Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning

Edward Joseph Snowden recently leaked several British and American government surveillance programs to the public. Snowden himself acquired this knowledge during his former practices in the National Security Agency(NSA) and Central Intelligence Agency(CIA).

Snowden originally only revealed this information to Glenn Greenwald of the British paper "The Guardian" in the spring of 2013; However, in June 2013, the Guardian revealed information on U.S and British phone and Internet interception. Days later, Snowden was charged with 3 counts of treason.

Facing total isolation if caught by the FBI, Snowden fled the United States. He moved on to Hong Kong where he arguably dodged the biggest bullet of his life. While he was in Hong Kong, the United States asked the Chinese Security and Immigration to arrest Snowden on Americas behalf. Fortunately for Snowden, his middle name was misspelled on the documents America had sent; therefore, China didn't understand exactly who America was looking for.

When Snowden found out that America was trying to persuade China to arrest him, he fled to Russia. For many weeks he had been staying in Moscow Airport because he feared that America would harm the airplane he was on. On August 1, 2013, Snowden was granted temporary asylum in Russia. Because of this, without a doubt, the relationship of America and Russia has been tainted.

Bradley Edward Manning is a U.S solider who was arrested in May 2010 on suspicion of realizing information to WikiLeaks. While assigned to a unit base in Baghdad, Manning had access to the United States' government's classified information. Manning was arrested in 2010 when a computer hacker discovered that he had downloaded and passed the information on to WikiLeaks. Manning said he released the information to expose the wrong doings of the U.S. military.

After being arrested in Baghdad, Manning was transferred to Kuwait where he was put on suicide watch. Being placed on suicide watch meant Manning had to say goodbye to all the little luxuries in life like having sheets when you sleep or having a window in your room.

On June 03, 2013 his trial began. He pleaded guilty to 10 of the 22 charges of which he was convicted. On July 30th Manning was convicted of most of the charges but he was acquitted of the most serious offense of aiding the enemy. Although his sentence hearing has not yet been conducted, Manning faces up to 136 years in prison.

I think what America is doing about the Snowden and Manning issue is very wrong and unjust especially for a country of 'freedom'. In a country of 'freedom', it's amazing to see that our freedom is limited in a sense.

If this was really the land of the free, what he said or did wouldn't matter to the government. I feel like the fact that the government is searching for Snowden and convicted Manning is making them look worse. If they were to forget about both men, the American people would forget over time as well.