Tuesday, October 22, 2013

The Government's Deep Dark Secrets Revealed

Are people that leak government secrets heroes or traitors? That may be one of the most controversial issues of our time--second only to the great Team Edward v. Team Jacob debate. (On that note, I'm Team Dude Who Hit Bella With His Car).

Last week in class, we discussed the Pentagon Papers. In 1971, a man named Daniel Ellsberg gave information to The New York Times containing details on the United States' role in Indochina and thousands of pages of sensitive government documents. If you'd like to take a peak, a portion of the original Pentagon Papers can be found here. 

Ellsberg is certainly not the only person to blow the whistle. Other well-known examples include Bradley Manning and Julian Assange of WikiLeaks fame (Check out this trailer for the new WikiLeaks movie The Fifth Estate....Benedict Cumberbatch for the win) and more recently, Edward Snowden. A former CIA and NSA employee, Snowden released classified information on government surveillance programs. As a result, he's fled the country and has been both condemned as a traitor and hailed as a hero. So, what should we think of people like Ellsberg, Manning, Assange and Snowden? 
Image retrieved from http://robrogers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/061313_Traitor_or_Patriot.jpg
This question stumped me for a bit. Then I came across a Forbes article  which I found very interesting. It said that we need to stop focusing on if these people are "good guys" or "bad guys." Instead, a good word for them is pioneers. 

"Snowden and Manning -- whether traitors or heroes or neither -- should rightly be regarded as the first arrivals of the wave still to come." 

Digital security is fighting a losing battle and these leaks are only the tip of the iceberg. That's the important issue at hand. 


*For extra credit this week, I commented on Alex Clark's blog post.

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