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Edward Snowden Makes 'Moral' Case For Presidential Pardon (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Edward Snowden has set out the case for Barack Obama granting him a pardon before the U.S. president leaves office in January, arguing that the disclosure of the scale of surveillance by U.S. and British intelligence agencies was not only morally right but had left citizens better off. Speaking on Monday via a video link from Moscow, where he is in exile, Snowden said any evaluation of the consequences of his leak of tens of thousands of National Security Agency and GCHQ documents in 2013 would show clearly that people had benefited. "Yes, there are laws on the books that say one thing, but that is perhaps why the pardon power exists -- for the exceptions, for the things that may seem unlawful in letters on a page but when we look at them morally, when we look at them ethically, when we look at the results, it seems these were necessary things, these were vital things," he said. "I think when people look at the calculations of benefit, it is clear that in the wake of 2013 the laws of our nation changed. The [U.S.] Congress, the courts and the president all changed their policies as a result of these disclosures. At the same time there has never been any public evidence that any individual came to harm as a result." In his wide-ranging interview, Snowden insisted the net public benefit of the NSA leak was clear. "If not for these disclosures, if not for these revelations, we would be worse off," he said. But Snowden still wants to return to the U.S. and seems confident, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, that it will happen. "In the fullness of time, I think I will end up back home," he said.
Snowden is assuming that a bureaucracy is a thinking, human beast. They don't care. Period. Not their problem. He's been labeled as a "bad guy", and absolutely no one has any incentive or compulsion to change that. Someone else's department. No one cares. US government suffers not one bit. Snowden's life is screwed forever. That's how it works. If you mess with government, they are going to mess with you right back. Problem is they have infinite resources, and that includes time. Your life is finite.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
He is a hero. Like Elon Musk he continues to shape society both today and for the future.
The American government has ceased to be moral. Therefore his argument is misplaced.
Slashdot is dead.
it seems these were necessary things, these were vital things
quod est necessarium est licitum - What is necessary is lawful
There might be a non zero chance for a pardon after the elections are over and Obama has little to lose. I tend to doubt it though. Obama has prosecuted more people for leaking classified info than I think any other. There is no doubt that he did the crime, and there is no doubt that he did it willfully and that the information leaked has seriously damaged our interests. Can the case be made that the benefits outweighed the costs? I don't know. Personally I'd guess he would have to do at least some significant jail time.
Would receiving a pardon not mean accepting that a crime was committed?
The fact that he makes a case for a pardon shows that he still believes in government. Isn't that contrary to everything he's tried to teach us so far?
There was a We The People (Whitehouse.gov) petition back in 2013 to pardon Snowden.
It took the Whitehouse two years to respond; they said no. It seems really unlikely – to me – that Obama will change his mind at this point.
Snowden is lucky that Putin was around and so "accommodating."
The Whitehouse site won't show the petition for some reason, for me anyway; there are several summaries around, e.g. http://time.com/3974713/white-...
Shouldn't he get convicted first before asking for a pardon?
Or is this his way of admitting guilt?
Don't you have to be convicted before you can be pardoned? It seems he is trying to be granted immunity, not a pardon.
And if Trump wins, Putin won't even need Snowden around b/c he'll control the POTUS and US foreign policy.
And what do you think will happen then, eh, Snowden?
No wonder he's getting desperate.
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
Bet Snowden didn't consider what would happen if the POTUS were a Putin afficionado and an authoritarian Republican. Bet he is considering it now.
Snowden doesn't have a snowflakes chance in hell.
If the US information network were collectively moral, then yes, Snowden would be pardoned and he would end up home and happy. But its like the Great Train Robbery writ large. If you honestly believe that will happen, look at Bradley (Chelsea) Manning and the rat Adrian Lamo. Lamo ratted Manning out to be a hero. Lamo instead showed himself to be a rat (and is rightfully disparaged and has to live in hiding, where rats live). But Manning got 35 years. Now look at people who *didn't* whistleblow, but expressed concern *within the system*. I'm talking about Thomas Drake. He created ThinThread(tm) which lets analysts at the NSA go through massive volumes of data and pinpoint users extremely quickly. Its incredibly accurate, and much more powerful than what the NSA was using: Trailblazer. Drake created Thinthread with built in safeguards to respect the US constitution. Initially the NSA didn't want it, but when Trailblazer performance was horrid, they switched to Thinthread(tm) but without the safeguards. Drake raised his concerns. He was reprimanded by his superiors at the NSA. When he went to a politician (and attorney with security clearance) about the issue (his superiors were playing fast and loose with citizens constitutional rights), he was followed by agents, placed under house arrest and threatened by a district attorney with 30 years in prison. They also threatened his wife and children. This guy is on the inside and trying to do the right thing. Snowden saw what happened to Drake, and went to Russia. The people who threatened Drake are legion. They don't care about "moral thing". They don't even care about "constitutional rights". They are concerned with greed, power, getting ahead, and what Snowden and Drake are advocating --oversight-- is a direct challenge to that. Snowden might be pardoned, but only in history books.
Snowden's not going to get a pardon because bravery is infectious and they want to send a clear message to everyone else who has access to classified information: "We don't care how right you are, we'll hound you to your grave if you embarrass us."
Speaking out about the ILLEGAL to quasi-illegal actions of NSA spying on Citizens was good
BUT, he and so many of his followers, seem to ignore the fact that he told other nations and the terrorists exactly HOW we spy on them. Yet, that is why NSA is SUPPOSED TO DO, and SNowden took an oath to protect.
Hell, Brazil was all upset, until it came out that they were doing the same thing.
Regardless, That is treason in ANY nation.
Give him a medal and then put 2 between his eyes.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Sometimes, it seems https://twitter.com/Snowden/st...
Long gone are the days when politicians did anything because it was morally right. I doubt such days ever really existed.
He worked for an agency that was corrupt and breaking the law. An oath doesn't prevent someone from speaking out about illegal activities. If the NSA was in fact honoring the law and not spying on all citizens, then I could agree.
What Snowden did was good for the USA and her citizens.
If the NSA followed the law and didn't violate the Constitution that THEY took an oath to uphold, then none of this would happen. Snowden would have kept his mouth shut.
The fact that Snowden broke some law to in order to show how our government was in fact violating the Constitution is just a technicality.
He is a patriot in the truest sense.
The migration of liberty activists to New Hampshire will welcome him should we ever win independence. The movement is strong gaining new movers every week and unlike other movements has only grown larger over the years. There is no place in New Hampshire that you won't find a growing, active, no thriving community of activists who are fighting government and we're going to win because we have time. We have patience. The people want liberty will and are moving for it. And unlike setting up a new country or trying to take over one there are no restrictions within the boarders of the United States to hamper the movement. If you believe that the state should not utilize violence to achieve political goals (like educating our children, feeding our hungry, or locking up people who've committed no violence against another) then you should move to New Hampshire. We want to get rid of drivers licenses, license plates, and having to ask the government permission to earn a a living. Keene, the town where I live, of less than 30,000 people is already the # one place in the world for BitCoins. We can build other non-governmental systems that don't utilize force to ensure the safety of our restaurants. We accept that life has some risk and that it's not worth punishing everybody for the actions of a few (just because there are a few drunks on the roads does not mean the state should have a right to utilise violence blatantly in disregard for all other driver's rights on the road). We don't need government feeding out hungry or stealing money from the people whom thus become dependant on government hands out to feed and brainwash (ie educate) their children.
www.freekeene.com www.freestateproject.org www.freetalklive.com
Do you honestly think the executive branch had no knowledge of the NSA's domestic spying activities? I'm willing to be ALL branches of government not only knew of these activities, but actively used them for their benefit.
There is no way anyone in government is going to pardon individuals that engage in actions that restrict government authority and power.
Snowden doesn't (shouldn't) need a pardon, General Alexander the architect of illegal mass domestic surveillance is the person who *needs* one. It's a mark of how far away from a democracy we are in that the military is above the law and the people who reveal their misdeeds have to run.
Pardon grants YOU!
This was particularly telling for Brits.
MPs understood they'd killed "Snoopers Charter", yet when they got into power as Home Secretaries (like Theresa May), they learned that GCHQ had done it anyway under the old 1984 Telecoms act, vague clause "can give directions to telecoms companies".
And she said nothing, none of them ever do, they all just shut up and let it continue.
Only when she tried to push "Snoopers Charter" through again, did she explain that they were already doing it, so it wouldn't increase surveillance. (i.e. we have your internet records MPs, all those porn sites you visited, we know your secrets, so don't stop this bill).
Executive branch is FULLY aware of these crimes, they are too scared to rock the boat and challenge the spooks. You can think its to obtain power, but its as much fear as anything.
So we are in the situation now, where GCHQ spies on Brits, hands that data to the NSA, Snowden revealed they use it regardless of any "no spy" agreement, and this continues to this day. We'll never have a free choice of leadership, never have a Home Secretary who'll tackle GCHQ, and Snowden revealed how bad it had gotten, to his own detriment.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/20/us-uk-secret-deal-surveillance-personal-data
Thanks Snowden, I know it was a sacrifice, but it was appreciated.
He preemptively said NO just earlier.
No hope in hell for an Obama pardon with Clinton running less than 10 full points ahead in the polls, and even then Obama would worry about sacrificing the windfall down-ticket trickle-down to the senate and the house.
Considering that it would take a sex tape involving Donald and something (or someone) unthinkable to reduce his polling numbers below his hardcore 30%, I wish Edward all the best.
Crucial point that he neglects to mention is that he also disclosed a large amount of classified material NOT associated with US citizens being spied on. He jeopardizes multiple intelligence gathering capabilities that we use to spy on foreign states. There would be a very good chance that he would eventually be let back into the US if he had limited his disclosures to what the NSA was doing to US citizens.
Snowden made no effort to redact information that put lives in danger. He made his bed, let him die in it.
The President of the United States, the Commander and Chief of her armed forces, does not pardon treason, the proffering of her most valuable intelligence secrets to the rest of the world, including her bitter enemies during what may well be considered a time of war.
And Snowden may well have done a good thing, but it is a complex judgement call and it isn't the role of the Executive authority of the United States of America to answer that question. Obama the person may be sympathetic, but to parley into a Presidential pardon is the act of a philosopher king, and and arrogant betrayal of duty and pubic trust.
He did what he did out of conviction. He needs to suffer the consequences.
The issue is for history to decide.
... comes with the willingness to pay the penalty.
If he is pardoned, his voice will carry less weight.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
The Constitution is the most supreme legal document in all the land. It overrides all laws. Snowden showed the Constitution was being knowingly and repeatedly violated. Laws which punish people for revealing systemic violations of the constitution are themselves an affront to that supreme document.
The bureaucrats know this. Obama knows this. The governments lawyers know this. The reason they don't care is because the purpose of the Constitution is to protect the people from the government and they are the government.
Obama has been a major disappointment as President. He promised change but was a continuation of the George Bush presidency. Obamacare and the money corporations throw at retired presidents will be his only accomplishment. He can make some amends by pardoning Snowden. If there was ever a time to do that then this is it. If he doesn't he's showing the Constitution is a weak document which tyrants can ignore whenever it suits them.
Why does he want to go back that much? I've been to the USA, its not that great. Russia is no picnic either but I think he could try for a more sympathetic country than america.
There is the possibility that he has been turned by the russians. Why else would he want to go back so badly? it makes no sense. I suppose he thinks hes the most american of any of any american, but its far too soon for history to have been the judge. Maybe he just loves america so much? Plenty of people leave shit countries for a better life, doesn't mean they still don't love where they grew up. But times change and you don't always end up where you thought you would be. Ask any refugee. I have some that live in my building now. They spent 20 years of savings just to escape syria and now have nothing and have to start all over again. In their mid 40s, with 3 kids.
He is a true patriot for the USA (and there aren't many), but he shouldn't expect to go back ever. Hes lucky hes not dead and should embrace that while its still true. There are worse things than not going home again. Blend into the background for 20 years. Become a cook, and marry a nice russian girl. That's my advice if you troll slasldot mr snowden.
Thank you for your service to the world. Even if obama pardons you, trump will execute you the day you set foot back, so I would just forget about it.
-
In summary, Nixon employed as an arm of his re-election campaign in 1972 a group of operatives including several former government officials, a serving member of the CIA and a private detective. This group liked to call itself the "Plumbers" - they stopped leaks, get it? This group was involved more or less in the response to the release of the Pentagon Papers the previous year, breaking into Daniel Ellsberg's shrink's office and rifling his files. One of them was used to investigate Chappaquiddick (Teddy Kennedy's swimming incident where Mary Jo Kopechne was killed). Their activities were liased through the White House Counsel's office - John Dean.
The Plumbers got the idea somehow that the Democratic National Committee headquarters had 'secrets' for them to get. Probably oppo research on Nixon. So, they hired a group of expatriate Cubans who had fled Castro to break into the DNC offices at the Watergate complex. They did a very poor job of it and were caught and arrested. For a while, campaign funds were used to pay hush money to the people involved to keep things quiet. The election passes - a landslide for Nixon vs McGovern. Then the hush money stops. Then they start talking slowly. Then a House committee gets involved and an independent prosecutor is appointed. The independent prosecutor follows the case until he reaches a point where John Dean realizes he's going to be the scapegoat for this.
Dean starts testifying to the grand jury and to Congress. He identifies Alexander Butterfield, a White House official who knew about the taping system Nixon had. Then, Cox, the independent prosecutor, tried to subpoena the tapes. Nixon orders his AG to fire Cox. AG resigns, his deputy resigns also. Robert Bork, the solicitor general, agrees to fire Cox. It was called the "Saturday Night Massacre". The upshot was that Nixon's popularity goes underwater, articles of impeachment are introduced in Congress, and he is pressured into appointing another special prosecutor. Then Nixon tries to fight the tape release on the basis of "Executive Privilege". His court fight fails. The tapes start coming, slowly. They find an 18 minute gap. Nixon's secretary says she deleted the tape inadvertently, but the belief is that it was purposeful. Evidence that he knew about the burglary after the fact and ordered it covered up is on the tapes, nevertheless. Facing impeachment, he resigns in August 1974.
During the whole time, an FBI official named Mark Felt is leaking data about the investigation to two Washington Post reporters - Woodward and Bernstein. Felt is identified as "Deep Throat". This makes for a titillating story that drives up circulation. People seemingly can't talk about anything else. Walter Cronkite was on this, every night.
President Ford, his former VP, pardons him a month later. Most of the Plumbers do jail sentences, none longer than 10 years, that I remember. Robert Bork lost his chance at the Supreme Court mostly over his part in this - the firing of Cox.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
He's not charged with treason and his oath is an employment contract.
What is the NSA supposed to do? It's supposed to spy on American enemies. What is NSA *not* supposed to do? Spy on its government, people and allies. Undermine and backdoor US tech. Weaken US encryption. Run bulk data analysis on Americans. Fake evidence trails in conspiracy with the DEA, so the courts are fooled by lies. Deceive Congress and Senate. Rig polls, rig elections, astroturf online forums. Create fake rape charges, pretend to be fake victims on fake victim blogs.
i.e. all the stuff Snowden revealed.
"he told other nations and the terrorists exactly HOW we spy on them."
Did he reveal *any* ISIS stuff at all?? Do these terrorists even use Facebook and Gmail and Dropbox? Do they use Juniper routers? Are they based in Brussels? Or are you just trying to do the "its all because terrorists... be afraid" claim, because that's what it seems like.
Guy was following his moral obligation to the people of the US and the government wants to crucify him for it like we're back in Roman times. Sometimes the government forgets they are supposed to protect the people. It's guys like him that stand up, put their life on the line, and do the right thing. USA could look like the good guy again if they pardon him. How fucked up is it that a Communist regime gets to play the part of the good guy by ensuring his safety? Goes to show how bad this country has gotten, how authoritarian we've become in the past 40 years. We need to do a 180 on this 180. When your life is on the line the enemy of my enemy is my friend, where else was he supposed to go? Give the patriot a pardon and let him come home, let him live, let him pursue happiness.
That word "unreasonable" makes all the difference. If the government thinks it is reasonable to gobble up everything while investigating possibile terrorists, they will do so. Whether it is truly unreasonable won't need to be determined until the evidence is brought into a court of law.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
Rod Blagojevich is the real one that needs to get out trump may his own hope.
The contractors and brands that give to state and federal politicians? That ensure top paying local security, think tank, educational, mil and gov jobs stay in fly over states.
Or the whistleblowing that exposed torture, collect it all domestic spying or rubber stamp foreign collection thats really a cover for funding total domestic collection for decades.
https://cryptome.org/2013-info...
Freedom of the press or party political donations? Think of the local contractor jobs, all the new 2 person teams now in work to support domestic collection.
A statement to the world about this generations privacy or contractors giving more donations?
Donations vs privacy and working encryption for the first time ever.
Donations.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
As much as I think you did this country (well the citizens at least, fuck the government), you have almost no chance of "The Great Unifier Obamachrist" pardoning you.
He's too deeply in bed with intelligence agencies and benefits from keeping the people ignorant and divided.
Anything that shakes that status quo will be conveniently ignored.
Sorry man.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
It's ironic that the government has no problem using an "ends justifies the means" argument when claiming the moral high ground for intrusive technology, such as stinger cell phone trackers, but choke when citizens like Snowden use precisely the same argument to claim the moral high ground for disclosure of government malfeasance.
Per TFA: "... arguing that the disclosure of the scale of surveillance by US and British intelligence agencies was not only morally right but had left citizens better off.
Based on what Ed has released thus far, the onus is on him to show that he didn't scoop up everything his could lay his file system on, and intends to make all of it public. On the face of it, he was no more focused on domestic intel gathering than Chelsea Manning, and not much more emotionally mature. What is his rationale for highlighting foreign intelligence gathering?
It doesn't matter, because there is no rationale that keeps him out of pound-me-in-the-arse prison. He needs to remain an example of how emotional immaturity and naivete is rewarded in his line of work.
Luke, help me take this mask off
Don't mob bosses in old movies *ALSO* forgive the guy who betrayed'em to the law?
You know... right before they sink him with concrete in the bay?
Snowden WAS in the civilian world working for an expensive external contractor to the NSA. That outsourcing is part of the entire problem (apart from the NSA toy soldiers who are most definitely civilian themselves in what should be a military job with rules of engagement etc) and if Snowden wasn't paid incredibly well we can at least be sure that his boss was.
> Think of all the people he droned the fuck out of and increasing survaliance powers.
Too right! Who saw that coming?
I know nothing about it, get in there and dig.
Where ever TREASON is.
lock up these fuckin shitstains and restore the rule of law.
Our country is going off the cliff.
link to that 678.4 MB DNC archive: http://mega.nz/#!uwBGyCoQ Decryption key: !ZSPbUeUjmeSt0GEovBrEYV9V_3CX09hROm3JQJmr0HU
give some +INSIGHTFUL stars for your country you fuckin commie!
Any president would have tried to catch Snowden at that point in the game. If you don't know what someone has, what they intend, and the eventual consequences of their making off with sensitive information, you keep your options open and try to stop them. Obama probably privately approves of what Snowden did at this point in time (he doesn't seem to be a conservative authoritarian type), but politically he isn't going to get involved because it gets him nothing but flack before he leaves office. He may very well sign a pardon as he walks out the door on the last day, because it will make him look good to historians in the long run, and it cost him nothing politically at that point in time.
Here is the fun and dirty fact about pardons: You could blow up a bus full of nus and orphans on National TV, and if enough people wrote their leaders demanding that you were pardoned, you would get a pardon. They have NOTHING to do with justice or fairness for better or worse. Who knows how Obama really feels about the whole incident? Who knows what public opinion will be after the film comes out. I will wager that if the film gets an Oscar or two, (and the added media attention that comes with that), that Snowden gets pardoned because grandma suddenly learns about the whole story and starts writing her representatives in Washington. If public opinion turns, senators will start falling over each other to get in line and demand he be pardoned. The pardon could very well depend on how much money a Hollywood studio decides to spread around to buy a few awards.
Snowden won't get pardoned because he did something that was morally right, but legally wrong. He will get pardoned (if he gets pardoned) because it makes someone in power look good, or it pisses of the opposition somehow. His pardon won't be about justice, but straight up political gamesmanship.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
I have yet to see any meaningful policy changes as a result of his publications. If anything, the spying on innocent people seems to have only increased.
After Hilary's 9/11 embarassment, Snowden knows fully well that she has no chance of becoming president, and that he not only has no chance of getting a Trump pardon, but that Trump may well get cooperation from Russia in extraditing him. Appealing to Obama right now is a panic move.
let him hang on the end of his rope.
In a free society, the people need access to all government activities. If our military status can be threatened by an enemy learning secrets then our military is inferior. Hand the enemy our blueprints and procedures and find out how many years it would take them to actually be able to produce a military product. By the time they can actually do it we should already have a new, superior technology in place. High technology weapons and modes of combat are beyond the ability of other nations to afford or to manufacture.
Did his oath include breaking other laws of the land? He's a whisleblower and should be granted a great deal of protection.
Too bad he wasn't convicted of a "non-violent" drug crime. Obama has set up a whole machine for granting those pardons.
I'm all for what Snowden did.
But Snowden hasn't been tried and convicted of anything yet. He did not put himself at the mercy of the justice system, That's where he lost the moral highground. If he were convicted and had served a few years, he could make a case for being pardoned. As it is, it's an ex-pat and has little claim to mercy.
Warning: Teh poster of this messaeg is lysdexic
Left wing agent provocateur is trolling.
Yet he actually gets it where even conservative judges don't.
He could have really hurt this country if he wanted to but didn't.
Just wants others to obey their oaths.
A true patriot.
Got integrity?
Edward should be pardoned and return home. He will never be fully accepted in Russia, as we had been a CIA agent. It will never be easy for him to live in Russia. Besides, I guess he lives somewhere behind a Polar Circle there due to fear of reprisal.
If he spoke fluent Russian at the time of the disclosure, for example, learned it at an university as a foreign language, the whole this disclosure would be attributed to Russian Hackers conveniently as it usually tend to happen. But it became evident to anyone the he is an American, that he did it not for money, and consequently he should be allowed return home.
Snowden for President!
Snowden's a coward. He broke the law to reveal information about US and British spying, then fled to Moscow to become a tool of an authoritarian regime.
If he stayed and faced the music and the consequences of his actions, I'd be down with that. But he destroyed his credibility when he fled to Russia. Let him rot in some Soviet era cement apartment.
That's quite a cuntish thing to say.
He can wait. If Clinton is elected, on her last day in office she'll probably do like her husband and sell pardons (Clinton pardoned more people on his last day than all other presidents combined). Not only would she be the first female president, she could also try to beat him at the corruption game. Now THAT would be a big win for gender equality.
lucm, indeed.
I disagree quite a bit with most of the people here on whether what he did was a good thing or not. But we can have different viewpoints on that here. However, the reason he won't get a pardon is that doing so would set a bad precedent that some other person in the future will disclose something maybe a lot more harmful to the US government and citizenry and then expect a pardon for that. The government is simply not going to pardon him because it would give the illusion that individuals can make the kind of decisions he made with no punishment.
Despite the scare mongering that his stay in Russia expires next year, Putin will simply extend it for a few more years. What Snowden doesn't get is that eventually Putin will be out of power, perhaps through death. For all we know his replacement will send Snowden back to the US to stand trial, even if that's 20 years from now. I think sometimes the US is OK with people being permanently in exile as their punishment and they can't admit it but I think that in Snowden's case that's what's going on.
Yes, this is his home and all, but wouldn't he be afraid of the gov still trying to stick him with other crime and label him with terrorist label anyway? Well, I suppose the movie may paint a better picture of him and most people would be aware instead of the gov painting the picture to the citizens the other way.
A traitor can never be pardoned. What happened, the russians aren't treating him well lately. Hero my ass.
Obama is a wimp. He is 100% pussy-whipped by the military and intelligence services. Why? Because he came into office totally naive and scared to piss everyone off by doing something stupid in the national security space. That's why he's the biggest prosecutor of journalists and whistle-blowers in US history. That's why he refused to prosecute Bush torturers and illegal wiretappers. He will never do anything that goes against the wishes of the intelligence establishment.
Russia can keep him.
Snowden hasn't been convicted.
To be pardoned you have to first be convicted of a crime.
Snowden left the US before any trials.
But, I say you stick it to him.
Snowden signed his life away before he received his clearance.
Snowden know what he was doing.
So the US should nail him against the wall if he comes back.
Even if he got pardoned for tell us what we already knew, telling us what W already told us, and what a lot of civil liberties shouted at us in case we didn't know how to listen to W, there is all the state secrets he shared with foreign governments.
Every government could become our enemy at a moments notice. Spying on present allies is something everyone does.
He has seriously jeopardized this nations security. He did more than just embarrass us.
Yes, but it's quite typical of the quality of Slashdot postings these days.
You should all thank snowden for this sacrifice he did for you the sheep on the USA now. Knowing you all do not know what that means lol . stupid a$$ people like you all.
Pardon General Michael Hayden. Pardon James Clapper. Pardon Vladimir Putin! Well, maybe not the latter...
Snowden shouldn't be pardoned, he should get the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Seems to me that most other alleged criminals get judged by a jury of 'peers'.
Shouldn't Snowden be entitled to a similar judgement?
And if a national referendum votes to pardon Snowden, could We the People then proceed to indict officials allegedly guilty of the infractions against society.
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.