Snowden Accepts Whistleblower
Award
By Ray McGovern
October 10, 2013 "Information Clearing House - National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, from his asylum in Russia, accepted an award on Wednesday from a group of former U.S. intelligence officials expressing support for his decision to divulge secrets about the NSA’s electronic surveillance of Americans and people around the globe.
The award, named in honor of the late CIA analyst Sam Adams, was presented to Snowden at a ceremony in Moscow by previous recipients of the award bestowed by the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (SAAII). The presenters included former FBI agent Coleen Rowley, former NSA official Thomas Drake, and former Justice Department official Jesselyn Radack, now with the Government Accountability Project. (Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern also took part.)
By Ray McGovern
October 10, 2013 "Information Clearing House - National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, from his asylum in Russia, accepted an award on Wednesday from a group of former U.S. intelligence officials expressing support for his decision to divulge secrets about the NSA’s electronic surveillance of Americans and people around the globe.
The award, named in honor of the late CIA analyst Sam Adams, was presented to Snowden at a ceremony in Moscow by previous recipients of the award bestowed by the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (SAAII). The presenters included former FBI agent Coleen Rowley, former NSA official Thomas Drake, and former Justice Department official Jesselyn Radack, now with the Government Accountability Project. (Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern also took part.)
Snowden received the
traditional Sam Adams Corner-Brighteneer Candlestick Holder, in symbolic
recognition of his courage in shining light into dark places. Besides the
presentation of the award, several hours were spent in
informal conversation during which there was a wide consensus that,
under present circumstances, Russia seemed the safest place for Snowden to
be and that it was fortunate that Russia had rebuffed pressure to violate
international law by turning him away.
Snowden showed himself not only
to be in good health, but also in good spirits, and very much on top
of world events, including the attacks on him personally. Shaking his head
in disbelief, he acknowledged that he was aware that former NSA and
CIA Director Michael Hayden, together with House Intelligence Committee
Chair Mike Rogers, had hinted recently that he (Snowden) be put on the infamous
“Kill List” for assassination.
In brief remarks
from his visitors, Snowden was reassured — first and foremost — that
he need no longer be worried that nothing significant would happen as
a result of his decision to risk his future by revealing documentary proof that
the U.S. government was playing fast and loose with the Constitutional
rights of Americans.
Even amid the government
shutdown, Establishment Washington and the normally docile “mainstream
media” have not been able to deflect attention from the intrusive
eavesdropping that makes a mockery of the Fourth Amendment. Even Congress
is showing signs of awaking from its torpor.
In the somnolent Senate, a few
hardy souls have gone so far as to express displeasure at having been lied to by
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and NSA Director Keith
Alexander — Clapper having formally apologized for telling the Senate
Intelligence Committee eavesdropping-related things that were, in his
words, “clearly erroneous” and Alexander having told now-discredited whoppers
about the effectiveness of NSA’s intrusive and unconstitutional methods in
combating terrorism.
Coleen Rowley, the first winner
of the Sam Adams Award (2002), cited some little-known history to remind Snowden
that he is in good company as a whistleblower — and not only because of previous
Sam Adams honorees. She noted that in 1773, Benjamin Franklin leaked
confidential information by releasing letters written by then-Lt. Governor of
Massachusetts Thomas Hutchinson to Thomas Whatley, an assistant to the British
Prime Minister.
The letters suggested that it was
impossible for the colonists to enjoy the same rights as subjects living in
England and that “an abridgement of what are called English liberties” might be
necessary. The content of the letters was so damaging to the British government
that Benjamin Franklin was dismissed as colonial Postmaster General and had to
endure an hour-long censure from British Solicitor General Alexander
Wedderburn.
Who’s the Traitor?
Like Edward Snowden, Franklin was
called a traitor for whistleblowing the truth about what the government was
doing. As Franklin’s biographer H.W. Brands wrote: “For an hour and a half
[Wedderburn] hurled invective at Franklin, branding him a liar, a thief, an
outcast from the company of all honest men, an ingrate. … So slanderous was
Wedderburn’s diatribe that no London paper would print it.”
Hat tip for this interesting bit
of history to Tom Mullen and his Aug. 9 article in the Washington Times
titled ”Obama says Snowden no patriot. How would Ben Franklin’s leak be
treated today?” Ms. Rowley also drew from Mullen’s comment:
“Tyrants slandering patriots is
nothing new. History decided that Franklin was a patriot. It was not so
kind to the Hutchinsons and Wedderburns. History will decide who the patriots
were in the 21st century as well. It will not be concerned with health
care programs or unemployment rates. More likely, it will be concerned with
who attacked the fundamental principles of freedom and who risked everything to
defend them.”
The award citation to Snowden
read, in part, “Sam Adams Associates are proud to honor Mr. Snowden’s decision
to heed his conscience and give priority to the Common Good over concerns about
his own personal future. We are confident that others with similar moral
fiber will follow his example in illuminating dark corners and exposing crimes
that put our civil rights as free citizens in jeopardy. …
“Heeding the dictates of
conscience and patriotism, Mr. Snowden sacrificed his career and put his very
life at risk, in order to expose what he called ‘turnkey tyranny.’ His
whistleblowing has exposed a National Security Agency leadership captured by the
intrusive capabilities offered by modern technology, with little if any thought
to the strictures of law and Constitution. The documents he released show
an NSA enabled, rather than restrained, by senior officials in all three
branches of the U.S. government.
“Just as Private Manning and
Julian Assange exposed criminality with documentary evidence, Mr. Snowden’s
beacon of light has pierced a thick cloud of deception. And, again like
them, he has been denied some of the freedoms that whistleblowers have every
right to enjoy.
“Mr. Snowden was also aware of
the cruel indignities to which other courageous officials had been subjected —
whistleblowers like Sam Adams Award honorees (ex aequo in 2011) Thomas Drake and Jesselyn
Radack — when they tried to go through government channels to report
abuses. Mr. Snowden was able to outmaneuver those who, as events have
shown, are willing to go to ridiculous lengths to curtail his freedom and
quarrel with his revelations. We are gratified that he has found a place of
sanctuary where his rights under international law are respected.
“Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, a
Sam Adams ‘Awardee Emeritus,’ has asserted that Mr. Snowden’s whistleblowing has
given U.S. citizens the possibility to roll back an ‘executive coup against the
Constitution.’ This is a mark of the seriousness and importance of what Mr.
Snowden has done.
“Like other truth-tellers before
him, Edward Snowden took seriously his solemn oath to support and defend the
Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and
domestic. He was thus legally and morally obliged to let his fellow
Americans know that their Fourth Amendment rights were being
violated.
“The past few years have shown
that courage is contagious. Thus, we expect that still others will now be
emboldened to follow their consciences in blowing the whistle on other abuses of
our liberties and in this way help stave off ‘turnkey tyranny.’
“Presented this 9th day of
October 2013 by admirers of the example set by the late CIA analyst, Sam
Adams.”
The Sam Adams associates also
expressed gratitude for those who made this unusual gathering possible:
Anatoly Kucherena, a lawyer for Snowden and founder and head of The Institute
for Democracy and Cooperation in Moscow; WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange (SAAII award
winner in 2010); Sarah Harrison, also of WikiLeaks, who facilitated Mr.
Snowden’s extrication from Hong Kong and has been a constant presence with
him since; other Internet transparency and privacy activists rendering
encouragement and support, and, of course, Mr. Snowden himself for agreeing
to host the first such visit to express solidarity with him in
Russia.
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