Similar to Assange and Snowden, Ellsberg can only be considered heroic for his actions of releasing Pentagon papers amidst the Vietnam War to inform the American public about the real ongoings of the war. US Citizens have a right to information therefore the US government must respect that right and tell them exactly what is happening during the war, even its negative, embarrassing, aspects. The Vietnam War was arguably one of America’s greatest military failures and part of the reason it was such a failure was because of President Nixon and Defense Secretary McNamaras’ repeated lies that things were going well, that America was making “progress” in fighting communism in Vietnam. Ellsberg really changed the course of the Vietnam War, by helping Americans realize it was a lost cause and that the US government and military were lying to the press and thus violating the First Amendment of the Constitution. …show more content…
Ellsberg really was the original whistleblower, setting up a precedent for Assange and Snowden to follow as they too decided to release classified documents for the wellbeing of American citizens. As Ellsberg rightly states, “such leaks remain the lifeblood of a free press and our republic”(CWI Sources). The US was founded on freedom of speech and the press by our founding fathers who revolted against Great Britain because they were prevented from having those basic human rights. Furthermore, Ellsberg’s trial for violating the Espionage Act of 1917 proved how corrupt the US government and CIA were as they violated Ellsberg’s Fourth and Fifth Amendments to land a conviction, but failed, thus leading to a mistrial and all charges dropped. By releasing these Pentagon documents, Ellsberg revamped US citizens’ constitutional rights, making Ellsberg a true
He donated lots of money to people and places and charities that needed it the most . This would be one reason why someone would think he is heroic. Many people would not really see this heroic because he was a wealthy man he had a lot more money than what he donated. Yes he did donate a good portion of his money but people
WikiLeaks has released numerous documents “to bring important news and information to the public” so that “readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth (What is WikiLeaks, 1). ” There are numerous reports on the imprisonment of journalists within the United States who have released government information to the public. This website provides a platform for journalists and the like to supply government information to the public that would otherwise be kept from them. Due to the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution that allows freedom of the press, Congress is unable to pass a law that would prevent WikiLeaks from providing such information to constituents. The United States government, however, is presently trying to terminate the WikiLeaks website and is encouraging search engines to prevent the WikiLeaks website from appearing in their searches.
Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, along with President Nixon believed that it would be in the best interest of the United States to keep the Cambodian bombings a secret. Former President Lyndon B. Johnson had been public about his involvement in Vietnam, which did not completely bode well for him. Protests and riots errupte as a result of Johnson’s exposure of war efforts. For these reasons, Nixon decided to keep all his Cambodia plans within a small circle of his trusted advisors. Before 1863, Cambodia mainly served as a vassal territory for either the Thai or Vietnamese governments' to own.
Being an Intelligence Analyst in the military, Chelsea Manning’s job was to handle classified information, but she discovered documents that revealed atrocities committed by the US in Iraq. Feeling compelled to let people know what was happening in the Global War on Terror, she promptly released this sensitive information to a website known as Wikileaks for all to see.
Through the article there were connections that talked about Nixon knowingly agreed to spy on the Oval Office, also like Bob Woodward mentioned the CIA investigations were procrastinated by Nixon. But the real thing that caught. In the article Bob Woodward wrote in “How Mark Felt became Deep Throat” I read it never called him a hero and rarely did I see the term whistleblower used. Mark Felt was was the perfect man to do the job, him having Soviet Spy experience helped him hide in shadows. Reasons he didn’t reveal himself sooner speculate as far as he did not exist to getting charged with espionage acts.
I don 't think of Edward Snowden as a hero or a traitor. I do think what he did was bad he informed the general public of what the federal government is doing and the people have the right to know. If my best friend 's girlfriend was cheating on him and I told him about it does that make me a traitor? that 's an over simplified comparison but the point is that we as people of the "free world" have the right to know. The federal government should not have the ability to monitor your activity without a warrant without a just cause.
Treasonous Valor Edward Snowden believed he was doing the right thing when he illegally released classified documents. He saw the government’s wrongdoings and thought the public should know that their fourth amendment was being violated. While Snowden believed his intentions were justifiable, his actions created one of our countries’ most controversial issues. He made known of illegal activities by turning around and doing something illegal himself. Two wrongs do not make a right.
The main issue in the Snowden controversy is the conflicting rights of private individuals and the US government with regard to the use of telecommunications and the internet. There are ethical issues surrounding this controversy and the most applicable ethical approach for this case is “Ethics by Rights Approach”. As a background, the reason why US government had declared Edward Snowden a traitor is his involvement in the leaking of about 1.7 million confidential US documents, 15,000 Australian intelligence files and 58,000 British intelligence files from the National Security Agency (or NSA) to the public. These confidential information were acquired by the NSA through the PRISM program by collaborating with big internet companies such
In 2013, Edward Snowden rose to prominence after he released classified documents to the public regarding the existence of United States (US) government’s wide spread surveillance programs conducted through the National Security Agency (NSA). Snowden is an American computer expert, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) systems administrator and NSA subcontractor. On one hand, Snowden had been called a traitor and charged with violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and committing treason by the US government for leaking state secrets, whereas on the other, he has been hailed as a hero by many for his actions. He currently resides under temporary asylum in Russia and continues to speak about his work. He has brought the issue of whistleblowing
In the last years there have been debates from people about many scandals that have been caused by the action from government from all over the world. It isn't a secret that for the example the government of the United States of America its hiding things that all the people of the planet needs to know, but the most grave thing it´s that some organizations inside this country, secretly has been accessing the mails of American people illegally without the approval of a martial court. This illegal actions of the NSA, CIA and the GCHQ have been revealed by a guy called Edward Snowden that was a former contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA) and also an ex-employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The government of the United States accuses him to reveal classified files of this two agencies, and because he was actually working on both. In the side of the CIA and the NSA, I think that they are doing this things for the national security but also that's illegal to do it without the order of an approval of a martial court, thing that they don´t have.
Some consider him a hero, and others consider him a traitor. Who is he? Edward Snowden. You might remember Snowden from 2013, when he leaked hundreds of highly classified documents concerning invasion of privacy against Americans by the National Security Agency. We know what Snowden did, but who really is he?
Snowden took some of the files out of the millions he had and gave that information to the media for them to do a story on it (Epstein A.11.)2. The information he stole should’ve been handed over as well with Snowden. The people who kept him from the United States should be prosecuted. Snowden kept information in his head for the reason if he needed leverage to get out of a situation. Snowden said with being the most wanted
External organizations like Wikileaks is revealing secrets without informing about the sources and keeping the identity of the whistleblower concealed. On the basis of the organization whistle-blown on, whistleblowing is classified as
but they can not get into the lives of others like them can be for safety but should implement another types of methods. at some point I thought that what Snowden said was a lie that just saying it to look good to the world , but then I was reading and I realized it was all true Mr. Edward Snowden is a very good person who knows the damage the government the American states can lead to people if something should occur. due to the large number of people that the North American government disrespectfully without your permission obtained a metadata (a set of data That Gives INFORMATION ABOUT describe and other data) extensive and long. the Citizenfour movie is an excellent movie that helped us to clarify many doubts we had about WikiLeaks , without that film had not understood very bein the situation that is happening the creator made us a great favor when creating this film.
Unfortunately, that is not the case with WikiLeaks because the information is accessed in a manner that is not known or clear and no one can be traced to show where the information originated. Thus, the ethical issue that WikiLeaks has is whether it is doing the right thing by providing information that states would have preferred to be confidential and whether the information is beneficial to the public. The current society is perceived to be free, and thus, people in a free society need to know the truth despite the fact that the truth becomes treason. Thus, the existence of an organization such as WikiLeaks is that it is incredibly beneficial to the society.