🕷️ Crawler Inspector

URL Lookup

Direct Parameter Lookup

Raw Queries and Responses

1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 133 (from laksa162)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa133.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical, ml_categories_json AS ml_categories_json, ml_types_json AS ml_types_json, ml_intent_types_json AS ml_intent_types_json, meta_language AS meta_language, attrs_author AS attrs_author, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(attrs_publish_time), 0) AS attrs_publish_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(attrs_original_publish_time), 0) AS attrs_original_publish_time, ifNull(attrs_is_republished, 0) AS attrs_is_republished, ifNull(attrs_nr_words, 0) AS attrs_nr_words, ifNull(attrs_boilerpipe_nr_words, 0) AS attrs_boilerpipe_nr_words, ifNull(body_ext_links_number, 0) AS body_ext_links_number, ifNull(body_int_links_number, 0) AS body_int_links_number, ifNull(meta_nofollow, 0) AS meta_nofollow, ifNull(meta_noarchive, 0) AS meta_noarchive, ifNull(props_was_rendered, 0) AS props_was_rendered, ifNull(src_redirect, \'\') AS src_redirect, ifNull(download_time_msec, 0) AS download_time_msec, ifNull(download_ttfb_msec, 0) AS download_ttfb_msec, ifNull(download_size, 0) AS download_size FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/edward-snowden-is-no-hero\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/edward-snowden-is-no-hero\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/daily-comment\/edward-snowden-is-no-hero","crawl_time":1777112662,"first_indexed_time":1504145895,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"com,newyorker!www,\/news\/daily-comment\/edward-snowden-is-no-hero s443","src_root_hash":"16027205805525588333","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"Edward Snowden Is No Hero | The New Yorker","meta_descriptions":["Edward Snowden is being hailed in some quarters as a hero and a whistle-blower. He is neither. He is, rather, a grandiose narcissist who deserves to be in …"],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"Edward Snowden, a twenty-nine-year-old former C.I.A. employee and current government contractor, has leaked news of National Security Agency programs that collect vast amounts of information about the telephone calls made by millions of Americans, as well as e-mails and other files of foreign targets and their American connections. For this, some,\nincluding my colleague John Cassidy\n, are hailing him as\na hero\nand\na whistle-blower\n. He is neither. He is, rather, a grandiose narcissist who deserves to be in prison.\nSnowden provided information to the Washington\nPost\nand the\nGuardian\n, which also posted\na video interview with him\n. In it, he describes himself as appalled by the government he served:\nThe N.S.A. has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your e-mails or your wife’s phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your e-mails, passwords, phone records, credit cards.\nI don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things… I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under.\nWhat, one wonders, did Snowden think the N.S.A. did? Any marginally attentive citizen, much less N.S.A. employee or contractor, knows that the entire mission of the agency is to intercept electronic communications. Perhaps he thought that the N.S.A. operated only outside the United States; in that case, he hadn’t\nbeen paying very close attention\n. In any event, Snowden decided that he does not “want to live in a society” that intercepts private communications. His latter-day conversion is dubious.\nAnd what of his decision to leak the documents? Doing so was, as he more or less acknowledges, a crime. Any government employee or contractor is warned repeatedly that the unauthorized disclosure of classified information is a crime. But Snowden, apparently, was answering to a higher calling. “When you see everything you realize that some of these things are abusive,” he said. “The awareness of wrongdoing builds up. There was not one morning when I woke up. It was a natural process.” These were legally authorized programs; in the case of Verizon Business’s phone records, Snowden certainly knew this, because he leaked the very court order that approved the continuation of the project. So he wasn’t blowing the whistle on anything illegal; he was exposing something that failed to meet his own standards of propriety. The question, of course, is whether the government can function when all of its employees (and contractors) can take it upon themselves to sabotage the programs they don’t like. That’s what Snowden has done.\nWhat makes leak cases difficult is that some leaking—some interaction between reporters and sources who have access to classified information—is normal, even indispensable, in a society with a free press. It’s not easy to draw the line between those kinds of healthy encounters and the wholesale, reckless dumping of classified information by the likes of Snowden or Bradley Manning. Indeed, Snowden was so irresponsible in what he gave the\nGuardian\nand the\nPost\nthat even these institutions thought some of it should not be disseminated to the public. The\nPost\ndecided to publish\nonly four of the forty-one slides\nthat Snowden provided. Its exercise of judgment suggests the absence of Snowden’s.\nSnowden fled to Hong Kong when he knew publication of his leaks was imminent. In his interview, he said he went there because “they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent.” This may be true, in some limited way, but the overriding fact is that Hong Kong is part of China, which is, as Snowden knows, a stalwart adversary of the United States in intelligence matters. (Evan Osnos has\nmore on that\n.) Snowden is now at the mercy of the Chinese leaders who run Hong Kong. As a result, all of Snowden’s secrets may wind up in the hands of the Chinese government—which has no commitment at all to free speech or the right to political dissent. And that makes Snowden a hero?\nThe American government, and its democracy, are flawed institutions. But our system offers legal options to disgruntled government employees and contractors. They can take advantage of federal whistle-blower laws; they can bring their complaints to Congress; they can try to protest within the institutions where they work. But Snowden did none of this. Instead, in an act that speaks more to his ego than his conscience, he threw the secrets he knew up in the air—and trusted, somehow, that good would come of it. We all now have to hope that he’s right.\nPhotograph by Paolo Pellegrin\/Magnum.","attrs_markdown":"[Skip to main content](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/daily-comment\/edward-snowden-is-no-hero#main-content)\n\n[![The New Yorker](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/verso\/static\/thenewyorker-us\/assets\/logo.svg)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/)\n\n- [Newsletter](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/newsletters?sourceCode=navbar)\n\n[Sign In](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/auth\/initiate?redirectURL=%2Fnews%2Fdaily-comment%2Fedward-snowden-is-no-hero&source=VERSO_NAVIGATION)\n\nSearch\n\n- [The Latest](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/latest)\n- [News](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news)\n- [Books & Culture](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/culture)\n- [Fiction & Poetry](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/fiction-and-poetry)\n- [Humor & Cartoons](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/humor)\n- [Magazine](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/archive)\n- [Puzzles & Games](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/crossword-puzzles-and-games)\n- [Video](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/video)\n- [Podcasts](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/podcasts)\n- [Goings On](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/goings-on)\n- [Shop](https:\/\/store.newyorker.com\/)\n\nOpen Navigation Menu\n\n[![The New Yorker](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/verso\/static\/thenewyorker-us\/assets\/logo-header.svg)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/)\n\n[Daily Comment](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/daily-comment)\n\n# Edward Snowden Is No Hero\n\n![](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/59097b7a1c7a8e33fb390207\/1:1\/w_270%2Cc_limit\/toobin-jeffrey.png)\n\nBy [Jeffrey Toobin](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/contributors\/jeffrey-toobin)\n\nJune 10, 2013\n\nSave this story\n\nSave this story\n\n![Edward Snowden Is No Hero](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/590951ff1c7a8e33fb38a604\/master\/w_2560%2Cc_limit\/snowden-surveillance-580.jpeg)\n\nEdward Snowden, a twenty-nine-year-old former C.I.A. employee and current government contractor, has leaked news of National Security Agency programs that collect vast amounts of information about the telephone calls made by millions of Americans, as well as e-mails and other files of foreign targets and their American connections. For this, some, [including my colleague John Cassidy](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/online\/blogs\/johncassidy\/2013\/06\/why-edward-snowden-is-a-hero.html), are hailing him as [a hero](http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2013\/06\/10\/opinion\/rushkoff-snowden-hero) and [a whistle-blower](http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/blogs\/politics\/2013\/06\/nsa-leaker-edward-snowden-a-national-hero-on-white-house-petition\/). He is neither. He is, rather, a grandiose narcissist who deserves to be in prison.\n\nSnowden provided information to the Washington *Post* and the *Guardian*, which also posted [a video interview with him](http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/2013\/jun\/09\/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-why). In it, he describes himself as appalled by the government he served:\n\n> The N.S.A. has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your e-mails or your wife’s phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your e-mails, passwords, phone records, credit cards.\n> \n> I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things… I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under.\n\nWhat, one wonders, did Snowden think the N.S.A. did? Any marginally attentive citizen, much less N.S.A. employee or contractor, knows that the entire mission of the agency is to intercept electronic communications. Perhaps he thought that the N.S.A. operated only outside the United States; in that case, he hadn’t [been paying very close attention](http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2005\/12\/21\/politics\/21nsa.html). In any event, Snowden decided that he does not “want to live in a society” that intercepts private communications. His latter-day conversion is dubious.\n\nAnd what of his decision to leak the documents? Doing so was, as he more or less acknowledges, a crime. Any government employee or contractor is warned repeatedly that the unauthorized disclosure of classified information is a crime. But Snowden, apparently, was answering to a higher calling. “When you see everything you realize that some of these things are abusive,” he said. “The awareness of wrongdoing builds up. There was not one morning when I woke up. It was a natural process.” These were legally authorized programs; in the case of Verizon Business’s phone records, Snowden certainly knew this, because he leaked the very court order that approved the continuation of the project. So he wasn’t blowing the whistle on anything illegal; he was exposing something that failed to meet his own standards of propriety. The question, of course, is whether the government can function when all of its employees (and contractors) can take it upon themselves to sabotage the programs they don’t like. That’s what Snowden has done.\n\nWhat makes leak cases difficult is that some leaking—some interaction between reporters and sources who have access to classified information—is normal, even indispensable, in a society with a free press. It’s not easy to draw the line between those kinds of healthy encounters and the wholesale, reckless dumping of classified information by the likes of Snowden or Bradley Manning. Indeed, Snowden was so irresponsible in what he gave the *Guardian* and the *Post* that even these institutions thought some of it should not be disseminated to the public. The *Post* decided to publish [only four of the forty-one slides](http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/snowden-made-cautious-approach-to-post-reporter-said-he-knew-the-risk-hes-taking\/2013\/06\/09\/8b5da450-d17b-11e2-9577-df9f1c3348f5_story.html) that Snowden provided. Its exercise of judgment suggests the absence of Snowden’s.\n\nVideo From The New Yorker\n\n[Swift Justice: A Taliban Courtroom in Session](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/video\/watch\/the-new-yorker-documentary-swift-justice-a-taliban-courtroom-in-session)\n\nSnowden fled to Hong Kong when he knew publication of his leaks was imminent. In his interview, he said he went there because “they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent.” This may be true, in some limited way, but the overriding fact is that Hong Kong is part of China, which is, as Snowden knows, a stalwart adversary of the United States in intelligence matters. (Evan Osnos has [more on that](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/online\/blogs\/evanosnos\/2013\/06\/what-will-china-do-with-edward-snowden.html).) Snowden is now at the mercy of the Chinese leaders who run Hong Kong. As a result, all of Snowden’s secrets may wind up in the hands of the Chinese government—which has no commitment at all to free speech or the right to political dissent. And that makes Snowden a hero?\n\nThe American government, and its democracy, are flawed institutions. But our system offers legal options to disgruntled government employees and contractors. They can take advantage of federal whistle-blower laws; they can bring their complaints to Congress; they can try to protest within the institutions where they work. But Snowden did none of this. Instead, in an act that speaks more to his ego than his conscience, he threw the secrets he knew up in the air—and trusted, somehow, that good would come of it. We all now have to hope that he’s right.\n\n*Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin\/Magnum.*\n\n[![](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/59097b7a1c7a8e33fb390207\/1:1\/w_270%2Cc_limit\/toobin-jeffrey.png)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/contributors\/jeffrey-toobin)\n\n[Jeffrey Toobin](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/contributors\/jeffrey-toobin), the chief legal analyst for CNN, was a staff writer at The New Yorker from 1993 to 2020.\n\nMore:[Politics](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/tag\/politics)\n\n### The News & Politics Newsletter\nRead the latest from Washington and beyond, covering current events, the economy, and more, from our columnists and correspondents.\n\nRead More\n\n[![How Project Maven Put A.I. 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The progression from target identification to target destruction is four clicks.\n\nBy Gideon Lewis-Kraus\n\n[![How the Guillotine Got Axed](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69af36e6db1fb45b9bd4aa40\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/letter-from-europe\/how-the-guillotine-got-axed#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nLetter from Europe\n\n[How the Guillotine Got Axed](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/letter-from-europe\/how-the-guillotine-got-axed#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\n[![How the Guillotine Got Axed](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69af36e6db1fb45b9bd4aa40\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/letter-from-europe\/how-the-guillotine-got-axed#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nIn the U.S., capital punishment is resurgent. What lessons can we glean from France’s successful campaign to abolish it?\n\nBy Lauren Collins\n\n[![How Much Is a Home Team Worth?](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69c825384dc80a16bd1d4165\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/sports\/sporting-scene\/how-much-is-a-home-team-worth#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nThe Sporting Scene\n\n[How Much Is a Home Team Worth?](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/sports\/sporting-scene\/how-much-is-a-home-team-worth#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\n[![How Much Is a Home Team Worth?](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69c825384dc80a16bd1d4165\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/sports\/sporting-scene\/how-much-is-a-home-team-worth#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nAs wealthy owners threaten to relocate their franchises to secure stadium subsidies, a new bill aims to give cities a fairer chance at keeping them at home.\n\nBy Louisa Thomas\n\n[![Is Dynamic Pricing Ruining the World Cup?](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69e2ad9f70ff04f30b05e6c5\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/the-financial-page\/is-dynamic-pricing-ruining-the-world-cup#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nThe Financial Page\n\n[Is Dynamic Pricing Ruining the World Cup?](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/the-financial-page\/is-dynamic-pricing-ruining-the-world-cup#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\n[![Is Dynamic Pricing Ruining the World Cup?](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69e2ad9f70ff04f30b05e6c5\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/the-financial-page\/is-dynamic-pricing-ruining-the-world-cup#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nSoccer fans and host-city politicians are up in arms about the prices that *FIFA* is charging for tickets under its new sales system.\n\nBy John Cassidy\n\n[![The Scandal of the Sharenting Economy](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69d3f3dc72d7ac02c8a311fe\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/culture\/the-lede\/the-scandal-of-the-sharenting-economy#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nThe Lede\n\n[The Scandal of the Sharenting Economy](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/culture\/the-lede\/the-scandal-of-the-sharenting-economy#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\n[![The Scandal of the Sharenting Economy](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69d3f3dc72d7ac02c8a311fe\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/culture\/the-lede\/the-scandal-of-the-sharenting-economy#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nAs kidfluencers come of age, some may find the law an imperfect means of restitution for what was lost and broken in their childhoods.\n\nBy Jessica Winter\n\n[![What Jesus Meant](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69e8eb528b5b3584d49df1fc\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/humor\/shouts-murmurs\/what-jesus-meant#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nHumor\n\n[What Jesus Meant](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/humor\/shouts-murmurs\/what-jesus-meant#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\n[![What Jesus Meant](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69e8eb528b5b3584d49df1fc\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/humor\/shouts-murmurs\/what-jesus-meant#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\n*Some* people sin and vote and criticize others who are the President or Vice-President, which they shouldn’t do, and that’s why Jesus likely died. For other people’s sins.\n\nBy John Kenney\n\n[![This Easter, an American Pope Confronts an American War](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69cff5cf41cd209ca21621b3\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/the-lede\/this-easter-an-american-pope-confronts-an-american-war#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nThe Lede\n\n[This Easter, an American Pope Confronts an American War](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/the-lede\/this-easter-an-american-pope-confronts-an-american-war#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\n[![This Easter, an American Pope Confronts an American War](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69cff5cf41cd209ca21621b3\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/the-lede\/this-easter-an-american-pope-confronts-an-american-war#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nLast week, when asked if he had a message about the war in Iran for President Trump, Leo XIV said, “Hopefully, he’s looking for an off-ramp.”\n\nBy Paul Elie\n\n[![The Hungarian Election Shows That Even Strongmen Can Lose](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69dd04e9c0ab15b5b4b56540\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/the-lede\/the-hungarian-election-shows-that-even-strongmen-can-lose#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nThe Lede\n\n[The Hungarian Election Shows That Even Strongmen Can Lose](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/the-lede\/the-hungarian-election-shows-that-even-strongmen-can-lose#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\n[![The Hungarian Election Shows That Even Strongmen Can Lose](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69dd04e9c0ab15b5b4b56540\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/the-lede\/the-hungarian-election-shows-that-even-strongmen-can-lose#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nMany people in the country had trouble imagining that Viktor Orbán could be defeated. But a philosopher also warned that defeatism can abet authoritarianism.\n\nBy Andrew Marantz\n\n[![A Lesson of Vietnam: Getting in Is Easier than Getting Out](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69d5352be5c0a3860c9e58b6\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2026\/04\/20\/done-in-a-day-telex-from-the-fall-of-saigon-elisa-tamarkin-book-review#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nBooks\n\n[A Lesson of Vietnam: Getting in Is Easier than Getting Out](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2026\/04\/20\/done-in-a-day-telex-from-the-fall-of-saigon-elisa-tamarkin-book-review#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\n[![A Lesson of Vietnam: Getting in Is Easier than Getting Out](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69d5352be5c0a3860c9e58b6\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2026\/04\/20\/done-in-a-day-telex-from-the-fall-of-saigon-elisa-tamarkin-book-review#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nThe war was sustained by a seductive delusion: that an unwinnable conflict might still be managed into an outcome short of humiliation.\n\nBy Louis Menand\n\n[![A.I. Has a Message Problem of Its Own Making](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69deb78f6180d0f075d10783\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/culture\/infinite-scroll\/ai-has-a-message-problem-of-its-own-making#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nInfinite Scroll\n\n[A.I. Has a Message Problem of Its Own Making](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/culture\/infinite-scroll\/ai-has-a-message-problem-of-its-own-making#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\n[![A.I. Has a Message Problem of Its Own Making](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69deb78f6180d0f075d10783\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/culture\/infinite-scroll\/ai-has-a-message-problem-of-its-own-making#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nOpenAI’s Sam Altman wants to “de-escalate” the rhetoric around A.I. But if you tell people that your product will upend their way of life, take their jobs, and possibly threaten humanity, they might believe you.\n\nBy Kyle Chayka\n\n[![At Synagogues, Tensions Are Boiling Over](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69caea8825a8e5f0af05c1ff\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2026\/04\/06\/at-synagogues-tensions-are-boiling-over#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nAnnals of Religion\n\n[At Synagogues, Tensions Are Boiling Over](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2026\/04\/06\/at-synagogues-tensions-are-boiling-over#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\n[![At Synagogues, Tensions Are Boiling Over](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69caea8825a8e5f0af05c1ff\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2026\/04\/06\/at-synagogues-tensions-are-boiling-over#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nDisagreements about Gaza and Zionism have divided congregations.\n\nBy Eyal Press\n\n[![Can Sponge Cities Save Us from the Coming Floods?](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69cbf37b0ea09b19d037fbb9\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2026\/04\/13\/can-sponge-cities-save-us-from-the-coming-floods#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nThe Control of Nature\n\n[Can Sponge Cities Save Us from the Coming Floods?](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2026\/04\/13\/can-sponge-cities-save-us-from-the-coming-floods#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\n[![Can Sponge Cities Save Us from the Coming Floods?](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/69cbf37b0ea09b19d037fbb9\/4:3\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2026\/04\/13\/can-sponge-cities-save-us-from-the-coming-floods#intcid=recommendations_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc-personalized_7468e68b-7826-43b8-b4f1-01f58d9da808_closr_bkta)\n\nAs the planet gets warmer and the rains fall harder, the future of flood control is looking less like a wall and something more like a park.\n\nBy Eric Klinenberg\n\n[![The New Yorker](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/verso\/static\/thenewyorker-us\/assets\/logo-reverse.svg)](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/)\n\nSections\n\n- [News](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news)\n- [Books & Culture](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/culture)\n- [Fiction & Poetry](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/fiction-and-poetry)\n- [Humor & Cartoons](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/humor)\n- [Magazine](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/archive)\n- [Crossword](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/crossword-puzzles-and-games)\n- [Video](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/video)\n- [Podcasts](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/podcast)\n- [100th Anniversary](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/100)\n- [Goings On](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/goings-on)\n\nMore\n\n- [Manage Account](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/account\/profile)\n- [Shop The New Yorker](https:\/\/store.newyorker.com\/)\n- [Buy Covers and Cartoons](https:\/\/condenaststore.com\/art\/new+yorker+covers)\n- [Condé Nast Store](https:\/\/condenaststore.com\/conde-nast-brand\/thenewyorker)\n- [Digital Access](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/about\/digital-access)\n- [Subscribe](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/subscribe)\n- [Newsletters](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/newsletter)\n- [Jigsaw Puzzle](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/jigsaw)\n- [RSS](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/about\/feeds)\n- [Site Map](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/sitemap)\n\n- [About](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/about\/us)\n- [Careers](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/about\/careers)\n- [Contact](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/about\/contact)\n- [F.A.Q.](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/about\/faq)\n- [Media Kit](https:\/\/www.condenast.com\/advertising)\n- [Press](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/about\/press)\n- [Accessibility Help](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/about\/accessibility-help)\n- [User Agreement](https:\/\/www.condenast.com\/user-agreement\/)\n- [Privacy Policy](http:\/\/www.condenast.com\/privacy-policy#privacypolicy)\n- [Your California Privacy Rights](http:\/\/www.condenast.com\/privacy-policy#privacypolicy-california)\n\n© 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. *The New Yorker* may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. [Ad Choices](http:\/\/www.aboutads.info\/)\n\nYour Privacy Choices","attrs_readable_markdown":"![Edward Snowden Is No Hero](https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/590951ff1c7a8e33fb38a604\/master\/w_2560%2Cc_limit\/snowden-surveillance-580.jpeg)\n\nEdward Snowden, a twenty-nine-year-old former C.I.A. employee and current government contractor, has leaked news of National Security Agency programs that collect vast amounts of information about the telephone calls made by millions of Americans, as well as e-mails and other files of foreign targets and their American connections. For this, some, [including my colleague John Cassidy](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/online\/blogs\/johncassidy\/2013\/06\/why-edward-snowden-is-a-hero.html), are hailing him as [a hero](http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2013\/06\/10\/opinion\/rushkoff-snowden-hero) and [a whistle-blower](http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/blogs\/politics\/2013\/06\/nsa-leaker-edward-snowden-a-national-hero-on-white-house-petition\/). He is neither. He is, rather, a grandiose narcissist who deserves to be in prison.\n\nSnowden provided information to the Washington *Post* and the *Guardian*, which also posted [a video interview with him](http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/2013\/jun\/09\/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-why). In it, he describes himself as appalled by the government he served:\n\n> The N.S.A. has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your e-mails or your wife’s phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your e-mails, passwords, phone records, credit cards.\n> \n> I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things… I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under.\n\nWhat, one wonders, did Snowden think the N.S.A. did? Any marginally attentive citizen, much less N.S.A. employee or contractor, knows that the entire mission of the agency is to intercept electronic communications. Perhaps he thought that the N.S.A. operated only outside the United States; in that case, he hadn’t [been paying very close attention](http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2005\/12\/21\/politics\/21nsa.html). In any event, Snowden decided that he does not “want to live in a society” that intercepts private communications. His latter-day conversion is dubious.\n\nAnd what of his decision to leak the documents? Doing so was, as he more or less acknowledges, a crime. Any government employee or contractor is warned repeatedly that the unauthorized disclosure of classified information is a crime. But Snowden, apparently, was answering to a higher calling. “When you see everything you realize that some of these things are abusive,” he said. “The awareness of wrongdoing builds up. There was not one morning when I woke up. It was a natural process.” These were legally authorized programs; in the case of Verizon Business’s phone records, Snowden certainly knew this, because he leaked the very court order that approved the continuation of the project. So he wasn’t blowing the whistle on anything illegal; he was exposing something that failed to meet his own standards of propriety. The question, of course, is whether the government can function when all of its employees (and contractors) can take it upon themselves to sabotage the programs they don’t like. That’s what Snowden has done.\n\nWhat makes leak cases difficult is that some leaking—some interaction between reporters and sources who have access to classified information—is normal, even indispensable, in a society with a free press. It’s not easy to draw the line between those kinds of healthy encounters and the wholesale, reckless dumping of classified information by the likes of Snowden or Bradley Manning. Indeed, Snowden was so irresponsible in what he gave the *Guardian* and the *Post* that even these institutions thought some of it should not be disseminated to the public. The *Post* decided to publish [only four of the forty-one slides](http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/snowden-made-cautious-approach-to-post-reporter-said-he-knew-the-risk-hes-taking\/2013\/06\/09\/8b5da450-d17b-11e2-9577-df9f1c3348f5_story.html) that Snowden provided. Its exercise of judgment suggests the absence of Snowden’s.\n\nSnowden fled to Hong Kong when he knew publication of his leaks was imminent. In his interview, he said he went there because “they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent.” This may be true, in some limited way, but the overriding fact is that Hong Kong is part of China, which is, as Snowden knows, a stalwart adversary of the United States in intelligence matters. (Evan Osnos has [more on that](https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/online\/blogs\/evanosnos\/2013\/06\/what-will-china-do-with-edward-snowden.html).) Snowden is now at the mercy of the Chinese leaders who run Hong Kong. As a result, all of Snowden’s secrets may wind up in the hands of the Chinese government—which has no commitment at all to free speech or the right to political dissent. And that makes Snowden a hero?\n\nThe American government, and its democracy, are flawed institutions. But our system offers legal options to disgruntled government employees and contractors. They can take advantage of federal whistle-blower laws; they can bring their complaints to Congress; they can try to protest within the institutions where they work. But Snowden did none of this. Instead, in an act that speaks more to his ego than his conscience, he threw the secrets he knew up in the air—and trusted, somehow, that good would come of it. We all now have to hope that he’s right.\n\n*Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin\/Magnum.*","meta_canonical":null,"ml_categories_json":"{\"\/Law_and_Government\":515,\"\/People_and_Society\":429,\"\/News\":411,\"\/News\/Politics\":403,\"\/Law_and_Government\/Legal\":392,\"\/People_and_Society\/Social_Issues_and_Advocacy\":381,\"\/News\/Politics\/Campaigns_and_Elections\":272,\"\/Law_and_Government\/Legal\/Constitutional_Law_and_Civil_Rights\":240,\"\/People_and_Society\/Social_Issues_and_Advocacy\/Ethics\":142}","ml_types_json":"{\"\/Article\":998,\"\/Article\/Opinion_Piece\":981}","ml_intent_types_json":"{\"Informational\":999}","meta_language":"en-us","attrs_author":"Jeffrey Toobin","attrs_publish_time":1370871307,"attrs_original_publish_time":1370871307,"attrs_is_republished":0,"attrs_nr_words":"1524","attrs_boilerpipe_nr_words":"799","body_ext_links_number":32,"body_int_links_number":53,"meta_nofollow":0,"meta_noarchive":1,"props_was_rendered":1,"src_redirect":"","download_time_msec":3117,"download_ttfb_msec":3101,"download_size":105457}

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Edward Snowden Is No Hero | The New Yorker

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Edward Snowden is being hailed in some quarters as a hero and a whistle-blower. He is neither. He is, rather, a grandiose narcissist who deserves to be in …

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Edward Snowden, a twenty-nine-year-old former C.I.A. employee and current government contractor, has leaked news of National Security Agency programs that collect vast amounts of information about the telephone calls made by millions of Americans, as well as e-mails and other files of foreign targets and their American connections. For this, some, including my colleague John Cassidy , are hailing him as a hero and a whistle-blower . He is neither. He is, rather, a grandiose narcissist who deserves to be in prison. Snowden provided information to the Washington Post and the Guardian , which also posted a video interview with him . In it, he describes himself as appalled by the government he served: The N.S.A. has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your e-mails or your wife’s phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your e-mails, passwords, phone records, credit cards. I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things… I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under. What, one wonders, did Snowden think the N.S.A. did? Any marginally attentive citizen, much less N.S.A. employee or contractor, knows that the entire mission of the agency is to intercept electronic communications. Perhaps he thought that the N.S.A. operated only outside the United States; in that case, he hadn’t been paying very close attention . In any event, Snowden decided that he does not “want to live in a society” that intercepts private communications. His latter-day conversion is dubious. And what of his decision to leak the documents? Doing so was, as he more or less acknowledges, a crime. Any government employee or contractor is warned repeatedly that the unauthorized disclosure of classified information is a crime. But Snowden, apparently, was answering to a higher calling. “When you see everything you realize that some of these things are abusive,” he said. “The awareness of wrongdoing builds up. There was not one morning when I woke up. It was a natural process.” These were legally authorized programs; in the case of Verizon Business’s phone records, Snowden certainly knew this, because he leaked the very court order that approved the continuation of the project. So he wasn’t blowing the whistle on anything illegal; he was exposing something that failed to meet his own standards of propriety. The question, of course, is whether the government can function when all of its employees (and contractors) can take it upon themselves to sabotage the programs they don’t like. That’s what Snowden has done. What makes leak cases difficult is that some leaking—some interaction between reporters and sources who have access to classified information—is normal, even indispensable, in a society with a free press. It’s not easy to draw the line between those kinds of healthy encounters and the wholesale, reckless dumping of classified information by the likes of Snowden or Bradley Manning. Indeed, Snowden was so irresponsible in what he gave the Guardian and the Post that even these institutions thought some of it should not be disseminated to the public. The Post decided to publish only four of the forty-one slides that Snowden provided. Its exercise of judgment suggests the absence of Snowden’s. Snowden fled to Hong Kong when he knew publication of his leaks was imminent. In his interview, he said he went there because “they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent.” This may be true, in some limited way, but the overriding fact is that Hong Kong is part of China, which is, as Snowden knows, a stalwart adversary of the United States in intelligence matters. (Evan Osnos has more on that .) Snowden is now at the mercy of the Chinese leaders who run Hong Kong. As a result, all of Snowden’s secrets may wind up in the hands of the Chinese government—which has no commitment at all to free speech or the right to political dissent. And that makes Snowden a hero? The American government, and its democracy, are flawed institutions. But our system offers legal options to disgruntled government employees and contractors. They can take advantage of federal whistle-blower laws; they can bring their complaints to Congress; they can try to protest within the institutions where they work. But Snowden did none of this. Instead, in an act that speaks more to his ego than his conscience, he threw the secrets he knew up in the air—and trusted, somehow, that good would come of it. We all now have to hope that he’s right. Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum.

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[Skip to main content](https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/edward-snowden-is-no-hero#main-content) [![The New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/verso/static/thenewyorker-us/assets/logo.svg)](https://www.newyorker.com/) - [Newsletter](https://www.newyorker.com/newsletters?sourceCode=navbar) [Sign In](https://www.newyorker.com/auth/initiate?redirectURL=%2Fnews%2Fdaily-comment%2Fedward-snowden-is-no-hero&source=VERSO_NAVIGATION) Search - [The Latest](https://www.newyorker.com/latest) - [News](https://www.newyorker.com/news) - [Books & Culture](https://www.newyorker.com/culture) - [Fiction & Poetry](https://www.newyorker.com/fiction-and-poetry) - [Humor & Cartoons](https://www.newyorker.com/humor) - [Magazine](https://www.newyorker.com/archive) - [Puzzles & Games](https://www.newyorker.com/crossword-puzzles-and-games) - [Video](https://www.newyorker.com/video) - [Podcasts](https://www.newyorker.com/podcasts) - [Goings On](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on) - [Shop](https://store.newyorker.com/) Open Navigation Menu [![The New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/verso/static/thenewyorker-us/assets/logo-header.svg)](https://www.newyorker.com/) [Daily Comment](https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment) # Edward Snowden Is No Hero ![](https://media.newyorker.com/photos/59097b7a1c7a8e33fb390207/1:1/w_270%2Cc_limit/toobin-jeffrey.png) By [Jeffrey Toobin](https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/jeffrey-toobin) June 10, 2013 Save this story Save this story ![Edward Snowden Is No Hero](https://media.newyorker.com/photos/590951ff1c7a8e33fb38a604/master/w_2560%2Cc_limit/snowden-surveillance-580.jpeg) Edward Snowden, a twenty-nine-year-old former C.I.A. employee and current government contractor, has leaked news of National Security Agency programs that collect vast amounts of information about the telephone calls made by millions of Americans, as well as e-mails and other files of foreign targets and their American connections. For this, some, [including my colleague John Cassidy](https://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2013/06/why-edward-snowden-is-a-hero.html), are hailing him as [a hero](http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/10/opinion/rushkoff-snowden-hero) and [a whistle-blower](http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/06/nsa-leaker-edward-snowden-a-national-hero-on-white-house-petition/). He is neither. He is, rather, a grandiose narcissist who deserves to be in prison. Snowden provided information to the Washington *Post* and the *Guardian*, which also posted [a video interview with him](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/09/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-why). In it, he describes himself as appalled by the government he served: > The N.S.A. has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your e-mails or your wife’s phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your e-mails, passwords, phone records, credit cards. > > I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things… I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under. What, one wonders, did Snowden think the N.S.A. did? Any marginally attentive citizen, much less N.S.A. employee or contractor, knows that the entire mission of the agency is to intercept electronic communications. Perhaps he thought that the N.S.A. operated only outside the United States; in that case, he hadn’t [been paying very close attention](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/politics/21nsa.html). In any event, Snowden decided that he does not “want to live in a society” that intercepts private communications. His latter-day conversion is dubious. And what of his decision to leak the documents? Doing so was, as he more or less acknowledges, a crime. Any government employee or contractor is warned repeatedly that the unauthorized disclosure of classified information is a crime. But Snowden, apparently, was answering to a higher calling. “When you see everything you realize that some of these things are abusive,” he said. “The awareness of wrongdoing builds up. There was not one morning when I woke up. It was a natural process.” These were legally authorized programs; in the case of Verizon Business’s phone records, Snowden certainly knew this, because he leaked the very court order that approved the continuation of the project. So he wasn’t blowing the whistle on anything illegal; he was exposing something that failed to meet his own standards of propriety. The question, of course, is whether the government can function when all of its employees (and contractors) can take it upon themselves to sabotage the programs they don’t like. That’s what Snowden has done. What makes leak cases difficult is that some leaking—some interaction between reporters and sources who have access to classified information—is normal, even indispensable, in a society with a free press. It’s not easy to draw the line between those kinds of healthy encounters and the wholesale, reckless dumping of classified information by the likes of Snowden or Bradley Manning. Indeed, Snowden was so irresponsible in what he gave the *Guardian* and the *Post* that even these institutions thought some of it should not be disseminated to the public. The *Post* decided to publish [only four of the forty-one slides](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/snowden-made-cautious-approach-to-post-reporter-said-he-knew-the-risk-hes-taking/2013/06/09/8b5da450-d17b-11e2-9577-df9f1c3348f5_story.html) that Snowden provided. Its exercise of judgment suggests the absence of Snowden’s. Video From The New Yorker [Swift Justice: A Taliban Courtroom in Session](https://www.newyorker.com/video/watch/the-new-yorker-documentary-swift-justice-a-taliban-courtroom-in-session) Snowden fled to Hong Kong when he knew publication of his leaks was imminent. In his interview, he said he went there because “they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent.” This may be true, in some limited way, but the overriding fact is that Hong Kong is part of China, which is, as Snowden knows, a stalwart adversary of the United States in intelligence matters. (Evan Osnos has [more on that](https://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2013/06/what-will-china-do-with-edward-snowden.html).) Snowden is now at the mercy of the Chinese leaders who run Hong Kong. As a result, all of Snowden’s secrets may wind up in the hands of the Chinese government—which has no commitment at all to free speech or the right to political dissent. And that makes Snowden a hero? The American government, and its democracy, are flawed institutions. But our system offers legal options to disgruntled government employees and contractors. They can take advantage of federal whistle-blower laws; they can bring their complaints to Congress; they can try to protest within the institutions where they work. But Snowden did none of this. Instead, in an act that speaks more to his ego than his conscience, he threw the secrets he knew up in the air—and trusted, somehow, that good would come of it. We all now have to hope that he’s right. *Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum.* [![](https://media.newyorker.com/photos/59097b7a1c7a8e33fb390207/1:1/w_270%2Cc_limit/toobin-jeffrey.png)](https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/jeffrey-toobin) [Jeffrey Toobin](https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/jeffrey-toobin), the chief legal analyst for CNN, was a staff writer at The New Yorker from 1993 to 2020. 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Readable Markdown

![Edward Snowden Is No Hero](https://media.newyorker.com/photos/590951ff1c7a8e33fb38a604/master/w_2560%2Cc_limit/snowden-surveillance-580.jpeg) Edward Snowden, a twenty-nine-year-old former C.I.A. employee and current government contractor, has leaked news of National Security Agency programs that collect vast amounts of information about the telephone calls made by millions of Americans, as well as e-mails and other files of foreign targets and their American connections. For this, some, [including my colleague John Cassidy](https://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2013/06/why-edward-snowden-is-a-hero.html), are hailing him as [a hero](http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/10/opinion/rushkoff-snowden-hero) and [a whistle-blower](http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/06/nsa-leaker-edward-snowden-a-national-hero-on-white-house-petition/). He is neither. He is, rather, a grandiose narcissist who deserves to be in prison. Snowden provided information to the Washington *Post* and the *Guardian*, which also posted [a video interview with him](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/09/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-why). In it, he describes himself as appalled by the government he served: > The N.S.A. has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your e-mails or your wife’s phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your e-mails, passwords, phone records, credit cards. > > I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things… I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under. What, one wonders, did Snowden think the N.S.A. did? Any marginally attentive citizen, much less N.S.A. employee or contractor, knows that the entire mission of the agency is to intercept electronic communications. Perhaps he thought that the N.S.A. operated only outside the United States; in that case, he hadn’t [been paying very close attention](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/politics/21nsa.html). In any event, Snowden decided that he does not “want to live in a society” that intercepts private communications. His latter-day conversion is dubious. And what of his decision to leak the documents? Doing so was, as he more or less acknowledges, a crime. Any government employee or contractor is warned repeatedly that the unauthorized disclosure of classified information is a crime. But Snowden, apparently, was answering to a higher calling. “When you see everything you realize that some of these things are abusive,” he said. “The awareness of wrongdoing builds up. There was not one morning when I woke up. It was a natural process.” These were legally authorized programs; in the case of Verizon Business’s phone records, Snowden certainly knew this, because he leaked the very court order that approved the continuation of the project. So he wasn’t blowing the whistle on anything illegal; he was exposing something that failed to meet his own standards of propriety. The question, of course, is whether the government can function when all of its employees (and contractors) can take it upon themselves to sabotage the programs they don’t like. That’s what Snowden has done. What makes leak cases difficult is that some leaking—some interaction between reporters and sources who have access to classified information—is normal, even indispensable, in a society with a free press. It’s not easy to draw the line between those kinds of healthy encounters and the wholesale, reckless dumping of classified information by the likes of Snowden or Bradley Manning. Indeed, Snowden was so irresponsible in what he gave the *Guardian* and the *Post* that even these institutions thought some of it should not be disseminated to the public. The *Post* decided to publish [only four of the forty-one slides](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/snowden-made-cautious-approach-to-post-reporter-said-he-knew-the-risk-hes-taking/2013/06/09/8b5da450-d17b-11e2-9577-df9f1c3348f5_story.html) that Snowden provided. Its exercise of judgment suggests the absence of Snowden’s. Snowden fled to Hong Kong when he knew publication of his leaks was imminent. In his interview, he said he went there because “they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent.” This may be true, in some limited way, but the overriding fact is that Hong Kong is part of China, which is, as Snowden knows, a stalwart adversary of the United States in intelligence matters. (Evan Osnos has [more on that](https://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2013/06/what-will-china-do-with-edward-snowden.html).) Snowden is now at the mercy of the Chinese leaders who run Hong Kong. As a result, all of Snowden’s secrets may wind up in the hands of the Chinese government—which has no commitment at all to free speech or the right to political dissent. And that makes Snowden a hero? The American government, and its democracy, are flawed institutions. But our system offers legal options to disgruntled government employees and contractors. They can take advantage of federal whistle-blower laws; they can bring their complaints to Congress; they can try to protest within the institutions where they work. But Snowden did none of this. Instead, in an act that speaks more to his ego than his conscience, he threw the secrets he knew up in the air—and trusted, somehow, that good would come of it. We all now have to hope that he’s right. *Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum.*

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