As someone who has spent some time
on the wrong end of both the judiciary and penal systems of this great land, I
find it rather cute that Fareed Zakaria thinks that Edward Snowden should turn
himself in to stand trial for his alleged crimes against the U.S. Zakaria's
assertion that Snowden would get a fair trial if he were to return to his
homeland is similarly adorable.
Clearly Mr. Zakaria imagines a world
where whistleblowers are lauded for their dutiful service to the American
people and where the wrongdoers who have been exposed take their lumps and hang
their heads in shame. To call this worldview naive would plumb the depths of
understatement to be sure. Has Zakaria never heard of Mark Binney, whose entire
family was held at gunpoint while the FBI stormed his house in 2007 after
Binney addressed waste and ethics violations within the NSA through the proper channels?
Or maybe Zakaria needs to be
reminded of the federal prosecution brought against former NSA executive Thomas
Clarke, who also blew the whistle on his employers for waste of taxpayers'
dollars as well as fraud and illegal spying on those same taxpayers. Like
Binney, Clarke tried to voice his concerns the officially sanctioned way,
through the chain of command, up to and including Congress. For his troubles,
he was rewarded with months of punishing harassment by his superiors, FBI raids
of his home, legal prosecution under the Patriot Act, and eventually loss of
employment and income. The Government eventually dropped all but one minor charge,
but not before they were made to look like bumbling idiots on a national
broadcast of 60 Minutes...and not
before Clark's life lay in shambles.
No, Snowden should just sit tight
where he is and ride this one out way over there in Putinland. There hasn't
been a reasonable facsimile of fairness towards a United States whistleblower
since Daniel Ellsberg all the way back in the early 70s; and even that media
circus only turned out well for Ellsberg because Tricky Dick had been caught
with his hand so far into the cookie jar that he just had to leave the damn
thing dangling from his arm while he signed his resignation with the other hand.
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