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Conservative Site Argues Profiting from Snowden 'Treason' May Violate Law (judicialwatch.org)
"A federal appellate court has ruled that government employees, such as Snowden, who signed privacy agreements can't profit from disclosing information without first obtaining agency approval," writes the conservative advocacy site Judicial Watch. Slashdot reader schwit1 quotes their article:
This would make it illegal to profit from his crimes and the Department of Justice should confiscate all money made by the violators. Snowden is no whistleblower. In fact he violated his secrecy agreement, which means he and his conspirators can't materially profit from his fugitive status, violation of law, aiding and abetting of a crime and providing material support to terrorism.
In addition, they argue that both an upcoming movie about Snowden by Oliver Stone and the 2014 documentary Citizenfour "may be in violation of the Anti-Terrorism Act, which forbids providing material support or resources for acts of international terrorism... It's bad enough that people are profiting from Snowden's treason, but adding salt to the wound, the Obama administration is doing nothing about it. "
In addition, they argue that both an upcoming movie about Snowden by Oliver Stone and the 2014 documentary Citizenfour "may be in violation of the Anti-Terrorism Act, which forbids providing material support or resources for acts of international terrorism... It's bad enough that people are profiting from Snowden's treason, but adding salt to the wound, the Obama administration is doing nothing about it. "
Y'know what else was treason?
Back in the late 1700s, there was this infamous gang of subversives calling themselves the Founding Fathers. Oh, the things they did. It ended with bloody revolution.
Anyone that profits from anything they did back then should have all their assets seized, it is only right. Let's start with all the politicians.
When you overthrow the government you too will be able to say what is and isn't treason.
OK, it's a 'conservative site' that presents this argument against Snowden. And here, for a mostly progressive audience, it is presented as a troll to bait the eager readers to reply with venom. It is a common tactic at slashdot to rile up the readers and it's commonly called clickbait.
It's an election season in the US and more than usual we see the polarity between left and right, progressive vs conservative. And here we may be encouraging the divide between Americans to assure there is no middle ground.
I have always thought of slashdot readers as more astute than most. I don't do Fecebook or others because they seem less astute, more strident. I hope to see some balance in this particular discussion. If some consider Snowden to be a criminal, let's examine their motivations and see if there isn't some compelling reason for that belief.
...omphaloskepsis often...
We owed them the money for over 30 years, after all. That's how far from "new" it was.
The thing is, Iran paid us the money for military equipment right before they experienced regime change, and then afterwards we weren't willing to give them the weapons. However much we hate their new government, we do have to give the money back. They paid us real cash money for products that we refused to deliver. They were owed a refund.
But relations were so bad, even though we knew we owed them the money we never got along with them well enough to even be able to hand it over to them. Eventually it happened, because of the nuclear deal.
There is real diplomatic value in paying it, because it has always been an important propaganda point for them. Now the story is, in the end the Americans paid the money they owed, with all the interest, in the amount that was determined by arbitration. Because the American government always pay its debts.
And we had to pay in euros, because Congress. wtf, why does Congress hate dollars?
That's because he's openly racist, misogynistic and authoritarian.
Article III, Section 3:
“Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court."
If Enemies is a subset of Everyone, then giving Aid and Comfort to Everyone is an act of Treason, at least until the US makes peace with Everyone. Specifically what Snowdon exposed was the difficulty the US Government has in distinguishing between Everyone and Enemy.
"Eddard Stark: What you suggest is treason.
Petyr 'Littlefinger' Baelish: Only if we lose."
The current US administration has been caught spying in violation of the constutition.
Because the Bush administration was never caught spying in violation of the Constitution. Forget the whole PATRIOT Act or the administration forcing phone companies to install digital taps so the government could listen in on everyone's phone calls?
As soon as Bush and Cheney are swinging from the end of a noose I'll be more than happy to agree with your demand.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Whistleblower trumps NDA / Top Secret.
The entire Executive Branch up to most recent PotUSes, Judicial Branch Judges on those FISA kangaroo Courts and every member of Congress that wrote, voted for and did nothing to stop unconstitutional laws like the Patriot Act are all guilty of Treason by way of extreme harm caused to the Constitution, bill of rights and the people that were supposed to be protected by these.
In other words, until such time as those I listed above are charged, arrested and judged guilty and had the applicable punishment meted out to them, the terrorists have Won the war on terror.
That's right, by doing everything in their power to strip us of our constitutional rights, they have done what the terrorists wanted all along. They have aided and abetted Osama Bin Laden and his successors in removing the freedoms that pissed them off so much.
I don't think the GP was arguing against Bush and Cheney being hanged for treason; he was only addressing the current administration.