Edward Snowden: Political Martyr or Tyrant?

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During May of 2013 Edward Snowden, a previously contracted worker for Booz Allen Hamilton at a remote office in Hawaii, compromised millions of classified NSA documents. Snowden worked for Booz Allen for three months as a system administrator until he was terminated in June of 2013. Snowden, granted special privileges as a system administrator was able to access, copy and download files that other users would not have access to. Snowden also had no virtual signature on the servers, being that he was an administrator he had unrestricted clearance and could access and transfer classified files without raising any red flags.
Following his termination in June of 2013, Snowden released classified NSA documents to media sources to make available to the public. These documents held sensitive information regarding foreign informants, as well as surveillance measures that the NSA took to maximize security. One classified document Snowden released had information about a program called PRISM, which collects data on many servers such as those of Facebook and YouTube. Snowden also released classified documents regarding the bugging of foreign political offices, putting strain on foreign relations.
The first interaction between Snowden and the press was when Snowden reached out to a reporter for the newspaper The Guardian in May of 2013 asking for help in releasing the stolen information. Later that month Snowden sent the reporter a 41-page slideshow regarding a program called PRISM. Within the following two weeks, The Guardian published four of the forty-one slides. Since June of 2013, Snowden has released hundreds of documents ranging from details regarding the tracking of Verizon phone records to monitoring users on computer games such a...

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...es. The New York Times, 01 Jan. 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. .
"Edward Snowden: A Whistleblower, Not a Spy." Editorial. The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 03 July 2013. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. .
Milligan, Susan. "No Clemency for Snowden." Editorial. US News. U.S.News & World Report, 2 Jan. 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. .
"Why Snowden Won’t (and Shouldn’t) Get Clemency." Editorial. Slate Magazine. Slate, 3 Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. .

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