The Defection of Edward Snowden

My monthly piece over at Medium:

In June, when the _Guardian _first began publishing leaked top secret documents pilfered from the National Security Agency, it looked like a traditional act of whistleblowing: Shocking revelations of mass surveillance of the American people, leaked anonymously to a newspaper in an effort to expose wrongdoing and prompt constructive change. But after weeks of curious decisions, poor judgment, and bizarre claims, it became something else: an astonishingly public defection, played out in real time.

Go, read the rest over at Medium.