Run, Snowden, Run: You're a Disgrace

Edward Snowden is on the run. Go for it Ed. Rack up those frequent flyer miles. Enjoy the borscht in Moscow and Cuban cigars at Havana Airport. Maybe you can go around the world in 80 days, a man without a country, or at least a passport. You’ve done it Snowden; you’ve unified Washington on a non-partisan basis in a common cause – your return to the United States to face trial. Senator Dianne Feinstein says the “The chase is on.” The Secretary of State is fulminating. White House press spokesman Jay Carney said Hong Kong’s act does great harm to U.S. – China relations. To paraphrase President Reagan, “You can run, but not hide” from the NSA. On second thought, maybe you can. The NSA with all its data mining could not find the Brothers Tsarnaev, the Underwear Bomber, the Times Square Bomber, or Major Hasan. Washington needs you on the run and not in custody. Your absence, coupled with the news cycles, means you are the issue before the public, not the questionable seizure of the phone records of American citizens. The program has been disclosed to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. The Administration claims its acts are legal, authorized by Congress, and constitutional pursuant to analogous cases. Even if they are, they are wrong. It’s possible that President Obama does not want you back. He’s assigned the case to the Justice Department. Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the United States, has already failed to get Hong Kong to extradite Snowden even after personal requests. Perhaps the Attorney general has no recollection of that. The Justice Department had not asked Interpol to issue a “red order,” an international arrest warrant. The State Department did not revoke Snowden’s passport until Saturday. Once again we see an Administration that doesn’t know what it’s doing. To me you’re not a whistle-blower, but a troubled naïve kid who has done great damage to America. No justification exists for turning our national security secrets over to the Chinese government. You have affirmed to China the extent to which we have hacked into their computer systems. You’re a nobody, exploiting his 15 minutes of fame. The second tragedy of your acts, the flight, is that you, a high school dropout, have shown to the world that the United States is neither feared nor respected by the world. You have publicly unveiled the ineffectual public policy and impotence of the Obama Administration. The talk is tough coming out of Washington, but neither China nor Russia, not to mention the Banana Republic of Ecuador, is worried about sticking it in America’s face. We are witnessing the opposite of the Theodore Roosevelt approach to foreign policy: “Speak softly, but carry a big stick.” Snowden, Stop running; come home so that we can debate the real issues.