Snowden And His Would-Be Imitators

As a former officer of the CIA — my last overseas assignment being Chief of Station — I feel compelled to comment on the article "Pardon Snowden", which appeared on September 15 on the op-ed page of The New York Times.

Written by Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, and Scott Shetty, the secretary general of Amnesty International, the article contains at least one key omission: Edward J. Snowden was not only a National Security Agency contractor, as stated by the authors, but was also formerly a CIA staff employee. As such, he was obliged to sign a secrecy agreement not to disclose classified information. It lasts a lifetime, and we all have to abide by it whenever we are dealing with classified data.

Apart from the issue of the harm done to national security by this case, it is important to point out the unintended consequences of giving Snowden a pardon. Present and past CIA employees could regard such an action as a softening of standards and as an invitation to transgress.

Whatever the motives of Snowden in doing what he did, he created an impossible situation for himself by flouting his secrecy agreement with the CIA, which thousands of others have had to respect.

This case has become hot again thanks to the new film "Snowden" by Oliver Stone, which according to The New York Times is more sober than some of his previous films.

However, "Snowden" appears to contain a sprinkling of artistic inaccuracies which are characteristic trademarks of Stone's films.

And, as The New York Times reviewer, A.O.Scott, observes, (16 September) "Citizenfour", the earlier film on Snowden by Laura Poitras, one of the journalists who actually worked with Snowden, "seems to me more likely to last — it is deeper journalism and more haunting cinema"...