Snowden Cornered, Obama On the Defensive

Dear Mr. President,

You may have Snowden cornered, stripped of his passport, declared a traitor, stateless, unable to move out of his room in the Moscow airport, but he’s got you on the defense too, trying to explain away the NSA and all those bugs and wiretaps, assuring our friends and allies they have nothing to fear from us—“Everybody does it,” you say. Yeah, right. But not on this scale, they don’t. Your words ring hollow like everything you say nowadays, like that statement that neither you nor anyone in your administration is going to “wheel and deal over a 29-year-old hacker” and even as you said it, your Vice, Uncle Joe Biden, is calling Correa in Ecuador, twisting his arm, and you’re warning other countries that granting asylum to Snowden would have “consequences,” and behind the scenes pressure mounts on country after country that might grant Snowden asylum. Maybe you don’t call it “wheeling and dealing” but it sure looks like it from out here in the hustings. And what about the deal with France and Portugal today, the pressure to deny the Bolivian president’s plane permission to pass through their air space because your security apparatchiks thought Snowden might be on board? The mask is slipping and people are finally discovering your M.O.—say one thing and do the opposite. Like calling on other nations to abide by the rule of law while we ignore laws and treaties alike. I’m rooting for Snowden, a true American hero and patriot who values democracy and hasn’t lost his moral compass. For me, personally, it’s sad to see the country I was brought up to believe was the beacon of freedom and justice become another evil empire like the one we were warned about back in the 50s and 60s (“We have met the enemy and he is us!” Pogo said back then), to watch our government lie and hide the truth, bend and ignore the law, human rights and justice, and regard its own citizens as the enemy, feared and suppressed, silenced and brutalized for speaking the truth. You’re just another two-bit politician in a town full of them, Mr. President, caring not a fig for the common good, corrupted by power or greed or revenge or whatever it is that drives you. You could have been one of the greats but you aren’t and you never will be ‘cause you’re in way too deep now, caught in a web of lies, deceit, secrecy and the seduction of power, so deep you probably believe it’s all necessary and just. But it isn’t and you’re on the wrong side of history, way past the tipping point.