By

P. Prem Kumar
P. Ankita rao
PGDM-1

EDWARD SNOWDEN

 INTRODUCTION TO CASE STUDY

Sometimes to do the right thing, you must break a law,” Edward Snowden said of his
revelations that the National Security Administration had conducted mass surveillance of US
residents.
But many people, including the US government, disagreed with these intentions—the
Department of Justice brought criminal charges against Snowden under the Espionage Act.
Was Snowden a heroic whistleblower who served US citizens by exposing unethical and
perhaps unconstitutional behavior on the part of the NSA? Or was he a misguided and
troubled computer hacker whose actions embarrassed his country and put diplomats and
agents abroad at risk?
The case study also provides illegal and unethical context to Snowden’s actions, explaining
the Espionage Act and the NSA surveillance programs in question.

 PERSONAL BIO-DATA
Full Name: Edward Joseph Snowden

Born On: June 21, 1983 (33*)

Place of Birth: Elizabeth City, North Carolina, U.S.

Residence: Russia (temporary asylum)

Nationality: American

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 Occupation: Computer Programmer, System Administrator

Education: University of Liverpool, Anne Arundel Community College

 BACKDROP
Edward Snowden was born in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, on June 21, 1983. His mother
works for the federal court in Baltimore (the family moved to Maryland during Snowden's
youth) as chief deputy clerk for administration and information technology. Snowden's father,
a former Coast Guard officer, later relocated to Pennsylvania and remarried.
Snowden dropped out of high school and studied computers at Anne Arundel Community
College in Arnold, Maryland (from 1999 to 2001, and again from 2004 to 2005). Between his
stints at community college, Snowden spent four months (May to September 2004) in the
Army Reserves in special-forces training. He did not complete training per Army sources,
and he was discharged after he broke his legs in an accident.

He passed the GED test and took classes at Anne Arundel Community College Although
Snowden had no undergraduate college degree he worked online toward a master's degree at
the University of Liverpool, England, in 2011.At age 20, he listed Buddhism as his religion
on a military recruitment form.

 PROFICIENT CAREER
Snowden’s career as a security specialist began in 2005, when he worked as a security guard
for the University of Maryland’s Center for Advanced Study of Language. In 2006, he was
hired by the CIA in Langley, Virginia. One year later, the CIA posted him in Geneva to
maintain computer network security.
In 2009, he resigned from the CIA to work as a private contractor: first for Dell, and then for
Booz Allen Hamilton. While intelligence officials have described his position there as a
"system administrator," Snowden has said he was an "infrastructure analyst," which meant
that his job was to look for new ways to break into Internet and telephone traffic around the
world. On March 15, 2013 three days after what he later called his breaking point of seeing
the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, directly lie under oath to Congress
Snowden quit his job at Dell.

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 As a contractor, Snowden worked in Tokyo, Maryland, and finally Hawaii, where he began
the work that would ultimately make him one of America’s most polarizing figures.

 NSA & ITS OVERVIEW

The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence organization of the United States
government, responsible for global monitoring, collection, and processing of information and
data for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes, a discipline known as signals
intelligence (SIGINT).

The organization exists to protect national communications systems integrity, and to seek
information about foreign adversaries' secret communications.
NSA's eavesdropping mission includes radio broadcasting, both from various organizations
and individuals, the Internet, telephone calls, and other intercepted forms of communication.
Its secure communications mission includes military, diplomatic, and all other sensitive,
confidential or secret government communications.

 SNOWDEN’s PEAKS AND VALLEYS? [Is he a Patriot or Traitor]

While working at the NSA office in Hawaii in 2013, Snowden grew increasingly disturbed
by how the NSA was spying on ordinary citizens through their phone and Internet data. He
began compiling a dossier filled with information on the NSA’s mass surveillance practices.
He then contacted documentary filmmaker Laura Poitra’s, as well as journalists Glenn
Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill, and Barton Gellman, enlisting them to leak the documents he
had collected.

In May 2013, Snowden told his bosses he needed to take a medical leave of absence to deal
with his recently diagnosed epilepsy. On May 20, 2013, Snowden flew to Hong Kong and
braced himself for what was to come.

On June 5, 2013, The Guardian leaked documents demonstrating that Verizon was sharing all
its user data with the NSA. The next day, The Guardian and The Washington Times broke the
story about PRISM, an NSA surveillance program that allows the NSA to collect Internet
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data from its citizens through their online activity on products and applications by Microsoft,
Yahoo, Google, and Apple, to name a few.

From Snowden’s attitude was his decision fails the “act” but passes the “rule” utilitarianism
test where the NSA fails the “rule” but passes the “act” utilitarian test. The threat of terrorism
and violence has always been a strong catalyst for public uproar. On June 9, 2013, Snowden
revealed his identity through The Guardian, stating, “I have no intention of hiding who I am
because I know I have done nothing wrong.”

With the occurrence of Edward Snowden´s leak of the classified NSA intelligence, the
disputable and disagreeing issue arose regarding safety, danger and how to distinguish the
two from each other. It is now unclear if the conflict regarding the NSA leaks is due to our
current modern society having over time lost the motivation and preference of to making
morally sound decisions or if it is due to the public becoming inactive from the ability to
judge if something is right or wrong in the first place.
These were just the first in a series of incriminating leaks by worldwide media outlets
revealing the numerous mass surveillance programs by not only the NSA but also its global
partners.

Several days later, US federal prosecutors charged Snowden with theft of government
property, plus two counts of violating the US Espionage Act: unauthorized communication of
national defense information and willful communication of classified intelligence with an
unauthorized person.

Snowden remained in Hong Kong for one month, until, with the aid of WikiLeaks, he set out
to flee to Ecuador via Russia and Cuba. When his flight arrived in Russia, however, US
officials revoked his passport, preventing him from continuing in his journey. Snowden has
since remained in Russia, where he was initially granted temporary asylum, and then, in
August 2014, a three-year residency permit.

The NSA’s surveillance would allow a nation to remain safe from the threat of terrorism
and due to the ignorance of the public on this matter, it would pass the test for “act
utilitarianism”. However, when considering that the breaking of a moral value generally
accepted by the public, would potentially lead to the outcry and general unhappiness of the
public and severe repercussions to the company, it does not pass the test for “rule”
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utilitarianism. Rule utilitarianism would be the theory more adequate to use for the
perspective of the NSA as the negative outcome of their decision incurred in the long-term
and was due to the ignoring of a general accepted moral rule of deception.

I’ll admit that he is a traitor, while one may believe that the liable and not to blame parties
in this event are very easily distinguishable from one another, a closer look over into the
primary concern of a nation and more importantly into their elucidation of social corporate
responsibility which may lead to a different aspect.

“US files criminal charges against NSA” whistleblower Edward Snowden

On June 14, 2013, United States federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against
Snowden, charging him with theft of government property, and two counts of violating
the Espionage Act through unauthorized communication of national defense information
and "willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an
unauthorized person." Each of the three charges carries a maximum possible prison term
of ten years.

The US has filed espionage charges against the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

18 USC § 641 - Public Money, Property or records.

180 USC § 793 (d) – Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information.

18 USC § 798(a)(3)– Disclosure of classified information

Reports say authorities have requested that Hong Kong detain him for extradition.
Legislators in Hong Kong responded by calling for mainland China to intervene in the
case.

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 Snowden, 29, is charged with theft of government property, unauthorised communication
of national defence information and willful communication of classified communications
intelligence information to an unauthorised person, per court documents.

It is also important to note that the perspective to be utilized firstly in this section of report
will not be centered around the whistleblowing of Edward Snowden bur rather the NSA’s
act of surveillance. Utilitarianism is a theory that holds no regard to the consequences
incurred into the person faced with deciding but rather how the decision will affect
others.

 Justification in my opinion
Leaking information to Chinese people isn’t revealing unconstitutional surveillance of
Americans and leaking that classified information is which undoubtedly illegal. Writing an
open letter for trying to get Brazil to grant him political asylum by offering to help Brazil
investigate United States surveillance, because Snowden leaked information about the U.S.
spying on the Brazilian government, isn’t standing up for the Constitutional rights of
Americans. Leaking documents showing that Sweden has helped the United States spy on
Russia isn’t “being a patriot.”

Producing documents that reveal details on how the NSA gets some of its intelligence on the
location of dangerous terrorists isn’t “being a passionate supporter of our Bill of Rights.”
Revealing that the United States uses cyber-attacks as an “intelligence weapon” for overseas
targets has nothing to do with our Constitution. Countries in Latin America weren’t protected
by our Constitution either and yet Snowden still leaked information about how the NSA
listens in on phone calls in many of those nations. Can’t say I see any connection to our
Constitution in Snowden’s leak of documents pertaining to al-Qaeda’s efforts to shoot down
or hack our drones.

I’ll admit that he is a traitor, but I’m sure French citizens aren’t protected by our
Constitution. And I have no idea what Canada’s intelligence gathering must do with
American rights. Though I’m certain revealing that the NSA helped the Dutch spy on
Somalia has absolutely nothing to do with the Constitution.

So even if you’re on the side of believing that he’s a “patriot” for revealing that the NSA has
been unconstitutionally and illegally spying on Americans, that doesn’t recuse him of being a
traitor. The fact is that he illegally stole this information and much of what he took, and
subsequently leaked, has nothing to do with our Constitution or the rights of Americans.

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 REFERENCES
 https://www.expressvpn.com/internet-privacy/guides/edward-snowden-biography/

 http://www.biography.com/people/edward-snowden-21262897#early-years

 http://casestudies.law.harvard.edu/the-snowden-effect/

 www.wikipedia.com