Snowden (4 Stars)

I missed this film when it was in the cinema. My thanks to Netflix UK for offering it online, so that I could watch it while on holiday in England. Netflix Germany doesn't include it in their catalogue.

Edward Snowden is a controversial figure, in America at least. In America he's divided the country down the middle. Judging by the fervent online debates a few years ago his supporters and opponents are numerically evenly matched. In the rest of the world he's almost universally considered to be a hero. The American divide isn't necessarily along party political lines. At the end of the film there are quotes from two leading Democratic politicians, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Clinton considers Snowden a criminal who should be put on trial, whereas Sanders praises what Snowden did.

Technically, yes, Edward Snowden broke the law. He worked for the CIA, an American government agency, and he swore oaths of secrecy. He broke these oaths when he smuggled out thousands, maybe even millions of documents and gave them to representatives of the Guardian, a British newspaper. His justification is that he considered the CIA and the NSA to be acting illegally, so it was his moral duty to resist. The film draws a connection between Nazi Germany and modern America; at the Nuremberg Trials the officers were convicted as criminals because they had obeyed orders, whereas the Germans who defied the Nazi regime are now regarded as heroes. This highlights Edward Snowden's moral dilemma, but it's a poor comparison, because the Nuremberg Trials were a result of Germany losing the war. If Germany had won the Nazi officers would have been heroes, whereas the rebels would have been executed as traitors. In the case of Snowden's revelations there has been no war to prompt a black-and-white judgement of what he did. The aftermath of wars is the only time when moral ambiguities are (seemingly) eradicated, because the winners are right and the losers are wrong. Winning a war is proof that God was on our side.

Edward Snowden was and is an American patriot. He believes in the American constitution and the American way of life. What he didn't accept was the way the NSA and CIA were spying on normal citizens, uninvolved with criminal activities. The contents of Facebook, emails and everything else online was being monitored and stored. It was possible to observe people through the camera of laptops even when the laptop was turned off. I wonder if this is still possible now. Laptop manufacturers may have closed the security breach since it was revealed by Snowden. Maybe, maybe not.

As a protest I'm writing this post while sitting at my laptop completely naked. I hope Donald Trump will look at me after reading this post. I want to make him jealous. On the other hand, if there are any sexy super-spies checking my credentials, please come and visit me. You already have my address.

Since Snowden's revelations new laws have been passed in America forbidding the mass accumulation of private data. I don't take this seriously. This was already illegal, but government agencies did it anyway, and I'm certain they still do it now.

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