Episode 4: Snowden, Surveillance and the South with Joseph Atkins

In June 2013, Edward Snowden handed over to journalists thousands of classified documents about a secret dragnet surveillance program with the capability of spying on everyone in America. Among the Snowden revelations was a program code-named PRISM, which collects data directly from the country’s largest telecommunications servers, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple.

The intelligence community’s blatant disregard for Americans’ civil liberties under the United States Constitution prompted Snowden to go public. For Snowden, leaking such highly classified secrets was likely the last act he would commit as a free man.

The Obama administration quickly condemned the leaks and charged Snowden under the 1917 Espionage Act. Some officials called Snowden a traitor and a Chinese spy while others lauded him for his public service.

Seven years later, Snowden remains in exile in Russia under a constant fear of extradition and legal retribution.

There are signs, however, that Snowden might soon be able to return to the United States without the threat of retaliation. In September, the ninth circuit court of appeals ruled that the NSA’s surveillance program violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and was likely unconstitutional. Soon after, President Trump signalled that he might be willing to pardon Snowden. 

Snowden hails from the South. He was born in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

Whether he knows it or not, Snowden is part of a long history of Southerners who have stood up to state-sponsored surveillance in the region.

One of the most nefarious surveillance operations was the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, which was designed explicitly to stymie Mississippi’s burgeoning civil rights movement.  The commission worked in the shadows collecting information about homegrown dissidents and so-called outside agitators that could then be used to blackmail them or plant disinformation in the press.

One person likened the commission to a “magnolia gestapo.”

In this week's episode, host Jonathan Michels speaks with Joseph Atkins about the effort to pardon Edward Snowden and how the history of surveillance in the American South set the model for NSA spying today. Atkins teaches journalism at The University of Mississippi and writes about workers’ struggles at Labor South.

For a transcription of this episode, please click here.

Show notes:

• “Mississippi Set Model for NSA Spying” article by Joseph Atkins connecting Snowden’s revelations with the Mississippi police state of the 1960s
• Mississippi Sovereignty Commission online archives
• “The Fire This Time” Intercept article about how police surveillance of anti-racist activists continues today in Memphis, Tennessee
• The Joe Rogan Experience featuring Edward Snowden

• Independent Media Roundtable: Julian Assange’s Extradition Trial And The War On Journalism featuring Kevin Gosztola from Shadowoproof