When Dan Brown first published Digital Fortress in 1998, the plot sent a nuclear explosion throughout readers’ worlds with its teetering effects still radioactive. When the foundation of a fictional fortress is chunks of concrete truth, the novel becomes all the more pier-to-peer solidified. Brown was playing in the safe territory by creating a marvelously high-speed car chase of words on an exceptionally classified terrain: The NSA.
While it was Tankado that created the tornado in the novel, his doppleganger is Snowden today. When Thomas L Friedman disclosed incredible insider secrets of the corporate world in The World is Flat, it was termed as cognizance. When Geroge Orwell wrote 1984 it became hugely popular for its revelation of public surveillance. But now when Edward Snowden vocally makes authentic disclosures instead of creating a work of literature; he becomes a threat to national security.
Snowden has not really come out of the exposé-pen just yet. In fact, he hides in it for now, still deciding whether he should find refuge in Caracas or otherwise have his carcass feasted by the NSA, bone by bone. Obama may be shutting down Guantanamo but he certainly would not hesitate to send another resident there, especially when the matter germinates underground his own government.
It’s almost like Julian Assange formed a secret society with WikiLeaks and like Edward Snowden new recruits will soon follow. Snowden has so far not been convicted; just wanted not warranted, then why is the United States playing bounty hunter by canceling his passport and calling international borders to deny him asylum? If this is a security issue, shouldn’t the public, of whose security is being compromised in the first place, be aware of the NSA’s activities concerning their own privacy? If only Dan Brown or George Orwell had revealed what parts were non-fiction in their books. No wonder the sales of their books are proliferating once again.
Just under half the population of the United States believe Snowden is no criminal; survey-wise at least. He has only briefly disclosed what the NSA has been doing and who. In his latest interview he said that “We’re in bed together with the Germans”*. Perhaps all of this is too dirty a secret not to be made into paparazzi. The mélange of Assange and Snowden may have just made it ugly coyote. In collaboration with several private companies, countries* and collaborations, the NSA is peeking into bedrooms and bathrooms, just without an avowal. From the Queen of England to a criminal of Illinois and every person of every alphabet in between, the NSA has its cookies stored everywhere.
The NSA may deem that majority of the common public is too common and thus do not need to know what Snowden leaks over a loud hailer. They are not worried about their phones being tapped or their facebook profile being tracked. But Snowden making headlines everyday is telling us otherwise.
The NSA’s sovereignty and control is severely chilling: TEMPORA, Stuxnet, CDN are just few of its tentacles. And for the sake of national security it’s for theirs to sting. But isn’t whistleblowing blowing whistle on illegal and dishonest behavior of an organization? The real question is: from whose side of too much is too much?
If you’re part of that common population, you already know the answer.
*We refers to NSA
*Germany, UK