Snowden's Neither Hero Nor Traitor

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright June 18, 2013
All Rights Reserved.                                      

      When 29-year-old former CIA employee and Booz Allen Hamiliton contractor Eric Snowden went public June 9 with National Security Administration spying scandal, most Americans didn’t know how to react.  Liberals hailed Snowden as a hero, while conservatives, like former Vice President Dick Cheney, called him a traitor.  Just off the press, a new Pew Research and USA Today poll indicated that 54% of respondents now believe that Snowden should be charged and prosecuted for divulging classified information.  Fleeing to Hong Kong and seeking asylum, Snowden damaged his own credibility where flight from a crime scene almost always assures perceptions of guilt.  Digging into the numbers, the Pew study found a curious similarity between the conservative Tea Party [56%-38%] and Liberal Democrats [57%-39%] approval of Snowden’s whistleblower actions.

             Not surprisingly, the Pew-USA Today polls showed that young people supported Snowden’s actions [60%-34%], proving, if nothing else, that capturing the youth vote, as Obama did in the 2012 election, was highly correlated to a liberal cause.  Whether admitted to or not, Tea Party folks started out as a Libertarian movement, opposing government intrusion into private citizens’ lives.  Both Liberals and Libertarians reject excessive government intrusion into the private sector.  Where the data diverge is over partisan politics, where 77% of Democrats uniformly condemned former President George W. Bush’s Patriot Act in 2006, while only 28% of Republicans opposed the controversial legislation.  Unlike 2006, today’s Pew poll finds the partisan divide reversed, where 68% of Republicans opposed Snowden’s actions while only 53% of Democrats showed opposition.

             Whatever the liberal or Libertarian ideology, partisan politics account for more of the differences between competing parties.  “We saw the same pattern with the Patriot Act,” says Democratic pollster Celinda Lake.  “This pattern was particularly acute in the West.  These issues united people who dislike government interference and believe in “black helicopters” with liberals who since Vietnam dislike or distrust government in many of its war and terrorist activities,” showing a clear dividing line between the parties.  Talk in the Democratic Party by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) to extradite Snowden and try him as a “traitor” have turned off liberal youth voters.   Agreeing with Senate conservatives like Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Feinstein’s leads the charge to extradite and prosecute Snowden for treason.

             Snowden’s decision to break his confidentiality agreement with Booz Allen Hamilton and rat-out the NSA represents clear breach of contract warranting his immediate termination.  Fleeing the country, hiding out in Hong Kong and seeking political asylum shows how far he’s gone over the edge.  Whether he’s seen as a legitimate whistleblower or garden-variety subversive is anyone’s guess.  Prosecuting him for treason would require the government to show he divulged the information to harm the United States.  All indications point to a rebellious post-adolescent that lacks judgment.  President Barack Obama’s decision to hold off on the extradition request shows that he’s too busy putting out his own fires.  Bringing Snowden into a high-profile show-trial could potentially further embarrass the White House, especially the actions of Atty. Gen. Eric Holder.

               Republicans and Democrats are in complete disarray when it comes to how to proceed with Snowden.  If the Justice Dept. drags him back to the States for prosecution, it would amplify the adverse publicity already on the White House for allowing the NSA to go overboard.  Homeland Security Secretary James Clapper has been under more pressure to back of NSA actions that seem difficult to justify.  When Holder gave the FBI the green light to go after the Associated Press and Fox News Reporter James Rosen, it showed a Justice Department that’s run amok.  Bringing Snowden back could backfire on the White House with the country fairly evenly divided over whether he’s a hero or traitor.  More than anything else, Snowden embarrassed the White House and Justice Department, taking too many Constitutional liberties and acting reckless with U.S. national security.

             With Obama under the gun for the Benghazi terrorist affair, NSA scandals, IRS targeted abuses and now Snowden, he’s got too much on his plate to bring Snowden back for a show-trial.  Dropping his approval ratings by 17% among 18-29-year-old voters, Obama got his hands full managing the shaky economy and potentially new war in Syria.  “I’m neither a traitor nor hero.  I’m an American,” Snowden told the South China Post, an English language newspaper in Hong Kong, reflecting, if nothing else, national sentiments that run fairly evenly divided as to what to do with the former CIA employee.  Snowden exaggerated his own controversy by fleeing the country and selling more tabloids for Rupert Murdoch.  Given Obama’s fragile approval ratings and with whispers of impeachment percolating in the Beltway, it’s doubtful the White House will drag Snowden back to the U.S. for trial.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.