Eddie's Outing

By now, dear reader, Edward Snowden needs no introduction to you.

Up to about a day or two ago, I would have been willing to, perhaps, consider filing him under the "Heroes" heading.  But that was before he identified himself to me and to the world.

The government -- ANY government -- needs checks and balances.  It may have been that the U.S. Government needed the check and balance of transparency in its domestic spying activities.  But I'm not so quick to endorse Snowden's leaking of classified information to the press.  I, for one, do see the possible utility of such information-gathering activity in the fight against terrorism (but not in giving the Government untethered license to snoop).  And it also must be remembered that quantity of information does not necessarily make for quality of information.

In any event, Snowden's revelations are not likely to affect my usual daily routines.  Way back when I was in grade school, my Dad admonished me that the telephone was not a secure means of communication, and that he always operated under the presumption that the telephone in our home was bugged.  Being employed in the military contracting sector, Dad had to be acutely cognizant of those kinds of things.  And after I did my own stint with Uncle Sam in a position requiring a security clearance, my own appreciation of the need for 24/7 security-mindedness was certainly reinforced.  In short, I, too, presume that my communications are monitored.  Snowden told me nothing new.

If Snowden really, really had acted with America's interests in mind in leaking the classified info to the press, then he would have handed over the info and ceased and desisted.  His going public with his status as the source for the info suggests most strongly that he has other items on his agenda besides the welfare of the American people.   And the big kabuki theater mediafest production of Snowden's quest for asylum from prosecution, to which we will be treated for the coming days or weeks, cannot further the cause of American security.

What IS Snowden's agenda?  What motivated him to out himself?  Is he being subsidized, and if so, by whom?

Methinks that there is something more than meets the eye here.