POLITICO Column: …For those who believe that the United States should step back from its engagement from the world, toning down our robust national security and dramatically shrinking our defense and intelligence community, Greenwald’s rationale and Snowden’s behavior might appear to vaguely honorable. And in this next round of debate, the emphasis will once again be on the domestic side of Snowden’s disclosures, as opposed to the enormous international damage done to our country’s self-defense by his revelations.
The picture looks different for those who believe, as I do, that the world is still a very dangerous place and that America faces grave challenges from a range of threats as it plays its essential role as guarantor of global peace: terrorism and instability across the Middle East; China’s military muscle-flexing in Asia; and Putin’s imperial designs in Ukraine and potentially towards other neighbors. From this perspective, Snowden’s actions are deeply troubling in that they directly caused a serious loss of capability to understand the plans and intentions of current and future adversaries. Snowden single-handedly blinded us to critical targets and eliminated our ability to see what some of the key players on the international stage are up to. From first-hand experience, I can state unequivocally that the capability to do this comes at incredibly great cost in time, money and personal sacrifice.
But, to give the devil his due, let’s look at Snowden’s domestic revelations about U.S. citizens’ privacy, which have drawn most of the attention and concern from the American people. It is eminently clear that the intelligence community, Congress and the White House are struggling with the double-edged sword of privacy and national security, particularly as technology progresses at unprecedented speed. And I am reasonably optimistic that, despite the public hand-wringing, they will quickly come up with the right balance that protects our civil liberties and doesn’t cripple our intelligence collection against our enemies, who do, at times, operate in and cooperate with U.S. citizens. When the news cameras stop rolling, these officials all know just how vital these collection platforms are to our defense while at the same time truly appreciating the value of the law and the importance of protection of our citizens’ rights. Nevertheless, implementation won’t be an easy task, and it certainly won’t take place above the requisite Washington self-serving politics… (more)
