POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY TONY BURMAN IN THE TORONTO STAR
"more hero than
traitor"
Sorry, I have a problem with that wording.
In my view, the word "traitor" has no application
to Edward Snowden whatever.
Of course, one expects it to be on the lips of the usual gang
of blood-thirsty America-firsters – people like John McCain or Dick Cheney or
Condoleezza Rice - but then almost everything those people say is unthinking
lies.
The victorious Allies hung men, high-ranking men indeed,
after WWII for "just following orders."
It is no different in the intelligence field than in the
military: when an order or an assignment violates the very basic precepts of a
society, the traitors, if the word has any application at all, are the ones who
blindly follow.
Edward Snowden rises above run-of-the-mill heroes, too: he
has risked just about everything - home, career, and his life - to reveal
secret government acts violating the ethical and legal precepts of free society
and threatening the futures of everyone.
