The
Washington Post's Timothy Lee
poses a critical, disturbing question: "Has the U.S. become the kind of nation from which you have to seek asylum?"
Intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, the man behind the NSA wiretapping an internet surveillance program leaks, came forward this weekend in an interview with Glenn Greenwald. In that interview, Snowden said that he was certain he couldn't return to the U.S., and that he would seek asylum, possibly in Iceland.
But does he have a compelling reason to believe asylum is necessary? Lee compares some key cases, and the answer is clear.
Four decades ago, Daniel Ellsberg surrendered to federal authorities to face charges of violating the Espionage Act. During his trial, he was allowed to go free on bail, giving him a chance to explain his actions to the media. [...]
Bradley Manning, a soldier who released classified documents to WikiLeaks in 2010, has had a very different experience. Manning was held for three years without trial, including 11 months when he was held in de facto solitary confinement. During some of this period, he was forced to sleep naked at night, allegedly as a way to prevent him from committing suicide. The United Nations’ special rapporteur on torture has condemned this as “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of Article 16 of the convention against torture.” [...]
The civilian whistleblowers targeted by the Obama administration haven’t received treatment as harsh as Manning’s. But it’s telling that in none of their cases have the courts reached the legal and constitutional merits. The government’s strategy, in leak cases and many others, is to seek the maximum possible charges and then “plea bargain” down to a sentence the government considers more reasonable. [...]
If Snowden had chosen to stay in the United States, he would have faced a stark choice: accept a multi-year prison sentence for actions he believed to be in the public interest or go to trial and risk decades in prison if the courts were not persuaded by his legal and constitutional arguments. The American activist Aaron Swartz was facing exactly that choice when he committed suicide in January.
Note that the Justice Department's pursuit of Swartz wasn't even related to national security. It was an egregious prosecution, more persecution, that ended in the young man's death. The Obama/Holder administration has ruthlessly hounded leakers, and has embarrassed itself internationally by making Bradley Manning an example for other would-be leakers.
Of course Snowden is seeking asylum. The days of Daniel Ellsberg are long gone.