It is sometimes important to take a step back from the relentless news cycle spin and ask a few important, bigger picture, questions.
The characters:
Bush - lied into a war that killed many many thousands, sanctioned torture - not charged with anything, living free in Texas (though he may not want to travel too far overseas).
Edward Snowden - disclosed evidence of a massive government spying operation that may or may not be illegal/unconstitutional (we can't really tell because it is secret) - charged with crimes including espionage, on the run.
Nelson Mandela - freedom fighter (branded a terrorist by the government of the time) - charged with treason (though acquitted) - spent many years in prison, many in solitary confinement. Now widely respected.
I should first note the idea for this diary came from this post: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/...
One of the key things Danny Schechter reminds us of in his post is that Mandela was hunted down by the CIA who provided the information the South African government needed to find and arrest him.
A June 10, 1990 New York Times report “quoted an unidentified retired official who said that a senior CIA officer told him shortly in after Mr. Mandela’s arrest, ‘We have turned Mandela over to the South African security branch. We gave them every detail, what he would be wearing, the time of day, just where he would be.”
AP quoted Paul Eckel, then a senior CIA operative, as boasting that Mandela’s capture “was one of our greatest coups.” There were some earlier press reports in the 80’s about this CIA role too but they never triggered the scandal they should have. Somehow it was considered acceptable then that a secret US agency was in collusion with a white racist state battling freedom fighters.
This is a connection between Snowden and Mandela that may explain why American “intelligence” tends so often to be on the wrong side, or maybe just is the wrong side. Clearly our intelligence overlords had as their priority then what they do today: the protection of the global status quo.
I suppose who is a traitor and who is a hero is determined by which side of the line/history you are standing on.
We do not yet have all the information on Snowden. We do know that what he divulged is either nothing (we already knew it) or something (a huge blow to the US intelligence effort). We do know that the focus on his character, and the character of Greenwald, instead of his disclosures (by the US media) is a pretty good hint that what he has done has at least caused a huge amount of embarrassment to the powers that be and that they are flailing away at anything within reach.
So let me ask the following:
1. Which of the three men mentioned above are/were traitors? Why?
2. Which of these three men, on balance, deserve/deserved to spend time in jail for what they have done/advocated for.
3. What "good" were these men trying to do. Do the intentions mitigate the crime in any way?
4. If we are interested in freedom, which of these individuals has done the most for the freedom of their nation.
5. If we are interested in "security" which individual has damaged the security of the nation the most?