Saying “No” to Surveillance ⇥ nytimes.com

Edward Snowden, in an op-ed for the NY Times:

We are witnessing the emergence of a post-terror generation, one that rejects a worldview defined by a singular tragedy. For the first time since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, we see the outline of a politics that turns away from reaction and fear in favor of resilience and reason. With each court victory, with every change in the law, we demonstrate facts are more convincing than fear. As a society, we rediscover that the value of a right is not in what it hides, but in what it protects.

Incredibly well stated.

The events of the past two years have made it clear that members of the US government were knowingly lying to or misleading the American people about the nature of their intelligence programs. This week’s victory, albeit a small one, in passing the USA FREEDOM Act would not have occurred without Snowden’s disclosures. The USA PATRIOT Act¹ would have been re-signed without a second thought or a word of debate had Snowden not made the disclosures he did.

I know it doesn’t exactly work this way, but this evidence should justify a full pardon. This debate needed to happen, and it clearly wasn’t going to unless such disclosures were made. They may have been unauthorized, but they were wholly necessary.