ACLU Is Launching A Campaign To Convince President Obama To Pardon Edward Snowden (fusion.net)

Coinciding with the launch of Oliver Stone's movie Snowden in select theaters this week, a coalition of civil rights groups are launching a campaign to convince President Obama to pardon NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Fusion reports: The effort, which is organized by the ACLU, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, will gather signatures from regular people and endorsements from celebrities. Snowden will speak by video link from Moscow at a press conference on Wednesday morning in New York, and an initial list of "prominent legal scholars, policy experts, human rights leaders, technologists and former government officials" in support of the cause will be released, according to a statement from the campaign. A presidential pardon would mean that Snowden could come home from Moscow, where he's lived for the past three years, without the fear of being prosecuted. He currently faces federal charges of violating the Espionage Act and stealing government property, even though his disclosures led to reform of the wiretapping program by Congress. Many Snowden supporters are hoping the movie Snowden, which opens in U.S. theaters on Friday, will spur support for a pardon. "I think the value of the movie is that it's lsikely to reach millions of people who have not been paying close attention to Snowden or to the debate about surveillance and privacy," Snowden's layer at the ACLU, Ben Wizner, told Fusion. "Those people will emerge from the movie more educated about surveillance and with more positive attitudes toward Snowden."

Comments

Re:It's just another fundraiser.

[pushing-robot]

Now? The right wing have always accused the ACLU of having a liberal bias.

Then again, I'm not sure there is anything they haven't accused of having a liberal bias.

Re:slope

[PvtVoid]

There is no need to pardon anyone that has not been charged with anything.

Somebody should have told that to Gerald Ford.

Re:The man is a traitor and should be shot

[fnj]

Whatever China and Russia are, neither is a dictatorship. That is an ignorant characterization.

The President of China (head of state; mostly a figurehead) is elected by the National People's Congress, which in turn is elected by an interesting hierarchical election system, ultimately by the people. The Premier (leader of the State Council; head of government) is nominated by the President and approved by the Congress.

Russia is a multi-party state; more so than the US. The President is elected by the people. He appoints the Prime Minister. The Federal Assembly (Parliament) has two houses: the Duma, elected by proportional representation, and the Federation Council, whose members are separately selected by 85 "federal subjects" (very loosely analogous to "states" in the US) - similar to the original method of selection to the US Senate.

Sure, China has a shadow government in the form of the Communist Party, which controls the selection of those who stand for election Congress. Big deal. The USA has a shadow government in the form of the Demopublican establishment, with a death grip on the selection of those who stand for election to Congress and for President.

Re:It's just another fundraiser.

[rtb61]

Would Edward Snowden ever accept a carefully worded pardon, seriously he would have to be nuts. You can guarantee the US would treat that pardon exactly like they treated treaties with the citizens of the original American nations, and just like the treat citizens of the current nation. Those agreements worth less than toilet paper (the paper they use simply to hard and shiny to be used effectively). When being investigated those government organisations lied under oath, and that was corruptly protected by the current government administration, who broke their constitutional oaths to do so.

Edward Snowden is hero for freedom, democracy, justice and the truth. The secrets they corruptly kept and the lies they told, all funded by tax payers funds broke all the core required elements of democracy and it is only mass corruption that is keeping them all from being properly prosecuted and serving extended custodial sentences.

Forget about pardoning Snowden, let's focus of prosecuting the real criminals Edwards Snowden's courage exposed. I am sure he will find that of far, far more value that a vapour ware peace treaty between himself and a corrupt government.

Re:The man is a traitor and should be shot

[silentcoder]

Check the Fox News site. Didn't you know the government is taken everybody's guns ? No really. Bunch of jackbooted government thugs showed up at my cousin's place in Shitville Idaho and took her guns. No really. It happened. Told her the 2nd ammendment doesn't apply to an S-300 Surface to Air Missile launcher. She said she uses it to go duck hunting but would they listen ?

By this time next week you won't be able to carry an AK-47 gun into Arby's and scare the kids without some government thug showing up cause the 'owner called the police because he thought he was being robbed' and shooting you ... I mean, seriously, that's only supposed to happen to black people ! And on Friday, they'll come collect them from your house. Honest! My niecedaughter told me !

Okay. Getting serious. Just a couple of months ago a man, guilty of no crime, was pulled over in a 'routine traffic stop'. He happened to be black. He had a gun, which he legally owned. He informed the cop that he had a, legal, gun and did absolutely nothing violent - obeying the officer completely. When the officer asked for 'license and registration' he reached for it... and was promptly shot dead. All this was captured on video - we have undeniable proof of what happened. Now you would THINK that the NRA would be up in arms about this. For once there we have an example of an ACTUAL assault on gun rights - when cops shoot you for having a gun you legally own and informed them you had with you. A gun you did not threaten them with, or commit any crime with. This actually WAS an assault on gun rights (that it was yet another black man killed by a cop is another matter).
And what ... crickets. Not a single response from the NRA. No press release. No protest. No rally. No mention on their website. Not so much as a fucking tweet.

The NRA may have gotten a tiny glimmer of sympathy from me - if they were acting against genuine oppression of legitimate gun owners - all of them, that includes black people in traffic stops.
If they wouldn't stand up for him - then nothing they DO stand up for is worth protecting.