http://metro.co.uk/2013/07/02/edward-sn ... s-3863876/Edward Snowden, Prism and the NSA: What makes a whistleblower reveal secrets?
Tuesday 2 Jul 2013 6:00 am
Edward Snowden is very aware he’s a wanted man. When journalists flew to Hong Kong to meet Snowden, he used a Rubik’s cube to identify himself.
When he used his laptop, Snowden shrouded his face with a hood and covered his keyboard. His paranoia is probably justified. Although the US government might be struggling to catch up with Snowden physically, they’re likely to be following his every move using other means.
‘Given the extensive evidence the US government presumably has about Snowden’s allegedly unlawful activities, I doubt they had difficulty convincing a judge that they had probable cause to believe he was involved in criminal acts and to obtain permission for any type of surveillance,’ said Professor Stephen Vladeck, an expert in national security law at the American University Washington.
‘There are no laws which would allow the government to remove Snowden from the country of a foreign sovereign. But there’s also nothing which would prohibit his prosecution in a US court if such a move takes place.’
The constant paranoia is just one of the feelings whistleblowers such as Snowden have to get used to.
‘I watched his video interview and he’s clearly anxious and scared,’ said Dr James Hollings, an expert on whistleblowers based at Massey University in New Zealand.
‘He’s also angry. This is common in whistleblowers, who often need a righteous anger to motivate themselves to make the final decision to speak out.’
This conviction is something of a survival tactic, said Dr Hollings.
‘I think he’ll be hanging on to the idea that he did the right thing, the thinking that nobody else could or would have done it – if he hadn’t acted, nothing would have happened.
‘I think that once the anger passes, he’ll feel a sense of resignation, perhaps fatalism – you could already see signs of this in his comments about whether he’d survive.’
Snowden’s future is undeniably bleak and the qualities required to be a whistleblower aren’t necessarily the ones required to help them deal with the fallout.
‘Regardless of feelings of justification, these situations create an incredible amount of strain,’ said Professor Wayne Petherick, a criminologist at Queensland’s Bond University.
‘You worry you’ll never work again. You worry about what your family thinks, you worry about returning home. There’s a feeling of security provided by home which may no longer be available. All of this creates an enormous amount of pressure.’
Some experts believe these hardships are precisely why many whistleblowers come to regret their actions.
‘At some point he’s going to realise that this wasn’t his responsibility,’ predicted Jim Van Allen, a criminal profiler and president of the Behavioural Science Solutions Group in Canada.
‘He will be apprehended and incarcerated. At some point, the consequences will outweigh any benefit. At that point, I believe he will be depressed and anxious and I don’t think an individual like Snowden would cope well in custody.’
There’s also the possibility that the public might have more sympathy with the government than Snowden predicted.
‘He may see that the overwhelming majority prefer to be safe from terrorism and expect the government to keep them safe by whatever means,’ said Van Allen.
The issue of whether the US government acted illegally has no bearing on the outcome of any future trial of Snowden, warned Prof Vladeck.
‘There’s no defence to any of the charges that have thus far been levelled, based upon the value of his disclosures or the illegality of the government programs,’ he said.
‘That doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have an influence on jury members, but legally, it shouldn’t make a difference.’
But surely people like Snowden will be fully aware of the repercussions that will follow their actions? Not so, according to Van Allen.
‘Most whistleblowers give little thought to the consequences,’ he said. ‘Invariably, they act to their own detriment and ruin almost every aspect of the lives they had. I believe that when reality sets in, it’s far more profound than what they anticipated.’
Snowden’s initial inability to recognise this hints at another trait common amongst whistleblowers.
‘Whistleblowers tend to be moralistic, with a grandiose thinking that their opinion is more important than it is, or that they are responsible for the lives or rights of many,’ said Van Allan. This is partly why Snowden won’t be particularly bothered by the fact that he’s front page news.
‘There’s probably a part of Snowden’s personality which will feel validated by being in the news,’ said Van Allen. ‘It will make him feel more relevant and possibly validate his belief that what he did was right. But, eventually, this too will pass.’
Will potential whistleblowers be deterred from ‘doing a Snowden’ as a result of witnessing the US’s determination to find him?
‘There could be a dual effect,’ said Prof Petherick. ‘For some this will be a lesson in staying quiet but others will see this is the opening of the floodgates and it may urge them to come forward.
‘In social psychology it’s called the contagion effect. It refers to how the actions of one entity can impact the behaviours of other entities.’
And history dictates that, no matter what hardships Snowden may face, there will always be a whistleblower about to step into the spotlight.
