Former National Security Agency and data privacy votary Edward Snowden surely realizes what it means to be a whistle-blower in a country that makes regulation virtue of free speech and individual liberties.
The man at the wrong end of the thirties has been America's most consequential whistle-blowers, responsible for the most significant leaks in US political history. His exiled life is an outcome of the historically unprecedented rate at which the then Obama administration prosecuted whistle-blowers. He marches on regardless, seized very well that the US administration will attempt to use all its weight to punish him. In a tweet he had lamented that "societies that demand whistle-blowers be martyrs often find themselves without either, and always, when it matters most."
Snowden's latest pointed tweet that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange "could be the next" after the alleged suicide of anti-virus software mogul John McAfee in a Spain jail should be understood in this context. Known for his larger-than-life personality, McAfee of the pioneer McAfee Associates, was charged with tax evasion between 2014 and 2018 having made millions from consultancy work, cryptocurrencies and selling the rights to his life story that Hollywood seemed sold out on.
Snowden should know. Whistle-blowers are sometimes seen as selfless martyrs who stand up for public interest and organizational accountability while at the other end of the spectrum some view them as traitors or defectors accusing them of pursuing personal glory and being politically motivated. Seen as civil disobedience or protection from wrongdoing, it is fraught with risks either way.
McAfee was no whistle-blower. He called himself a libertarian and was known for his anti-government stance on guns, drugs and liberty. His tweets, often cryptic and ominous suggested that he was the target of wealthy elites, including the top ranking officials in the CIA. Paranoiac probably got to him when the Spanish court decided to extradite him to the US.
The Snowden Effect" is palpable when he says that "Europe should not extradite those accused of non-violent crimes to a court system so unfair -- and prison system so cruel --that native-born defendants would rather die than become subject to it. Julian Assange could be next. Until the system is reformed, a moratorium should remain."
Snowden's tweet is a scathing indictment of the American administration of justice. Although his apprehensions make for a valid argument, the American Constitution with its Judiciary-is-supreme tenet makes any expectation of reform a tall order -- even if it makes some sense to provide for concessions for non-criminal cases. The American Constitution is not generously flexible like the Indian Constitution and leaves next to zero scope for amendments.
McAfee was 75 but Assange is 49 and although this is no comparison, the similarities between the two cases cannot be wished away. The highest common factor among Snowden, McAfee and Assange is the US government is out to get them. Unlike McAfee, Assange won his extradition battle but he has not been bailed because he is considered a flight risk. It sounds almost prophetic that the UK court which blocked his extradition cited that Assange's was at the risk of suicide given his mental health problems.
His prosecution in US follows WikiLeaks publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to his country's role in Afghanistan and Iraq wars as well as diplomatic cables, a decade back. With McAfee no more on the scene, Snowden and Assange face the prospect of spending decades behind bars in their country. That eventuality, however, is anybody's guess.
As if on premonition, McAfee had tweeted a few days before his death that "All power corrupts. Take care which powers you allow a democracy to wield." Behind that tweet is the inherent lament that in a democracy you just choose the lesser evil. The supreme irony is Snowden had to find a lesser evil in Russia in his political expediency -- other ramifications aside.
Edward Snowden is an example of his own Snowden Effect.
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