Corinne YauPublic speaking

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This house believes that Edward Snowden should be regarded as a hero

Rotarians, ladies, and gentlemen, my name is Corinne Yau, and I will be advocating the motion that Edward Snowden should be regarded as a hero.

June 2013, ex US National Security Agency contractor, former CIA employee and American computer specialist, Edward Snowden leaked top secret documents revealing operational details of the US NSA and its international partners' mass surveillance of foreign nationals as well as US citizens.

Sixth of June, these documents were published by The Washington Post and The Guardian.

At that point the whistleblower was unknown, but Edward Snowden’s identity was revealed only several days later. Since then he has become a topic of widely spread controversy, is this whistleblower a traitor, a patriot, or a hero?

Snowden went to great measures, including using encrypted emails and codenames, to work with journalists from the Guardian and The Washington Post, in order to disclose the NSA internal documents revealing the massive extent of the their spying, both foreign and domestic.

The Guardian exposed a series of programs that was used by the NSA, including XKeyscore, a secret computer system which allowed analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals.

Not only was the privacy of the US citizens invaded, but during a four-year period NSA hacked into several Chinese mobile-phone companies and other methods were also deployed to spy on other countries.

These disclosures have sparked heated debates over government secrecy, and whether the balance between national security and

Corinne YauPublic speaking

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information privacy is right - and more importantly, whether the government had the right to spy on their citizens and other countries.

Snowden’s intention, in his own words, was "to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.” It is from this I believe he viewed the mass government surveillance was immoral, and went against human rights. It was within his power to disclose the hidden facts, and it was his belief it would only be morally right to do so.

If we look at the past Nobel Peace Prize winners, a large proportion of them were awarded due to their struggle for human rights – for example Noble Peace Prize winner of 2010, Liu Xiaobo, for his non-violent struggle for human rights in China.

Even if we direct our concentration at only the searching through citizens’ telecommunications, that is still undoubtedly a breach of privacy. On going through the Liberty guide to Human Rights, it reminds us that the law strictly regulates the circumstances in which our post or telecommunications can be intercepted or monitored. However, as Snowden has helped reveal, the NSA allowed analysts to search through telecommunications with no prior authorization, and any interception without justification is likely to constitute a breach of our human rights.

Surely, Snowden’s actions are not dissimilar to those whose actions have been recognized with a Nobel Peace Prize, and at its purest form, he was standing up against something which he strongly viewed as morally wrong.

I am not going to deny that there is a large spectrum of opinions about whistle blowing, and many may argue that whistleblowers, or Snowden in this specific case, are traitors towards their organization. They may even say that whistleblowers have the sole intention of pursuing fame and glory.

This is what those who may disagree with me illustrate, but; all the evidence points to Edward Snowden having only a dim future - a conclusion drawn from the history of US intelligence insiders who went rogue also. Needless to say life was not kind for them.

Phillip Agee, another former CIA employee, published a book called ‘Inside the Company’ in 1975, which included a description of one of his primary mission in Ecuador, using bribery and intimidation amongst other

Corinne YauPublic speaking

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methods, which he claimed destroyed the political fabric of Ecuador. After this and other revelations of CIA’s ‘dirty work’ he was criminalized as an unmasking covert agent. His passport was stripped in 1979.

Snowden’s future, however, looks even bleaker, Agee himself admits. He has exposed himself to charges that will not disappear ever, especially not in his lifetime. The US has denied him clemency. The US has pressured other governments to deny Snowden asylum. And the US has charged him with three felonies, with two under the espionage act of 1917.

As Raul Gallegos of the Independent says, ‘The worst is yet to come.’ How can Snowden’s actions be motivated by the temptation of glory, when any mildly intelligent being can see his selfless actions lead him only to a bleak future?

He understood the gravity of his exploits, choosing to contact Poitras in the lead up to the publications, from reading her report on another NSA whistleblower.

In summary, Snowden could not have chosen to commit those actions for a selfish intention, rather the opposite – sacrificing what could have been a bright future in the US secret services, for now being a fugitive.

My stance on this is quite straightforward. The US government breached their citizens’ human rights and I believe they knew this was wrong, from their denying of mass surveillance. Edward Snowden brought this into light to the general public, simultaneously putting his own livelihood at risk. What he did was an action of selflessness, and courage, and that is the reason why I believe he should be viewed as a hero.

Thank you for listening.