave up a well-paid job and his life in Hawaii with his girlfriend and is now holed up in a hotel in Hong Kong. At first blush he appears reasonable and careful, which will make him a hard target for those who seek to marginalize him or suggest that his concerns are overblown.
Of course, with visibility comes scrutiny. For the time being, the video and his interview with The Guardian are what define Mr. Snowden, but in the coming days, weeks and months, we will learn far more about his personal and professional life, and perhaps a more complicated narrative about his motivations will emerge. For the time being, we only know that he was the source of the leaks and we know his explanation of why he did what he did. Various interested parties will now set about their work, trying to make him out as a hero or a villain as it suits their agendas. And as Mr. Snowden knows better than anyone, any secrets he has will not stay that way for long.
It’s important to note that Mr. Snowden did not just dump a bunch of unredacted documents on the Web and slink back to his job. He apparently thought a great deal about where the information belonged and contacted Barton Gellman, who had a long and respected career in national security reporting at The Washington Post. According to an article by Mr. Gellman in Monday’s Post, Mr. Snowden asked for guarantees about what The Post would print, and when. After The Post said it could not provide any guarantees, according to Mr. Gellman, Mr. Snowden turned to Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian, who has covered national security and secrecy issues in a chronic and ferocious manner. (Mr. Greenwald disputes that timeline, saying he has been in contact with Mr. Snowden since February).
In spite of the uproar around WikLeaks and a new age of electronic drop boxes, there has never been a shortage of whistles; what has been in short supply is people to blow them. In this instance, the Web is not just a repository of leaked material, but a means of changing the dynamics of the debate into a two-way affair in which the public has access to the leaker. The administration, in both its public remarks and its investigations into leaks, has tried to portray those who leak as marginal people with nefarious motivations. By using the Web and speaking on his own behalf, Mr. Snowden is not allowing himself to be defined by the government.
As a whistle-blower who has come to his own defense, Mr. Snowden has engaged the public as a player in the debate. Social media, most notably Twitter, is alive with commentary about who he is and what he did. What is normally a vacuum — in which the government characterizes the leaker and those who enabled him — is now a dialogue. The debate over secrets has gone viral and as a result, is itself much less secret. In the past, few leakers would have been able to broadcast their messages to the world even before the government and the public had time to absorb the implications of what they did.
Mr. Snowden is not the first whistle-blower to draw attention to himself. Daniel Ellsberg, the central figure in the Pentagon Papers affair and one of the historical figures whom Mr. Snowden pointed to as precedents, never hid who he was. Mr. Ellsberg reasoned, correctly as it turned out, that he would be seen as someone who acted in the broader interest of the country even as he divulged its most precious secrets.
But Mr. Snowden’s visibility in an Internet age is more immediate and more ubiquitous. He is now the face of the opposition to state-sponsored information gathering. Even though he is in Hong Kong, he is everywhere.
To those sympathetic to Mr. Snowden’s viewpoint, the information he revealed seems all the more disturbing because he comes off as calm and measured. He is a real person, not a shadow, and his arguments, while very open to debate, are based in careful rhetoric.
Freedom, the right to privacy and open debate are the rare issues that surpass ideology in a very divided nation. After it was disclosed that the National Security Agency was seizing phone records, Josh Earnest, the White House deputy press secretary, said, “The president welcomes a discussion of the trade-offs between security and civil liberties.”
That debate has arrived courtesy of Mr. Snowden and will begin in earnest, perhaps not on the terms or on the schedule that the president had in mind. The age of the leaker as Web-enabled public figure has arrived.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/11/business/media/nsa-leaker-is-a-new-kind-for-an-internet-age.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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