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GUEST ARTICLE: The revoked Snowden's passport while he was in the air

By David T. Zyambo

Here's the thing about a passport that a lot of people only learn the hard way—it is not yours. It belongs to the state that issued it. You carry it, you use it, but the government that gave it to you can take it back. And it can do that while you're thousands of kilometres from home, standing in an airport, with nowhere to go.

I know this because I watched it happen to Edward Snowden in 2013.

Snowden was a young American working as a contractor for the National Security Agency. He copied a massive trove of classified documents — things that revealed the U.S. government was collecting phone records and internet data on a scale most people hadn't imagined. He handed those documents to journalists and then got on a plane to Hong Kong. From there, he planned to fly to Ecuador, or maybe Bolivia, anywhere that might shelter him.

He never made it.

While he was in the air, the U.S. State Department cancelled his passport. Just like that. He landed in Moscow knowing he could not legally board another international flight. Russia eventually gave him temporary asylum, and he has been there ever since. Not because he chose Russia, but because every other door closed the moment his passport was voided.

John Kerry, who was Secretary of State for the Obama Administration at the time, did not apologise for it. He said Snowden had betrayed his country and would face the consequences. That was that. No court hearing before the revocation. No chance for Snowden to argue his case from abroad. The document was pulled, and the man was stuck—and he has been in a foreign country for the last thirteen years.

Now, some will say: Snowden was different. He leaked secrets. He was espionage. But here is a case that should end that argument.

Philip Agee was a former American government official. In the 1970s, he turned against his own government and launched a campaign to expose its intelligence officers working abroad. He was not a whistleblower like Snowden. He was a man on a mission.

The U.S. government revoked his passport. Agee sued, arguing his freedom of speech and the right to criticise the government was being violated. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court. He lost.

The Court ruled that the government has the authority to cancel a passport based on a national security determination — without a prior conviction, without a court order, without anything more than the executive's own assessment. It said the cancellation stopped his actions, not his speech. He was free to criticise America. He just couldn't do it from abroad with an American passport in his pocket.

The line between "critic" and "security threat" is not drawn by the critic. It is drawn by the state. Every government that has ever revoked a passport for political reasons has called the person a threat. Every person whose passport was revoked has called themselves a critic. The American courts, faced with this exact question, sided with the nation.

I once lived and worked outside Zambia for much of my adult life. I built a career that depended on being able to move — to catch flights, to take global assignments, to cross borders without drama. During the years before 2021, I had plenty to say about the government back home, and I said it on social media, openly, because I was far away and felt safe doing so.

But I never crossed a certain line.

I never insulted President Edgar Lungu. I never called for rebellion. I never wished harm on anyone. I disagreed, sometimes sharply, but I kept my language measured. That wasn't cowardice. It was common sense, and it was also the way I was raised. My parents taught me that you can stand your ground without dragging someone's name through the mud. Respect for elders and for authority was not optional in our home. If you see someone my age or older hurling insults and disrespect at leaders on Facebook, that is not politics. That's upbringing. Or the lack of it.

The other reason I stayed measured is simpler. I did not want to end up like Snowden — not politically, but practically. Stranded. Unable to fly. Watching my career evaporate because I couldn't board a plane. When you've spent years building a life that depends on a little green booklet, you think twice before giving any government a reason to take it from you.

So when I see people who fled Zambia to avoid court cases now shouting from abroad that their passports have been cancelled, I don't feel outrage. I feel something closer to recognition. They gambled with the one document that kept them connected to the rest of the world. They lost.

A passport is not a right. It is a privilege the state extends to you, and it can withdraw that privilege when it decides you have become a threat. America did it to Snowden. America did it to Agee. Zambia is doing it to those it deems a threat to national security.

Don't mock the crocodile while your buttocks are still in the water. It doesn't need to chase you. It just waits.

Kalemba September 12, 2026

Hope RTSA sees this! We are not safe at all!!! 🤧

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