After today's NSA speech by President Obama, privacy advocates and national security hawks alike began ticking off those victories won and defeats suffered.
(Note: I think President Obama's speech was a cosmetic one, with the unreasonable search of citizens' data continuing virtually unabated.)
Yet, despite what I or others think about those reforms articulated by Obama, or about which 'side' Obama has taken, the truth is this: the only thing Obama's speech today did clearly was to validate the efficacy and ethical legitimacy of Edward Snowden's whistleblowing.
I'll go even further. Despite this current administration's troubling record when it comes to prosecuting whistleblowers, Obama's speech had an unequivocal, if unintentional, message:
The act of whistleblowing, of reporting government abuses, is just.
Which is why, after President Obama articulated reforms that will be made to the NSA as a result of Snowden's whistleblowing, The
Huffington Post made this its front page:
This is not about Snowden, despite his face being splashed upon the screen. This is about an act of whistleblowing President Obama has implicitly acknowledged as necessary by virtue of his proposing NSA reforms.
Remember, Snowden is still being sought for criminal trespasses against our government, and is a figure Obama does not pretend to admire. And yet, those reforms articulated today, however small, stand on their own as testament to the rightness of Snowden's actions.
They stand as evidence, through deeds, that this act of whistleblowing was in the public interest.
President Obama won't say as much. But he doesn't need to. His articulated reforms speak for themselves.
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David Harris-Gershon is author of the memoir What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?, just out from Oneworld Publications.