Edward Snowden avoimena Redditissä: En halua kenenkään uskovan minua

Tietovuotaja Edward Snowden, NSA-paljastuksia hänen kanssaan tehnyt journalisti Glenn Greenwald ja Snowdenista kertovan Citizenfour-dokumentin ohjaaja Laura Poitras vastailivat eilen Reddit-keskustelijoiden kysymykseen Ask Me Anything -ketjussa.

Kolmikolle sai esittää kysymyksiä mistä tahansa, mutta ymmärrettävästi eniten huomiota sai Edward Snowden. Snowdenilta kyseltiin paljon hänen elämästään maanpaossa Venäjällä. Snowden on asunut Venäjällä jo kesästä 2013 asti.

Nimimerkki max_fisher: What are your interactions with Russian state security like? With Russian government representatives generally?
Snowden: … At this point, I think the reason I get away with it is because of my public profile. What can they really do to me? If I show up with broken fingers, everybody will know what happened.

Don't let it happen in your country.

Nimimerkki ComeForthLazarus: Can you explain what your life in Moscow is like?
Snowden: Moscow is the biggest city in Europe. A lot of people forget that. Shy of Tokyo, it's the biggest city I've ever lived in. I'd rather be home, but it's a lot like any other major city.

Venäjän poliittinen tilanne ja lännen kiristyneet välit maan kanssa puhuttivat ketjussa paljonkin. Snowdenilta kysyttiin mm. voisiko hänestä tulla pelinappula esimerkiksi talouspakotteista kiistellessä. Snowden sanoo, että niin voisi hyvin käydä.

Nimimerkki mattneeddesign: Don't you fear that at some point you will be used as leverage in a negotiation? eg; "if you drop the sanctions we give you Snowden"
Snowden: It is very realistic that in the realpolitik of great powers, this kind of thing could happen. I don't like to think that it would happen, but it certainly could. At the same time, I'm so incredibly blessed to have had an opportunity to give so much back to the people and internet that I love. I acted in accordance with my conscience and in so doing have enjoyed far more luck than any one person can ask for. If that luck should run out sooner rather than later, on balance I will still - and always - be satisfied.

Myös Yhdysvaltojen politiikka ja lähestyvät vaalit puhuttivat ketjussa. Luonnollisesti Snowdenilta kyseltiin myös tietoturvasta. Snowdenin mukaan ongelma ei ole se, että ihmiset eivät välittäisi tietoturvastaan, vaan se, että ihmiset kuvittelevat olevansa vallattomia.

Nimimerkki kingshav: Mr Snowden, do you feel that your worst fear is being realized, that most people don't care about their privacy?
Snowden: To answer the question, I don't. Poll after poll is confirming that, contrary to what we tend to think, people not only care, they care a lot. The problem is we feel disempowered. We feel like we can't do anything about it, so we may as well not try.

Oscar-palkittu dokumentti Citizenfour sai sekin keskustelua aikaan. Laura Poitras ja Glenn Greenwald kertoivat kiinnostuneille dokumentin tekemisestä ja Oscar-gaalasta. Edward Snowden sen sijaan kertoi, että hän henkilökohtaisesti ymmärtää, jos joku lataa dokumentin laittomasti.

Nimimerkki peps90: Do you mind people pirating Citizenfour?
Snowden: I don't have a commercial interest in the film, so I can't speak for the filmmakers, but I know what it's like to be a student with no money.

Monet myös kyseenalaistivat Snowdenin paljastukset ja vaativat häntä perustelemaan, miksi juuri hän on oikeassa. Snowden vastasi yksinkertaisesti, ettei hänen paljastuksiaan ole todistettu valheiksi ja että hän ei oikeastaan haluakaan kenenkään uskovan häntä sokeasti.

Snowden: But there's a reason the government has -- now almost two years out -- never shown me to have told a lie. I don't ask anybody to believe me. I don't want anybody to believe me. I want you to look around and decide for yourself what you believe, independent of what people says, indepedent of what's on TV, and independent of what your classified emails might claim.

If I show up with broken fingers, everybody will know what happened.

Snowdenilta kyseltiin paljon, katuuko hän jotain tai toivooko hän tehneensä jotain toisin. Snowden myöntyi ainoastaan sanomaan, että toivoisi vuotaneensa tiedot NSA:sta julkisuuteen aikaisemmin.

Nimimerkki TheJackal8: Mr. Snowden, if you had a chance to do things over again, would you do anything differently? If so, what?
Snowden: I would have come forward sooner. I talked to Daniel Ellsberg about this at length, who has explained why more eloquently than I can. Had I come forward a little sooner, these programs would have been a little less entrenched, and those abusing them would have felt a little less familiar with and accustomed to the exercise of those powers.

This is something we see in almost every sector of government, not just in the national security space, but it's very important: Once you grant the government some new power or authority, it becomes exponentially more difficult to roll it back. Regardless of how little value a program or power has been shown to have (such as the Section 215 dragnet interception of call records in the United States, which the government's own investigation found never stopped a single imminent terrorist attack despite a decade of operation), once it's a sunk cost, once dollars and reputations have been invested in it, it's hard to peel that back.

Don't let it happen in your country.

Koko AMA-keskustelu on luettavissa Redditissä täällä.