Tech Musing #3 – All of CITIZENFOUR

(This is long, I apologize.)

Summary

CITIZENFOUR documents the unfolding of the Edward Snowden scandal. Over a period of time Snowden collected material (PowerPoints, memos, project goals) regarding the United States’ surveillance tactics. The NSA used these tactics on American citizens and foreigners. This invasion of privacy was described as indiscriminate and sweeping. The collection of information was broad and secret. Private companies, like Facebook and Google, partnered with the NSA to help deliver personal information about customers to them. That specific program was called Prism.

This documentary takes a unique perspective. The audience is able to follow Glen Greenwald and Laura Poitras during their first anonymous communications with Citizenfour (Edward Snowden’s code name). The documentary covers their first in-person meeting with Snowden and then illustrates how the first jaw-dropping articles were written by Greenwald for the Washington Post and the Guardian. Snowden gave the classified information out to these journalists, walked them through the details and meaning and then let the journalists draw up the story.

There was one basic theme that these well-known journalists and Ed Snowden were trying to get across. They wanted to inform the public that there were no checks and no oversight in these programs. They wanted to inform the public that there is no more privacy; people can no longer say whatever they think, because secretly someone else is listening. In their eyes America was turning into a nation composed of the ruling and the ruled rather than the elected and the electorate. The big question raised was this…are these actions and programs from the NSA essential to national security or overreach?

About the Man

Although the movie isn’t supposed to be about the man behind the leak, from the documentary you learn a few things about Ed. His full name is Edward Joseph Snowden. He was born into a military family from South Carolina and later moved to Maryland. When this leak occurred Snowden was 29 years old and was working as a consultant for Booze Allen Hamilton. His client was the NSA, where he worked as an infrastructure analyst in Hawaii, giving him privileged access to our nation’s surveillance secrets. His family was unaware of what he was planning to do; he chose not to tell them for their own protection. At the end of the documentary we are able to see that Ed’s long time partner Lindsey was able to join him in his temporary home in Russia.

Ed is a confident and eloquent man. He sets a plan, executes it and makes adjustments as needed. Throughout the documentary you could see it was him running the show. Journalists would come to him for approval before stories were released, one because he was the resident expert and two because this was kind of his scandal to operate.

It was emphasized throughout the documentary that Ed did not want this scandal to be about him. He wanted this emergence of information to be about the discoveries made and not about the hero or moron who divulged state secrets. Repeatedly Snowden said how he did not want to be hiding in the dark, he did not want to be skulking around and he did not want these articles to be from an anonymous source. He wanted to come forward at the right time. He saw what he did as a way to stand up to the injustices that our government was performing. His main objective was to have the information released, his identity known, but not have his life be the main topic of discussion. He wanted projects like Hydra and Prism to be the main topics for the media rather than him and his life choices.

My Thoughts

It was astounding how much this information affected other countries. It was revealed that America was spying on foreign leaders. This created international problems and diplomatic entanglements. Reveling this information and messing with international diplomacy was inappropriate. These programs were not Ed Snowden’s secrets to share. He broke the trust his company had in him. Being quiet and doing your job is patriotic.

Amateur Movie Critique

Although I may disagree with Edward Snowden’s actions and choices, I really enjoyed this documentary. The whole point of Snowden’s actions were not to draw attention to himself, but to highlight a relevant issue. The documentary, in my opinion, does the opposite of that. It gives viewers insight into this mysterious man; it outlines his motives, beliefs and strategies.

Having the timeline of the movie follow the same timeline before and after the stories were released was memorable. It brings viewers back in time and allows them to put themselves in Snowden’s position. This documentary gave us quite a view of Snowden as a man and what he stands for; after all it it should, considering the movie named after him.