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Edward Snowden On Trump Administration's Recent Arrest of an Alleged Journalistic Source (freedom.press)
Snowden writes: Winner is accused of serving as a journalistic source for a leading American news outlet about a matter of critical public importance. For this act, she has been charged with violating the Espionage Act -- a World War I era law meant for spies -- which explicitly forbids the jury from hearing why the defendant acted, and bars them from deciding whether the outcome was to the public's benefit. This often-condemned law provides no space to distinguish the extraordinary disclosure of inappropriately classified information in the public interest -- whistleblowing -- from the malicious disclosure of secrets to foreign governments by those motivated by a specific intent to harm to their countrymen. The prosecution of any journalistic source without due consideration by the jury as to the harm or benefit of the journalistic activity is a fundamental threat to the free press. As long as a law like this remains on the books in a country that values fair trials, it must be resisted. No matter one's opinions on the propriety of the charges against her, we should all agree Winner should be released on bail pending trial. Even if you take all the government allegations as true, it's clear she is neither a threat to public safety nor a flight risk. To hold a citizen incommunicado and indefinitely while awaiting trial for the alleged crime of serving as a journalistic source should outrage us all.
I think not.
She didn't expose governmental wrongdoing like Snowden did, and it's a stretch to argue that the information she released was in the public interest. Russian hacking attempts have been public knowledge for some time before she decided to provide The Intercept with the classified info in question - all her leak did was provide some details on said Russian hacking attempts.
I agree with Snowden that the restrictions the Espionage Act places on Ms. Winner's ability to get a fair trial are unjust, but let's be clear - she's no Eric Snowden.
I don't know about insane, but certainly not very bright.
If you look at her social media posts, it is clear that she was not emotionally stable and while her views were not particularly extreme, she was very passionate and riled up about even small issues. She should have had her security clearance revoked long ago.
Way too much crap is classified, and because of that, way too many people have clearances.
Disclaimer: I had a "secret" clearance for 15 years.
Way to go Snowden - hiding in a country that has little/no freedom of press and attacking a country prosecuting an individual for releasing state secrets/classified information.
Did he defend his host in any way? No? Then the implied hypocrisy is bullshit. And that's before we get to the fact that he's only in Russia because we canceled his passport before he could leave Russia.
State secrets and classified information is needed for a country to function - otherwise you might as well just tear it apart and offer it up to whoever has the most muscle.
In what way is the country functioning now? Republicans are only interested in helping their party and destroying anyone outside their tribe. We have a president elected despite losing by 3 million votes. We're unable to agree with everyone else and a majority of our citizens that yes, healthcare is something that is important and yes, dumping excess carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is a bad thing. We don't have a functioning state department and are actively turning on our allies. Did a foreign power decide our election? Dunno, the unelected party is preventing any serious investigation.
The country is being fucked up by powerful people, it has nothing to do Reality.