Edward Snowden: Human Rights Advocate and His Secret Mission
July 20, 2013
There is no doubt about who is behind the manhunt for the Latin American President, an Indian by origin. The Obama’s administration did its best to stay in the shadow but everyone knew it wanted back the fugitive, a former CIA and NSA employee, who revealed the secrets out of desperation guided by serious ethical reasons. Snowden has always treated with respect the advocates of human rights but hid it from CIA colleagues. When the feeling of internal protest hit the limit, he resolutely severed ties with the past trying to attract the world public attention to the fact of global and ubiquitous surveillance that millions of people in different corners of the world are subject to, including the citizens of the United States itself.
From the very start – leaving for Hong Kong and flying to Moscow – Snowden knew he was risking his life, but he behaved like a human rights activist, his behavior had nothing to do with the conduct typical for «a spy» and «a traitor», the definitions offered by US propaganda. He has used Western media and WikiLeaks to go public and condemn the encroachment on people’s private lives by US special services tramping on the freedom of speech and expressing political convictions. He has never considered the secrets he had access to as a commodity to be sold. There have been no financial reasons to influence his actions. According to him, people should know it’s not safe to use telecommunications. They should remember that at any given moment the special services of USA and their allies can bring to light the information stashed for many years and use it for their own interests against individuals. That’s the gist of the Snowden’s warning. The direct threats against former secret services employee and the countries ready to grant him a political asylum have made pale the essence of what is really happening. The United States is trying to gag the human rights advocate and at the same time «punish» the governments which dare to take an independent stand on the Snowden’s case without ceding to the pressure exerted by the superpower. The European governments involved in forceful landing of the plane look miserable. Latin American political scholars noted that similar actions against United States Air Force Number One and the presidential planes of US allies would have started a war.
The foreign offices of the above mentioned countries are looking for a way out of the situation without losing face. But what’s done is done. Paris, Rome, Madrid and Lisbon have proven they enjoy no independence while taking decision on international issues. The stance of Spain and Portugal is especially shameful; they have undermined their privileged relations with the Latin American states for a long time to come… Madre Patria is the word Latin Americans use for Spain paying a tribute to the nation which has discovered the continent for the world. Now those who rule Madre Patria chase the President, who is Indian by origin, like if 500 years have not taken place in the world history.
It’s not an occasion that Latin American Internet portals often mention that the story with the presidential plane stands out for racial tint. Western media call Morales an «illiterate Indian’, a cocaine baron, who is too independent and deserves to be punished and insulted. Let me remember that just one presidential term was enough for the Indian to take control of the country’s oil and gas resources, put an end to the Bolivia’s permanent debt to the United States and Western Europe and bring Indians into active political life.
Many a time Morales has shown the US, Spain and some other countries politicians their place when they made attempts to impose their own rules of the game. US Ambassador Philip S. Goldberg has been expelled from the country. Many Central Intelligence Agency, Drug Enforcement Administration, Defense Intelligence Agency and other US special services operatives have had to leave the country.
President Morales fights corruption, he has no yachts, no villas in Miami and Curacao, and he has always been true to the Indian tradition of being self-restraint in all spheres of life. Many of his predecessors, involved in corruption while occupying the top position, have hidden under the Stars and Stripes banner protection. Some of them are blood-soaked. The US always refuses the Bolivian extradition requests. Evo Morales took it as an outright affront when Alberto Carnero, Spanish Ambassador to Austria, tried to check the presidential plane during the forced landing in Vienna airport.
While defending Snowden, leaving aside his nationality and professional occupation in the past, presidents Morales, Maduro of Venezuela, Ortega of Nicaragua, Correa of Ecuador have expressed their readiness to grant political asylum. Having to make a stop in Moscow, Snowden, the human rights activist, will manage to start a new life. No doubt after a respite in Russia, he will write a book about what he has gone through working for the CIA and the NSA, the break with the ominous system of snooping, his courageous escape into the unknown – all the things he has gone through on the limit of human possibilities. He’ll tell the true story about it all.