Dear Reader,
Edward Snowden addresses the Oxford Union
as part of the Sam Adams awards ceremony on February 19th,
2014.
The Sam Adams Award is given annually by the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, a group of retired CIA officers, to intelligence professional who has taken a stand for integrity and ethics.
It is named after Samuel A. Adams, a CIA whistleblower
during the Vietnam War, and takes the physical form of a "corner-brightener
candlestick".
This address was poorly-filmed and-lit by the Oxford Union, which often hosts the Sam Adams Awards ceremonies.
Unfortunately, Snowden was not even mic'ed, with
only the distant camera's "shotgun mic" recording his
statements.
In his address, Snowden is basically lauding Chelsea Manning for her statements about the growing trend of "over-classification" of information and documents. Indeed, many of the diplomatic cables released by Manning had "Secret" clearances (the lowest level of classification), which were largely unwarranted.
Snowden points out that
over-classification leads to a breakdown in the ability of the public to appropriately
respond to suppressed war crimes, such as those also revealed
by Manning and for engaged citizens to make their
views known about the actions being done in their names and
with their Tax Dollars; at the ballot box, etc.
Snowden also points out that this trend of over-classification in not simply endemic to the US - but that other governments, such as that of Australia - have absurdly classified things like the price of shrimp and other commodities from Indonesia, as a matter of
"National Security."
Snowden's concluding statements here, in his comments about Chelsea Manning's humanitarian contributions, meriting her receipt of the Sam Adams Award are:
"The distinguishing strength of a democracy is self-correction; that no matter bad things get, the public, in partnership with a free press, can detect and correct mistakes of policy...by well-intentioned but misguided officials. It is this self-correcting, self-determining part of an unapologetically American form of government, in which Chelsea Manning so valuably participated.
And it is for this
extraordinary act of public service, at an unbelievable personal
cost, for which we grant this award and our moral sanction
to Chelsea Manning. Thank you."
Snowden, who received this same award last year is considered a fugitive by American authorities, who in June 2013 charged him with Espionage and Theft of Government Property.
In early 2014, numerous media outlets and politicians
issued calls for leniency in the form of clemency, amnesty or pardon,
while others called for him to be imprisoned or
killed.
He lives in an undisclosed location in Russia and, according to German politician, Hans-Christian Stroebele, continues to seek permanent asylum "in a 'democratic' country" such as Germany or France.
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