It’s Bad, But It’s Not That Bad: Correcting Snowden

Make no mistake, the events leading up to the collapse of the Icelandic government are truly horrific. They reveal a high level of secrecy, corruption and arrogance of power that led to everything falling apart. But there are still some misconceptions about how bad things really were.

Case in point: famed whistleblower Edward Snowden posted a couple tweets last Friday which sort of misrepresented what actually happened. So we’d like to clear the air.

On September 15, Snowden tweeted:

Corruption story: Justice Minister, PM & PM's father secretly pardoned friend who raped stepdaughter "almost daily for 12 years." #HöfumHátt https://t.co/g7lLdA9Jzo

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 17, 2017

He later tweeted:

TL;DR: the Justice Minister expunged the conviction of ("restoring honor", or pardoning) friend as requested by PM's father.

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 17, 2017

This is sort of the case, but not exactly.

The Prime Minister’s father, Benedikt Sveinsson, signed a letter vouching for convicted rapist Hjalti Sigurjón Hauksson’s character. From there, the Ministry, with the approval of the President, granted what is effectively a restoration of civil standing despite his conviction. The Prime Minister knew about this last July, but kept this information largely to himself because, as he explained at a press conference, the Ministry had told him this was sensitive information that could not be made public. Further, Hjalti is not a friend of the Justice Minister or the Prime Minister, but Benedikt and Hjalti have known each other for years, and Benedikt reportedly even visited him in prison. Also, “restored honour” does not expunge your record, but you do have your civil standing restored. So for all intents and purposes, it’s a lot like having your criminal record expunged, but not really.

So yes, this case is gross, in every way. And it’s easy to get mixed up in what the facts are. But facts are still important.

In fairness, Snowden did get a lot of things right. For example:

The PM, conveniently, claims he didn't know until last July, then covered it up it til reporters exposed it. https://t.co/EBFqy6nnXu

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 17, 2017

And then there’s this:

Iceland's conservative "party of stability" seems to have become the party of corruption scandals. No matter one's politics, this is tragic. https://t.co/Fapxd4cVFF

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 17, 2017

We couldn’t have put it better ourselves.