EDWARD SNOWDERN: A TELEOLOGICAL APPROACH

THE SNOWDERN SAGA. 

Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American computer specialist, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee, and former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who disclosed top secret NSA documents to several media outlets, initiating the NSA leaks, which reveal operational details of a global surveillance apparatus run by the NSA and other members of the Five Eyes alliance, along with numerous commercial and international partners.

(source: http://www.businessinsider.com/)

And here's an extended timeline of Snowden's travels and actions:

From 2007 to 2009, Snowden worked as a CIA technician in Geneva. He subsequently went to work for Dell as an NSA contractor.

In December 2012 the Freedom of the Press Foundation, which includes documentarian Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald on its board of directors, launched to crowd-source funding for WikiLeaks.

Around January 2013, Snowden reached out to Poitras. In March he began working for Booz Allen in Hawaii. Poitras said she told Glenn Greenwald about Snowden in April. (According to Greenwald, they began working with Snowden in February.)

On May 20, Snowden flew from Hawaii to Hong Kong, where he subsequently met Poitras, Greenwald, and Guardian reporter Ewan MacAskill.

On June 9, Snowden's identity was revealed in a video filmed by Poitras, and he subsequently went underground.

On June 11, MacAskill reported that Snowden arrived in Hong Kong "carrying four computers that enabled him to gain access to some of the US government's most highly-classified secrets."

On June 12, Snowden leaked specific IP addresses in China and Hong Kong that the NSA was hacking to the South China Morning Post. Snowden also told SCMP that he intended to leak more documents later.

Also on June 12, Snowden reportedly reached out to WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson about asylum in Iceland.

• Assange told reporters that WikiLeaks paid for Snowden's lodgings in Hong Kong.

On June 23, after he reportedly spent several days in the Russian consulate in Hong Kong, Snowden flew to Moscow with WikiLeaks adviser Sarah Harrison (who had been advising him in Hong Kong).

○ The U.S. had revoked Snowden's passport on June 22, but Snowden traveled with an Ecuadorian travel document acquired by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

○ Upon landing in Moscow, Snowden was reportedly surrounded by Russian security agents. The Ecuadorian president subsequently said that the travel document was invalid.

On July 12, Snowden retained the services of Anatoly Kucherena, a Russian lawyer employed by the post-KGB Russian Security Services (FSB).

On July 14, Greenwald told The Associated Press that Snowden "is in possession of literally thousands of documents ... that would allow somebody who read them to know exactly how the NSA does what it does, which would in turn allow them to evade that surveillance or replicate it."

On Aug. 1, Russia granted Snowden temporary asylum and moved him to a "secure" location.

On Oct. 31, Snowden met with German Green Party MP Hans-Christian Ströbele. Russian intelligence 

experts subsequently told the Berlin daily Die Welt that the FSB "organized and monitored Ströbele’s visit to Moscow and effectively used it for its purposes," as former NSA spy John Schindler put it.

On Nov. 1, it was reported that NSA chief Keith Alexander recently said Snowden took as many as 200,000 classified documents with him when he left Hawaii.

On Nov. 8, Kucherena said that Snowden has started his new job at an undisclosed Russian website. He also said that Snowden won't go to Germany to testify on NSA spying because he "has no right to cross Russian borders."

All that being said, there's still a lot we don't know about the Snowden saga.

Primary questions include: How many NSA documents did he take from Hawaii? How many did he give to the journalists he met in Hong Kong? What happened to Snowden between the time he went underground (June 10) and when he left for Moscow (June 23)? 

What was Russia's involvement in Hong Kong given that Snowden reportedly spent his 30th birthday in the Kremlin's Hong Kong consulate? When did Snowden give up access to the documents he took to China? What, if anything, has China and/or Russia been able to glean from Snowden? Why would Snowden take 30,000 documents that do not deal with NSA surveillance "but primarily with standard intelligence about other countries’ military capabilities, including weapons systems"?

Two things are almost certain: There are more surveillance stories coming, and Snowden's life is now supervised by Russian intelligence.

Question of “right”

Snowden job as a "infrastructure analyst", which meant that his job was to look for new ways to break into Internet and telephone traffic around the world.

• June 14, 2013, U.S. federal prosecutors charged Snowden with espionage and theft of government            property

• Issues of National  Security, and global concerns over terrorism

• Snowden claims action was an effort "to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.”

• "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong." 

If we look at the ethics theory, especially Teleological theory, how can we describe a snowdern approach.