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Ex-CIA Director Says Snowden Should Be 'Hanged' For Paris Attacks (thehill.com)

Posted by timothy on from the tell-us-how-you-really-feel dept.

SonicSpike writes with this excerpt from The HIll: A former CIA director says leaker Edward Snowden should be convicted of treason and given the death penalty in the wake of the terrorist attack on Paris. "It's still a capital crime, and I would give him the death sentence, and I would prefer to see him hanged by the neck until he's dead, rather than merely electrocuted," James Woolsey told CNN's Brooke Baldwin on Thursday. Woolsey said Snowden, who divulged classified information in 2013, is partly responsible for the terrorist attack in France last week that left at least 120 dead and hundreds injured. "I think the blood of a lot of these French young people is on his hands," he said.

36 of 486 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds like a psycopath. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Also, Snowden doesn't have anyone's blood on his hands. Nice try tho

    1. Re:Sounds like a psycopath. by JMJimmy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ya, especially since the attackers were communicating on an unencrypted cell network. This is a purely political statement to move their surveillance agenda along.

    2. Re: Sounds like a psycopath. by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How can anybody run the CIA and not be a psychopath? This "execute first, follow the Rule of Law never" attitude should surprise nobody who has been paying attention - except perhaps that they're now emboldened to say it out of the shadows.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    3. Re: Sounds like a psycopath. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ... And cover their own asses. Afterall there has been no meaningful changes to protect our privacy in Europe from US/UK snooping. The US UK mass surveillance of France comms is still in place. Yet his mass surveillance DID NOT WORK. Terrorists still met, still talked, exchanged weapons and explosives all the while his $10 billion surveillance operation FAILED.

      People wonder why he was looking as internet browser history instead of tracking machine guns and explosives!

    4. Re: Sounds like a psycopath. by amiga3D · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The reason is that they don't concentrate their resources. They spy on everyone. Instead of concentrating on real threats they consider everyone a threat. Trying to find a terrorist out of a 100,000 suspects is one thing. Picking a terrorist out of 7.3 billion people is an entirely different thing. It's simple, they are incompetent. He should be fired with no pension.

    5. Re:Sounds like a psycopath. by TheRealHocusLocus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ya, especially since the attackers were communicating on an unencrypted cell network. This is a purely political statement to move their surveillance agenda along.

      You're spot on. There's a cadre of retired intel who, like aging Hollywood actors providing voice talent, get 'tapped' to emerge from retirement and give an press interview or two to drop 'venerable old spook' seed quotes that Opinion columns can churn. I really do believe these people are called up and someone says, "We have an assignment for you. Plant this idea."

      Retirees can emerge from the fog, drop their seeds and retreat, there is no unscripted follow-up. Politicians could not do this without having to field questions about their remarks at future press conferences. It is a bug in the human psyche that retired politicians are ascribed more credibility than those in power. They also become 'nonpartisan' in retirement and Opinion columnists of either party can pick up their remarks and without appearing to cross the line.

      Crisis: Snowden brand is becoming too popular, achieving folk hero status.
      Mission: Tie Snowden to Paris attacks, disingenuously if necessary. Be emotional, tactless and tearful.
      Target demographic: People who believe a retiree is 'leaking' old secrets for the betterment of man.
      Assigned to: R. James Woolsey, Jr., Director CIA under Clinton

      Remember the Clinton Administration and his hatchet-man Al Gore, who made the rounds to Congress trying to sell the idea that it was time to outlaw all non-escrow encryption and impose a single government standard? It's that Woolsey, trying to pull the Woolsey over our eyes again.

      There are others. Remember in the early days after 9/11, when Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz used practiced 'aggrieved old man scowls' to shut down questions they didn't like to hear at press conferences, leave them unanswered? And how the fawning press stopped asking those questions? The aggrieved old man bit really works, especially with young reporters.

      It distresses me to see the bumbling neocon idiots who built their entire careers on the Big Lie, disregarding their own CIA intel and deceiving the public about threat level (Documentary: The Power of Nightmares) are now being 'tapped' for Middle East analyst sound bites. Every time Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Chaney or Pearl are quoted the bile rises in my throat. Likewise do old Democrats like Woolsey whose attempted Orwellian schemes I, for one, will never forget.

      --
      <blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
    6. Re: Sounds like a psycopath. by rmdingler · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ack...he's ex-cia director. Too late to fire him.

      Exactly; he's an ex-director of the CIA. What would you expect him to say?

      "This whole nightmarish terrorist situation is all our fault, and it turns out we were asleep at the wheel."

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    7. Re:Sounds like a psycopath. by nctritech · · Score: 3, Insightful

      See, herein lies the problem with the surveillance society. Once the watchers demonize encrypted communications as a tool only the Bad People(TM) would use, unencrypted, innocent-seeming messages become the communication tool of choice. This is "being hidden in plain sight." If you want to hide in a sea of automated data analysis, you simply duck your head below the noise threshold.

    8. Re: Sounds like a psycopath. by TWX · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The news has reported that many of the attackers, prior to recent radicalization were shiftless layabouts with no particular interest in their religion and violated most of the popular tenets of it. They drank. They had sex. They did drugs. They obviously weren't praying on a schedule.

      This changed within the last few weeks to transform them from this into people willing to kill themselves. Find that catalyst and you not only find the people that masterminded the attacks but you also find the particular weaknesses that allowed these people that seemed to have nothing to do with their religion to be transformed into willing pawns for sacrifice. Maybe knowing what these weaknesses are can help societies identify hotbeds where this radicalization occurs and put a stop to it before the pattern repeats.

      I'll give you one hint, when people feel like they belong they're a lot harder to exploit. When they feel connections with their neighbors, with the government officials they elect, even to an extent with the police, they are much less likely to try to tear-down the system in which they live. That neighborhood in Brussels that's described as a major source of terrorist development clearly has something unhealthy going on if the residents do not have this connection. Figure out why they feel isolated. Is it jobs? Is it racism? Is it religious bigotry even if they aren't particularly subscribing to "their" religion? Is it feeling bad about themselves because they're unemployed while the non-Muslims are employed? Figure it out and address it and perhaps this problem will actually go away.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    9. Re: Sounds like a psycopath. by arth1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not understanding statistics is part of this, I believe.

      If a data mining program claims to identify 99% of all border-crossing e-mails between terrorists, with only a 1% false positive rate, the unthinking suit wearing managers and politicians will wet themselves with excitement.

      Now consider that there may be 1000 terrorists in the US that use e-mail.
      And an average e-mail users sends or receives a total of 10 e-mails across the border per day.
      And a (conservative) estimate of half a billion e-mails crossing the US borders every day.
      That means they'll "catch" more than five million suspicious e-mails every day, and less than 0.5% of those will be to or from a terrorist. Anyone "caught" in that drag will have a 99.5% chance of being innocent.
      Do they have the resources to investigate millions of people every day, and correctly identify the overwhelming number of false positives through other means?

      In reality, I expect the numbers are much much worse. Especially in the aftermath of attacks, where people are far more likely to mention key words like Syria, Kalashnikov, explosive, alluha akbar or Paris.

      Collecting more hay is not a good way to find more needles in haystacks.

  2. What a f@cking tool by mveloso · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hey DCI Woolsey, maybe we can blame your ass for spending too much time on sigint instead of humint. Then you can go to the gallows first.

    1. Re:What a f@cking tool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Being the ex CIA director, he needs a diversion, because if that blood is on anyone's hand it's the CIA's. ISIS is financed and supported by Saudi Arabia, which is America's lapdog in the middle east. It's also the direct result of the war in Iraq. Who delivered the casus belli for that? Weapons of mass destruction? The CIA had proof, right? Every bit of "geo politics" that the CIA has "supported" with their covert operations and propagandist lies has turned into a clusterfuck of epic proportions. So obviously he uses each and every opportunity to divert blame away from the CIA and consequently himself. These people don't believe in truth, only in manipulation.

  3. How? by mi · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "I think the blood of a lot of these French young people is on his hands"

    I may be the sole /.-tter, who is not an admirer of Snowden, but even I do not see, how he can be blamed (however partially) for this particular attack... What could he have told Putin which, when relayed to ISIS, helped them organize the massacre?

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    1. Re:How? by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's typical law enforcement mentality that makes him think anything goes as long as it can catch a bad guy. The idea that the ends justify the means. What Snowden did was reveal government misconduct, and judges are not a lot more strict and are pulling back on the anything-goes style. In other words, he feels they could have caught the terrorists if only they had been allowed to snoop on everyone. And by everyone this means everyone.

  4. Only one responsible party by Rumagent · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And that is the murdering bunch of facist, misogynist, islamic assholes, that uses bronze age stories to justify the slaughter of innocents.

    Fuck him for suggesting otherwise!

    1. Re:Only one responsible party by quenda · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And that is the murdering bunch of facist, misogynist, islamic assholes

      Oh I think we can add a few names for contributing - starting with the CIA for fabricating evidence of WMDs that lead to the invasion of Iraq, and a slaughter of civilians on a scale that makes ISIS look like a bunch of schoolboy puppy-stranglers.

      The CIA may well be nice guys compared to ISIS, but they have done far more damage.

    2. Re:Only one responsible party by Rumagent · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Contributing. Sure. To that list I would add just about every civilized country (including my own) for not recognizing and acting on the threat of radical islamic terrorism. It is a disgrace. We should have stomped out these rats long ago - it would have helped if the reasonable muslim countries and communities had been a bit less accomodating of their own religious nutcases.

    3. Re:Only one responsible party by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's nice. Maybe France should get rid of its current Muslims and replace them with Indonesians then.

      A huge fact like this - the worlds largest Muslim population has a secular government with freedom of religion -- is dismissed as "that's nice". Not very open to see in anything other than black and white here? The answer to your question is that France should get rid of its extremist Muslims the same way US should get rid of KKK and Christians bombing abortion clinics.

  5. Re:Facepalm is hard in this one... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Not as big a moron (or "f@cking tool") as the idiots who will actually believe what he says. Fear them more.

  6. In other news... by timrod · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ex-CIA director attempts to prove relevance by making outrageous statements on current events, fails.

  7. Bodes Really Well for a Fair Trial by Kunedog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If anyone had any lingering hope left that Snowden could get a fair trial for the probable charges that aren't simply fabricated out of nowhere, surely this clears it up.

    1. Re:Bodes Really Well for a Fair Trial by amiga3D · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What difference would a fair trial make? He's guilty. Whether you think it was right or not it was certainly illegal.

    2. Re:Bodes Really Well for a Fair Trial by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      You must read the Daily Mail or watch Fox News. Whistleblower is the key word here. Perhaps you need to learn about them and the laws that were supposed to protect them? I bet you're too dumb or lazy to bother educating yourself, though. You'll hide away, reinforcing your warped reality with the same ol' echo chambers to justify your ignorance.

    3. Re: Bodes Really Well for a Fair Trial by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Afghanistan is considered part of the Middle East by many, and has strong language and cultural ties with the rest of the Muslim cultures of the Middle East. It's a key land route between the Middle East and Asia, which is one reason it's been so valuable and so often invaded by other nations.

      And yes, Russia's invasion was marked by disaster, as was the more recent US invasion, and the previous British invasion.

  8. Snowden or someone else? by Hairy1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The suggestion that Snowden, in revealing the illegal practises of the US Government is somehow responsible for ISIS carrying out the Paris attack is patently ludicrous.

    But perhaps those making the accusations are trying to deflect their own responsibility? ISIS were established, at least originally, by Sunni Muslims from Iraq who had been alienated and excluded from the political process in Iraq. Without the Iraqi invasion ISIS would not exist. Didn't stop there either. In the attempt to supply the Syrian Free Army, which was in fact a number of groups including those who would become ISIS, with weapons and aid the Americans had not only given them fertile ground to harvest, but given them the tractors and machines to till the soil.

    And now the Americans complain that Putin is fighting the enemy of Assad; which is ISIS. ISIS for their part took the opportunity to take poorly defended US military equipment in Northern Iraq. Those fighting ISIS in Northern Iraq, the Kurds, have been given little support, and continue to be attacked by US ally Turkey. So how, given the facts on the ground, can the US in all seriousness try to condemn others for assisting ISIS, when without the US they would not exist?

    I am not saying the US has made ISIS do what they have. The reprehensible attacks across the world are the behaviours of morally vapid thugs who are totally responsible for their actions. Make no mistake that I have no sympathy for them. But the US cannot wash its hands of the part it has played, once again, in enabling this kind of tyrannical villainy.

  9. Misplaced blame? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Wasn't it CIA meddling that instigated the various messes around the planet, including Afghanistan and Iran in the first place? Ultimately, it seems the CIA has the more blood on its hands than Snowden ever could - presuming Woolsey had a valid point and wasn't, apparently, a bat-shit crazy socio/psycho-path with a really short and/or selective memory.

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  10. Who cares? by aralin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why are we discussing the accusations thrown about by war criminals? Every director of CIA since at least Nixon's presidency has been responsible for war crimes. So why are we still listening to them? After all it is the CIA who is directly arming and training people who then immediately deflect to ISIS. That sounds like much more direct responsibility than anything Snowden might have done.

    --
    If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
  11. Is this a joke? by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I quote from the video "...they knew how to use encrypted communications because of the E. Snowden revelations..."!!

    It is not about defending/attacking Snowden or what he did. It is not even about a person working for a governmental agency publically and arbitrarily blaming someone for the Paris attacks by using a so strong language.

    For me, the main problem here is that extremely important actions, like properly understanding/analysing/making decisions, are performed by clueless individuals. A person delivering the aforementioned nonsense should be immediately fired. People coming to so nonsensical conclusions are certainly responsible for lots of bad things.

    --
    Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
  12. So, is lying to congress also treason? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If Snowden is to be punished so brutally for revealing crimes then what is in store for Woolsey for committing them?

  13. not like the CIA will accept that it's their fault by dltaylor · · Score: 4, Insightful

    70 years of incredibly stupid foreign blunders have left a large part of the world with utterly justifiable anger at the United States, and any and all allies. It's the CIA who should be hanged as traitors, if anyone.

  14. Re:Plenty people in power should be hanged.. by jcr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    islam as the root of all evil,

    So, that's why evil was completely unknown in the world before 570 AD, right?

    Get back on your meds, you tragic little troll.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  15. What US is focusing on by Parker+Lewis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What we know about Paris terrorists:
    - Not Syrian
    - Not refugees
    - No encryption

    What the US is focusing on:
    - Syrians
    - Refugees
    - Encryption

  16. Priceless. by Kevin+by+the+Beach · · Score: 4, Insightful

    1. Allied foreign intelligence provides name of terrorist year in advance.
    2. Ignore hard intelligence, because Skynet knows all
    3. SMS clear text and Facebook used to plan horrific crime

    Blame: Edward Snowden -- Priceless

  17. Re:Plenty people in power should be hanged.. by james_gnz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Islam is a mono-cultural ideology that by definition tolerates no other cultures on basis of equality.

    Christianity is hardly a beacon of equality either. According to Christianity, Christians will be rewarded with everlasting paradise, and everyone else will be punished with everlasting torture, and this is right and just, because they are evil and deserve it, and it is the will of an all-loving god. By no means does this view espouse equality. Granted, Jesus tells his followers not to be violent, while he'll bring an army of angels to cast the unbelievers into the pit of fire that they deserve. (Do as I say, not as I do.) That said, if a Christian should kill an unbeliever, they will be forgiven, and still go to heaven, while the unbeliever will still burn in hell.

    Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. (Matthew 10:34)

    Christianity inspired the crusades, inquisitions, and witch hunts. (Seriously, if you think you've got the seed of Satan spreading evil among you, and they deserve to be killed, and you'll be forgiven for killing them, would you not?) The practice of religious tolerance in the West began begrudgingly in response to wariness from over a hundred years of Christian infighting in the European wars of religion. Modern liberal Christianity (the "don't be such a literalist, when Jesus said non-believers deserve to be burned, it was a metaphor for something nice" variety) draws its morals from the Enlightenment (atheist thought), not Christianity, although it steadfastly refuses to acknowledge it. Modern liberal Islam is relatively benign mental masturbation in the same vein.

  18. Re:Plenty people in power should be hanged.. by Stephan+Schulz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Neither are "the Muslims" killing anyone, just a few fanatics are. "The Americans" are commencing drone warfare with >90% "collateral damage" (that's a euphemism for "innocent civilians killed or maimed") - does that make it ok to attack all Americans and their values?

    --

    Stephan

  19. Re:Plenty people in power should be hanged.. by careysub · · Score: 1, Insightful

    People in power should stop forcing islam down our throat and force it out of civilized countries. Islam is a mono-cultural ideology that by definition tolerates no other cultures on basis of equality. People in power should recognize this and act accordingly. Stop allowing mosques, islamic preachers and islamic education in the Western world. This who are still determined to believe in islam should move out. If that means dividing the world in two, so be it.

    The irony here is amazing.

    First: Christianity itself is a mono-cultural ideology that by definition tolerates no other cultures on basis of equality. Consider how the ancient religions of Europe were entirely wiped out by the Christians, a policy of cultural dominance that continued with similar efforts in the New World, Australian and Oceania, and then (with less overall success) Africa. Although governments have recently backed off from this sort of official cultural subjugation, at the NGO level the effort is still in full swing.

    Second: the utter blindness of someone advocating ethnic cleansing on a world-wide basis, imposing stringent discrimination and stripping away civil liberties, on Muslims because they are intolerant is just astounding. Wow. Just, wow!

    --
    Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj