The Edward Snowden case is one of the highest-profile cases there
are in the world today and yet many see that the United States has a right to
persecute the NSA intelligence leaker because of the damages the leak did to
the country’s security. However, the 1817 Espionage Act had been abused by the
country against its own whistleblowers over and over again.
The Espionage act, according to one source, actually makes a
great impact on the life of a so-called traitor. The entire case could have the
person viewed as a traitor, avoided by their close companions and leads the whistleblower
to his or her own unmaking, which forces them to plead guilty to anything
.
The abuse of the Espionage Act had always been enforced
against intelligence leakers. But in my opinion, the real trouble is this.
Whistleblowers will not do their activities if there was
really nothing wrong with the government process. Edward Snowden’s leak was a
confirmation that the US’ intelligence gathering capabilities have grown
greatly and are going too far in collecting the information they need.
Past espionage-charged traitors have also exposed several US
government misdemeanours including the CIA’s torture program.
It is highly clear that today, the US government preys on
the fears of its country by means of terrorism and that exposing any
information about US practices involving the violation of human rights and
civil liberties is strictly a crime.
