{"id":7456,"date":"2014-03-27T00:00:43","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T04:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/?p=7456"},"modified":"2016-11-16T19:28:58","modified_gmt":"2016-11-17T00:28:58","slug":"snowden-vindicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/snowden-vindicated\/","title":{"rendered":"Snowden Vindicated"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Snowden was right all along. <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Or at least that\u2019s what President Obama seemed to suggest on Tuesday during his <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a title=\"Obama Calls for NSA Reform\" href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/37173\/obama-calls-for-congress-to-pass-nsa-reform-quickly\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">public endorsement<\/span><\/a><\/span> of the Justice Department\u2019s plan to overhaul the National Security Agency\u2019s phone records program. President Obama asked Congress to \u201cquickly\u201d pass legislation to reform the controversial surveillance program\u2014a program that would still be secret today if not for Edward Snowden.<\/span><\/h5>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #000000;\">How did Snowden and his team respond to the government\u2019s all-but-confession to the illegality of the surveillance program? Ben Wizner, legal advisor to Snowden, stopped by Harvard Law School to answer that question and many more:<\/span><\/h5>\n<p>&#8212;-<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>What\u2019s it like being legal advisor to Snowden?<\/em>*<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cIt is an odd job. I spend a lot of time as a gatekeeper\u2026we get a dozen media requests a day.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>When did you first meet Snowden? What was he like?<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cI first learned his name the same day you did\u2026when that remarkably articulate video appeared.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>The first question he asked was, \u201cDo you have standing now?\u201d That really showed us that \u201cwhat he was interested in doing was not undermining our systems but revitalizing them.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Is confidential communication with Snowden difficult?<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201c[Snowden] is awfully good at security\u2026He certainly knows the NSA\u2019s bag of tricks, and because he knows that, he knows we can\u2019t be sure that our communications are secure.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u201cI do think it is probably unlikely that they are doing so [intercepting attorney-client communications].&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Is Snowden \u201cstuck\u201d in Russia?<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cWe don\u2019t think that it\u2019s safe now for him to travel\u2026 to countries where he has been offered asylum\u2026I don\u2019t think it serves anybody\u2019s interests for Snowden to be where he is right now.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Let\u2019s talk about the case.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;The only thing that\u2019s relevant is that he was in a position of confidentiality with the government, and he broke their rules.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u201cIt [the Espionage Act] probably ought not apply in cases like this.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>What is Snowden trying to do?<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cThe problem that Snowden wants to talk about is the problem of mass surveillance\u2026&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThis is someone who obviously put principles and ideals ahead of his own situation.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>What would you say to critics who believe Snowden should have gone through &#8220;the system&#8221; rather than leaking government information?\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cWhat system? \u2026[Snowden] had watched as his superiors gave false information to Congress\u2026about these programs.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe American people were being deceived about what the state was doing.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Will Snowden issue a response to President Obama\u2019s announcement?<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cMaybe.\u201d [As Wizner hinted, Snowden\u2019s legal team did release a short statement later that day at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/technology-and-liberty\/edward-snowden-statement-administrations-nsa-reform-plan\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/technology-and-liberty\/edward-snowden-statement-administrations-nsa-reform-plan<\/a>.]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8212;-<\/p>\n<address><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">More about Ben Wizner: Ben is the Director of the ACLU&#8217;s Project on Speech, Privacy and Technology. In addition to his work with Snowden, he has litigated numerous cases involving post-9\/11 civil liberties abuses. He has appeared regularly in the media, testified before Congress, and traveled several times to Guant\u00e1namo Bay to monitor military commission proceedings. <\/span><\/em><\/address>\n<address><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The conversation with Ben Wizner was hosted by Harvard Law\u2019s American Constitution Society.<\/span><\/em><\/address>\n<address>\u00a0<\/address>\n<address><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>* The questions have been reformatted for the sake of brevity and clarity.<\/em><\/span><\/address>\n<address>\u00a0<\/address>\n<address><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>[photo from Laura Poitras\/Praxis Films]<\/em><\/span><\/address>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Snowden was right all along. Or at least that\u2019s what President Obama seemed to suggest on Tuesday during his public 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