Edward Snowden and the NSA: Surveillance, Leaks, and Rights

Background of the Issue

This essay reviews the relevant literature to provide background on Edward Snowden and how his high-profile actions adversely affected the work of the National Security Agency (NSA). An analysis of what the NSA was doing prior to the leaks and how it collects intelligence information now is followed by an examination of what Snowden leaked and why. Finally, a discussion of whether the U.S. government violated Snowden's constitutional rights is followed by a summary of the research and important findings in the conclusion.

Beginning in June 2013, Edward Snowden, a computer analyst working for the National Security Agency, began leaking thousands of classified documents. These documents were disclosed to The Guardian and alleged that the NSA routinely gathered telephonic metadata from telecommunications companies, allowing it to scrutinize American citizens' Internet activities (Morrison, 2014). According to Francheschi-Bicchierai (2014), among the thousands of documents Snowden leaked, the secrets most harmful to the NSA included the following:

Secret court orders authorized the NSA to review American citizens' telephone records (Francheschi-Bicchierai, 2014), operating essentially as a domestic intelligence agency (Stein, 2013). Snowden also revealed how the NSA's telephone surveillance program could gather data on Americans' calls, including the numbers dialed, the length of conversations, and the dates on which they occurred (McCarthy, 2013).

The disclosure of PRISM, an NSA initiative to gain direct access to servers at major online providers such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple (Francheschi-Bicchierai, 2014). This disclosure generated a flood of criticism from the international community and from citizens of both the U.S. and the U.K. regarding security, privacy, and government spying (Be very afraid, 2013). The PRISM initiative, which enables NSA officials to collect data from these major Internet companies, had been in effect since 2007 as part of the global war on terrorism (Taking liberties in the name of freedom, 2013).

The NSA routinely conducts espionage on foreign countries and world leaders, even those friendly to the United States (Francheschi-Bicchierai, 2014).

The disclosure of XKeyscore, which allows the NSA to determine everything a computer user does online (Francheschi-Bicchierai, 2014).

The NSA's attempts to decode encrypted data and sabotage Internet security (Francheschi-Bicchierai, 2014).

The disclosure that an NSA team of hackers exists and a description of the techniques they use (Francheschi-Bicchierai, 2014).

The NSA had access to Google and Yahoo data centers (Francheschi-Bicchierai, 2014).

The NSA routinely gathers private citizens' text messages (Francheschi-Bicchierai, 2014) and likely has access to audio recordings of telephone calls (Be very afraid, 2013).

The NSA intercepts all telephone calls in Afghanistan and the Bahamas (Francheschi-Bicchierai, 2014).

An NSA program routinely intercepts the emails of non-U.S. persons located outside the United States (Yoo, 2014).

The disclosure of MonsterMind, an NSA cyberattack tool that automatically unleashes a hostile response when network intrusions are detected — a tool that Snowden alleges brought down Syria's Internet service in 2003 (Ackerman, 2014).

Taken together, it is not surprising that the U.S. government wants to apprehend Snowden, who — following an international odyssey in search of asylum (Stein, 2013) — was living in an undisclosed location in Russia temporarily while seeking long-term sanctuary elsewhere (Be very afraid, 2013). U.S. federal prosecutors have charged Snowden with theft of government property and espionage (Be very afraid, 2013), and he has been characterized alternatively as a traitor and even an anarchist (McCarthy, 2013).