Espionage on varying levels has been in the news lately, with bombastic claims of who is right and who is wrong.
On one side is Edward Snowden, the 30-year-old National Security Administration (NSA) contractor who not only had access to privileged NSA information, but who also removed that information in violation of contract and supplied such to journalists.
On the other side is the NSA itself, which, according to Snowden, has ability to access my and your private communications and data virtually at will, in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
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Snowden was charged on Friday by the US government with espionage. To date, the NSA has not been similarly charged.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives several definitions of the word “moral,” but none make a distinction between individual and government activities. (Should it?) So we are left to apply an equal standard.
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Not all that is legal is moral, and not all that is moral is legal. Morally we should ask, was someone harmed?
In the first case, while Snowden’s revelations may have embarrassed and exposed the NSA, he says he combed the information to remove any which would actually cause harm. So far, we have not seen harmful state secrets, other than how they accessed private data.
In the second case, the NSA has admitted they used private information to prosecute in situations where they otherwise would not have had access to information. And while we may never know, it is alleged that private information may have been used to intimidate an army general into resigning and possibly a Supreme Court Justice into voting on a major case against his character.
“If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.”
While no one among us is blameless, be it an affair in the case of the army general, issuing hasty, passionate threats by email or consulting with our tax attorney on sketchy deductions, we expect and deserve privacy. Would we suggest that window blinds are unnecessary? Would we be okay with our neighbors’ ability to read our email, just because we have “nothing to hide?”
By the same token, if the NSA has nothing to hide, does that let Snowden off the hook for disclosing these nothings?
Apparently not, as he has been charged with espionage. Who charges and tries the NSA?
