Going Rogue

Dear Edward Snowden, I'm not sure what your end-game is or who appointed you to be a one-man band.
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Dear Edward Snowden,

You had me. I was on your side; honest, I was. Not that I thought you were the "whistleblower" you thought you were. A lot of left-leaning journalists (and executives at various phone and Internet companies and Senators and Congressmen) had been aware of the NSA phone and Internet sweep program that you felt it was your duty to inform the world about. But you had me. I believed you had the best intentions and that you were operating from an ethical, innocent, well-thought-out place.

But somewhere between Hong Kong and the USSR, you lost me. Maybe it was when you confessed that you'd taken the job at the independent contracting firm Booz Allen Hamilton in order to gather classified information. I mean, seriously, Ed, imagine it's a movie. The only way this is appealing is if you didn't know about it before you got there. Didn't you sign a confidentiality agreement that you've clearly breached? The idea that it was somehow premeditated is kind of appalling.

But it doesn't seem like you really had a plan. It's almost as if you've invented some cat and mouse game, like a spoiled child, and if you don't get what you want -- what is it you want, by the way? -- you will release more documents that are potentially way more damaging to your fellow citizens and the U.S. standing in the world than a PRISM system that rightly or wrongly was conceived for our protection. Did we overstep? Probably.

You had good timing at first since it came on the heels of what some perceived as an overreach by the Department of Justice's investigation of journalists and their sources. We were primed, for a moment, to be on your side.

But I'm not sure what your end-game is or who appointed you to be a one-man band.

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