Snowden's Latest Offense: Letting Foreign Voters Know What Their Leaders Have Long Known

Edward Snowden's stories keep leaking out, yet Russia says he must not do this. The latest one is on how the NSA spies on European leaders.

They all knew this. Their voters did not. This is the threat Snowden poses, and American foreign policy experts know this.

In an article for the forthcoming edition of Foreign Affairs magazine, Henry Farrell and Martha Finnemore argue that it's the disclosure of such practices rather than their existence that is damaging.

"When these deeds turn out to clash with the government's public rhetoric, as they so often do, it becomes harder for U.S. allies to overlook Washington's covert behavior and easier for U.S. adversaries to justify their own," they write.

"The U.S. government, its friends, and its foes can no longer plausibly deny the dark side of U.S. foreign policy and will have to address it head-on," they argue.

The U.S. government will pretend to address this head-on. It will do nothing substantive, which would involve cutting the NSA's budget. This, politicians will not do, since the NSA has been monitoring their phone calls. The politicians know who holds the hammer: the NSA.

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