From
the left: Jesselyn Radack, Raymond McGovern, Coleen Rowley and Thomas
Drake, talk to each other in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2013.
The four former U.S. government officials who met with former National
Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden said Thursday that he is
adjusting to life in Russia and expresses no regrets about leaking
highly classified information. They are the first Americans known to
have met with Snowden since he was granted asylum in Russia in August.
(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
MOSCOW - 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.
The Sam Adams Award, named in honor of the late CIA analyst Sam Adams, has been given in previous years to truth-tellers
Coleen Rowley of the FBI;
Katharine Gun of British Intelligence;
Sibel Edmonds of the FBI;
Craig Murray, former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan;
Sam Provance; former U.S. Army Sergeant at Abu Ghraib;
Maj. Frank Grevil of Danish Army Intelligence;
Larry Wilkerson, Colonel, U.S. Army (ret.), former chief of staff to Colin Powell at State;
Julian Assange of WikiLeaks;
Thomas Drake, former senior NSA official;
Jesselyn Radack, Director of National Security and Human Rights, Government Accountability Project; and
Thomas Fingar, former Assistant Secretary of State and Director, National Intelligence Council.
Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence was established in
2002 by colleagues and admirers of the late CIA intelligence analyst
Sam Adams to recognize those who uphold his example as a model for those
in intelligence who would aspire to the courage to speak truth to
power. In honoring Adams’s memory, SAAII confers an award each year to
someone in intelligence or related work who exemplifies Sam Adam’s
courage, persistence, and devotion to truth — no matter the
consequences.
It was Adams who discovered in 1967 that there were more than a
half-million Vietnamese Communists under arms. This was roughly twice
the number that the U.S. command in Saigon would admit to, lest
Americans learn that claims of “progress” were bogus.
An earlier version of this article first appeared at Consortiumnews.com
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the
ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. During his career as
a CIA analyst, he prepared and briefed the President's Daily Brief and
chaired National Intelligence Estimates. He is a member of the Steering
Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
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