Snowden's best option

By Donald Kirk

We keep hearing about all the countries where Edward Snowden is looking for asylum ― Russia, China and India are on the shortlist along with the two South American countries, Ecuador and Venezuela, that would love to have him just to show they can’t be intimidated.

The U.S.-ROK alliance would seem to rule out South Korea as an option though he’d find plenty of sympathy among people who want to know if Washington has been snooping on Seoul along with all the other “targets” on the list. Oddly, though, North Korea doesn’t seem to have come up as a place where he might find asylum. Surely the North Koreans would like to know, though, about U.S. cyper-spying considering all the cyber espionage charges the U.S. and South Korea have been making against the North.

There is, however, another option that Snowden doesn’t seem to have considered. He seems to have forgotten what could be the best idea of all ― taking up the U.S. offer of a one-time travel document enabling him to return to the U.S. as a repentant felon.

Except that Snowden would not have to repent. Think of all he could be saying before, during and after his trial. He could make his accusers look like still greater fools than they have already appeared for having given a 29-year-old kid such access. Would the NSA, caterwauling about exposure of its innermost secrets, want to provide him with a forum for spilling still more secrets?

Snowden’s testimony could be far more damaging than the reports we’ve been seeing in publications ranging from the German Der Spiegel to The Guardian of Britain about the NSA spying on friends and enemies alike.

The problem with those reports is not only that they’re fragmentary but also that they lack real credibility. What’s really wrong, Americans ask, about trying to figure out what all those foreigners are doing? The response in middle America is we can’t trust those people anyway, and it’s a good the NSA is keeping track of them.

Put Snowden on the stand in a courtroom in the US, though, and he might seem much more convincing as a critic of surveillance that also extends and possibly endangers all Americans. He can carry on all he likes about how awful President Obama and Vice President Biden have been in persuading foreign governments to balk at giving him safe haven, but he could call their bluffs totally if he were to say, Ok, now I want to go home and say still more that will really fix you guys.

Would the NSA, given that risk, want to put Snowden through a prolonged trial that could be a real embarrassment to the dopes who gave him such an opening for access to all their dark and dirty secrets? At some point in this whole charade NSA and CIA heads should be rolling _ not for betraying the U.S. Constitution but for being so stupid. And they should also be held accountable for how many others have had similar access _ and the chance to run off with secrets for sale to anyone with the money to buy them.

The best reason for Snowden to come home, though, is that he would get a hero’s welcome. Think of all the academics from Cambridge, Mass., to Berkeley, Calif., who would be lionizing him, making him a hero and a martyr, portraying him as the victim of an imperial America.

Conservatives might want to jail him forever, but how could they overcome the portrayal of Snowden as one who wanted to battle for a return to the principles set forth by the founding fathers in the constitution? If the views of Ron Paul are indicative, Snowden is guaranteed a strong conservative following ― a fusion of rightists and leftists with a shared vision of old-time values.

The problem with Snowden’s remarks while overseas is the suspicion that he’s a man on the lam who’s losing credibility. He’s soon going to run out of things to say and then fade into the miasma of trouble-makers whom a lot of people don’t quite believe, much less admire.

His credibility among Americans will vastly increase once he’s back on U.S. soil, yakking away in court, in the media, even from prison. If he’s finally sentenced, he can be sure plenty of people will be fighting to get him out while holding him up as a hero for the ages rather than an oddball who ran off with the company’s secrets.

Not even the North Koreans could show him such respect ― and provide such an opportunity for him to badmouth the system that entrusted him with all that inside stuff in the first place.

Columnist Donald Kirk, www.donaldkirk.com, is still waiting for Snowden to start talking about U.S. cyber.spying on both North and South Korea. He’s at kirkdon@yahoo.com.