Senator Schumer,
As your constituent, I find your statements of condemnation for Edward Snowden distateful, but more importantly, they are simply wrong.
Snowden is a whistleblower and a political dissident. His acts revealed massive abuses by our government—illegal according to the letter of the law, and more attuned to the spirit of the law in totalitarian countries like China.
With so much rhetoric about how terrorism endangers our freedoms, I should hope you realize that the very programs Snowden has revealed do more to subvert our freedoms, for more of our population, than any act of terrorism.
I urge you to retract your statements about Snowden, and focus your attention on two goals:
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Getting substantive answers about how these illegal programs came to be, how they are being abused, and who is responsible for them despite their flagrantly unconstitutional nature. Secret oversight of secret government is not an acceptable response, and you should not let the matter end there.
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Joining the growing force in government that is appalled at our punitive approach to Snowden. He should be welcomed home, and questioned, on the record, about any and all illegal programs, so as to aid in the investigation against the agencies responsible for ignoring our constitutional rights in their operations.
The American public cannot trust in a government without transparency. Snowden took a gigantic risk for all of us, and cooler heads in our legislature should recognize and applaud it. I hope you are one of those cooler heads.
Sincerely,
Idan Gazit