Edward Snowdon is a true patriot

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Edward Snowden is a true patriot

by Mari Marcel Thekaekara

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Hong Kong protest to support Edward Snowden on 15 June 2013. Protesters marched to the Consulate General of the US (See-ming Lee, under a CC License)

If you read about young American Edward Snowden, hiding from the US government in a hotel in Hong Kong, it makes you think you are in a CIA movie. You will be worried when you think that the US and Britain, countries of democracy, free speech etc, are trying to get Edward Snowden, Manning and Assange. This like a George Orwell story - almost surreal.

When I grew up, Kennedy was my family’s hero and Kruschev was the bad guy. For the last five decades people have told us about Big Brother in Russia and China. And James Bond is the famous hero. So it’s ironic that there’s a brave young man, forced to run away from the land of Liberty, and hide in Hong Kong, where Bond bad guys live. Snowden’s story is like a Hollywood film. He is the typical young hero fighting for the American way of life. Fighting for truth and justice. The modern Lincoln.

Snowdon will not get much from exposing the truth. He knew he would have to run for the rest of his life. He needed a lot of courage, to take his story to the media. He knew he could lose everything. People saying bad things about him now is shocking. Co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak, said, ‘I felt about Edward Snowden the same way I felt about Daniel Ellsberg, who changed my life, who taught me a lot.’ Most people in the US, and all over the world, feel that way. People will remember Snowden as a hero with amazing courage.

The average person in the US is shocked that Big Brother can now hear them in their bedrooms, family rooms, record conversations, read emails and follow their cell phones. But they tell us we need this, for protection. Because of terrorism. The Patriot Act rules since 9\11. But an unjust war was fought against Iraq when Iraq had nothing to do with 9\11. Everyone know admits that the US and Britain went to war with confused evidence.

It was the US military’s covert operations which funded, armed and supported both Saddam and Osama; Saddam, to fight Iran and Osama, to fight the Russians in Afghanistan. And now, in unbelievable irony, the US wants talks with the Taliban. What about women’s rights? What about democracy and freedom. Or the fight against fundamentalism?

How is it possible that they can do what they do? Bush, Cheney and Blair who sent thousands of young US and British soldiers to die in Iraq and Afghanistan, (Iraqi and Afghan deaths are not important in their view of the world) who threw away billions in an unnecessary, illegal war, are laughing as they get rich. They have got much richer in the last decade as their countries’ economies have got much poorer. In my view, they are the criminals.

But, a brave young man who has risked his life, for the US, to bring the world information that has shocked everyone, can be terrorized for being brave and patriotic.

A million people marched in London to stop Blair going to war. They had no power to change history. Will the world’s most powerful democracy destroy this good, decent young hero? Today, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln would not recognize the country they fought for with blood, sweat and tears. The US must fight for its brave, young son. The Statue of Liberty cries.

As this article has been simplified, the words, text structure and quotes may have been changed. For the original, please see: http://newint.org/blog/2013/06/21/edward-snowden-whistleblower/