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USA Calling For the Extradition of Snowden
Taco Cowboy writes "Edward Snowden, the leaker who gave us the evidence of US government spying on its people is under threat of being extradited back to the U.S. to face prosecution. Some people in Congress, including Republican Peter King (R-NY), are calling for his extradition from Hong Kong to face trial. From the article: 'A spokesman for the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, said Snowden's case had been referred to the justice department and US intelligence was assessing the damage caused by the disclosures.
"Any person who has a security clearance knows that he or she has an obligation to protect classified information and abide by the law," the spokesman, Shawn Turner, said.'"
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snowden/Dp03vGYD
The constitution is the highest law of this nation. Particularly the specific protections the constitution contains. If government uses "security clearance" to hide breaches of the constitution, anyone with clearance has an obligation to act. The constitution is above the government, not the other way around.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
We should find out who 'some people in Congress' are, post their names, and make sure constituents in their voting jurisdiction fill their inboxes. And, parade their names all over the Internet so the other people in Congress will see them be vilified. Nobody here wants to see us continuing in the direction of a totalitarian police state.
According to the article, the people in Congress that are named are 'Republican head of the House intelligence committee, Mike Rogers' and 'Peter King, the chairman of the House homeland security subcommittee'.
--- We need more Ron Paul!
That might not be the best choice of hiding place, given the current talks on hacking and espionage between China and the USA. Snowden may have made himself into a bargaining chip; perhaps China will be happy to extradite Snowden as a gesture of goodwill.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
... how they placed a high school dropout in such a position of trust. Quoting the Guardian "Snowden is a 29-year-old high-school dropout who trained for the Army Special Forces before an injury forced him to leave the military. His IT credentials are apparently limited to a few “computer” classes he took at a community college in order to get his high-school equivalency degree—courses that he did not complete. His first job at the NSA was as a security guard. Then, amazingly, he moved up the ranks of the United States’ national security infrastructure: The CIA gave him a job in IT security. He was given diplomatic cover in Geneva. He was hired by Booz Allen Hamilton, the government contractor, which paid him $200,000 a year to work on the NSA’s computer systems." .. Wtf are people smoking in the US?
Democracy is the rule of the people.
Betraying democracy would therefore be preventing the people from getting the information necessary to make informed choices about who to vote for.
I never thought I'd see the day when an American is seeking political protection in China.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
It's no laughing matter, but it's not treason. Treason is defined in the Constitution and this ain't it.
It's worth noting that 'treason' is one of the very few(possibly only, I can't remember if there are any others) offenses specifically defined in the constitution, rather than being left to "eh, congress will write some laws when they get together, and the several states already have things in place to keep murder and cannibalism to a minimum". And that's because the framers knew how... versatile... 'treason' can be if you allow it to be defined by whatever butthurt government is vexed with somebody at the moment.
At the very least, sign the Whitehouse Petition, if only for the entertainment value of forcing Obama to respond.
Pardon Snowden
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
...the fun begins.
On one side Snowden, who knows the repercussions of what he did, but chose this path. Bravo. He did not go the Wikileaks route, very impressive.
On the other side whoever who were "appalled" US government is snooping indiscriminately - the list starts with Ron Paul. Lets see if Ron Paul will take a stand and publicly defend Snowden.
Then we have POTUS - who probably would have personally supported Snowden if he were not the POTUS. The more POTUS and his administration squeaks about "grave danger to US" and other nonsense and proceeds to harm Snowden, the more out of touch, elitist and a tool he will look.
Excellent drama. I sincerely hope Snowden can go home to a heroes reception.
Tat Tvam Asi
Acting without a common definition is anarchy
So just like the NSA and US government acted when they illegally gave themselves the power to spy on its citizens.
I agree a defense fund should be started. Not because I think he's innocent, but because spending more time in the courts about the broader subject of privacy and the limiting of the government's grasp is important. He fell on the sword--he's brave wrong man.
Monitor bandwidth usage on IIS6 in real-time: http://www.waetech.com/services/iisbm/
How could it reach the Supreme Court when no-one knew about it ... until he blew the whistle on the NSA no-one was able to ask the Supreme Court to investigate if it was unconstitutional because it was Top Secret and they were not allowed to know ...
Puteulanus fenestra mortis
I'm more interested in the other 37 slides that he gave to reporters, but didn't get published. It seems they spoke with the Whitehouse before writing the report, and agreed to only publish 4 of the slides. What's on the other 37 that's so damning? And what happened to open journalism? With this state-controlled/influenced news situation we now have, how would you release information like this without it just getting censored anyway?