Washington Post and Guardian won the Pulitzer Prize for their articles based on documents leaked by the former government contractor Edward J. Snowden. At the same time Snowden himself is declared a “traitor” and is facing lifetime or even death penalty, if being captured by US forces. At current moment he is living as a political refugee in Moscow. Said in short – a Pulitzer inspirer is hiding from US repression in… Russia. What times we lived to see…
   Praising some media with the highest award and at the same time hunting for the main contributor for this award looks as a type of social schizophrenia. Obviously some parts of society have different values. The government thinks someone is bad for society, while the free media thinks he is good for society and encourages such a behavior.
   Who is right?

   From a formal point of view Snowden is really a traitor. As a government subcontractor he is obliged to keep government secrets. The law strictly prohibits revealing such information.
   But what about the breaches of law, made by the government itself? OK, Snowden is a criminal and will be prosecuted. But who and when will prosecute the officers of the government that has broken other laws, while spying everything that could be spied? What about the politicians that with these actions ruined the US image around the world and confidence among allies? Isn’t it treason to spy the Chancellor of Germany and this way ruin the relations with a close ally? Shall Barack Obama and members of the Cabinet be arrested under an international warrant order, once their term is expired and they no longer have immunity? Or even arrested in USA, as USA laws have been breached?
   There is a practice sometimes a criminal to be fondled in exchange for information he provides for bigger criminals. The investigators and the court decide that it is in interest of the society to punish the more dangerous law-breakers than the small fry.
   So is the new Pulitzer Award an idea in this direction? Obviously influential parts of the society think so. Otherwise it would be called simply hypocrisy. A prison for one and a glory for another on the same issue.
   By the way, another victim of the secrecy cause is already for years in Ecuador embassy in London. Julian Assange was not even an employee of US government so he was not a “traitor”. Anyway he is afraid of leaving the embassy, because will be arrested and sent to USA to face prison or even worse…
   But the most funny of all is the real traitor – the one that sits behind both Snowden and Assange. Guess who? Of course – the White House. All that happened is nothing else than a consequence of the extremely stupid security policy that led to something we may call a “security bubble”. Investing billions of taxpayers’ money on new and new security agencies and exploding the number of officers in them. At the end – just before Wikileaks failure, there were almost 1 million men with an access to “top secret” information. Can someone explain where is the secret when it is known by  1 million people? Such system is obviously impossible to work. It can lead only to failures. So who is to blame for such a stupid organization of US secret agencies? Snowden, or Assange… or the next Snowden or Assange. And never – the head of the fish where the smell starts from…

Dobri B.
April 16th 2014