Edward Snowden has noble intentions but NSA is just doing its job

How would you react if someone told you that you are being spied upon by the people you trust? You may feel offended, perhaps angry, at the disclosure; you may also profusely thank the informant. The revelation may also make you paranoid of those around you. You may start acting in the most unusual manner and will, obviously, feel terrified of those you once trusted.

But there will be others who, instead of recoiling themselves in a cocoon, will protest in the most outrageous manner against the perceived injustice done to them. They will raise their voices in the most indignant fashion against the ‘betrayal’. At the same time they will also be thanking and supporting the one who told them of the betrayal in the first place because if it were not for that one individual, they would have never known the truth. The informant will be further elevated to a messianic stature if it becomes known that he is a whistleblower.

A whistleblower is someone who decides to reveal the dark secrets of his group for the sake of peace, humanity, righteousness or justice at a huge personal risk. Over the last couple of years, the term whistleblower has been used as a sort of honorific, an unofficial knighthood for those who disclose information hidden by a government or any of its various bodies from the general public. The term gained significance with the arrival of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and has since been regularly used by the media to better describe the deed of such a daredevil.

A new name has just been added to the growing list of whistleblowers: Edward Snowden. Snowden is a 29-year-old American techie whose conscience made him tell his countrymen, and the world, that they were being spied upon by the National Security Agency (NSA) – one of the biggest spy agencies of the world meant to protect America’s interests. His revelation shook America and the world when it was learnt that the NSA used famous tech companies like Google, Facebook and Apple to spy on a vast network of people. The documents Snowden leaked to Britain’s Guardian newspaper also show that companies like Yahoo were forced to become part of the massive snooping program called PRISM by a court order. This shows that the PRISM had legal backing. NSA not only used the tech companies to spy on Americans but also citizens of other countries including India.

I argue that even if Snowden may be having noble intentions - ensuring right to  privacy - the NSA should not be blamed for its act because that is what a spy agency is supposed to do.

Read the rest of my argument here:

http://www.newsyaps.com/edward-snowden-has-noble-intentions-but-nsa-is-just-doing-its-job/28721/