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Snowden has done a service- Former Bush official applauds the whistleblower
- benevol 11y ago“I credit Snowden for having a great deal of courage, because he’s ruined himself forever,” he told Salon. “I don’t think he has a future,” the former Bush administration official added. I'd say it depends on the American citizen/voter. What future do we want? Not pressuring the government to bring him back means giving the government a clear thumbs-up for ever-increasing mass surveillance. And it sends any potential whistleblower a clear signal to turn a blind eye to corruption and out-of-control government activity. Is that really what we want?
- hartator 11y agoIn the meantime, no current presidential candidate is willing to pardon Snowden.
- benevol 11y agoWhich, I guess, says everything about the level of systemic corruption that we as a society have reached.
- virtuabhi 11y agoActually, Sanders is pro-Snowden. Sanders has said that he will bring back Snowden and will make sure that a reasonable settlement is reached wrt. copying data and public benefit. Edit: "In my view," Sanders continued, "the interests of justice would be best served if our government granted him some form of clemency or a plea agreement that would spare him a long prison sentence or permanent exile from the country whose freedoms he cared enough about to risk his own freedom." (added the actual comment)
- hartator 11y agoI don't think this position qualify as pro-Snowden. The trial facing by Snowden is for "treason", which is by definition false because no third party government was involved. I think it's pretty binary debate. It's not 5 years jail time vs. life sentence like Sanders seems to imply.
- elevenfist 11y agoThe US will not seek the death penalty for Snowden. [1] So functionally what Sanders is describing is the same. [1] http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:LzcZPxvq_X8J:www.cnn.com/2013/07/26/us/nsa-snowden/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:LzcZPxv...
- bertjk 11y agoAny presidential candidate interested in doing so knows that the first step to pardoning Snowden is to get elected. Pledging to do so now is a pretty sure way to fail at that.
- doe88 11y agoI'm pessimistic, half of america is already fine with opening their iPhone to the Gov. So a traitor who has done something so altruistic that it's impossible for the majority to accept it for what it really is and above all who lives in Russia with their historical nemesys, there is no way there is a chance one day for him to be understood by the masses, I'm afraid.
- Avner7 11y agoThings change. No one expected Mandela to become President when he got arrested. Let's just wait for the next major data breach or data leak. Just look at whats going on with Bangladesh's central bank. If they can't protect their data, hard to imagine the rest of the developing world being in a better of position. Accumulators of data in the west, sitting in ivory towers, disconnected from ground realities, are setting all kinds of precedents just waiting to breakdown elsewhere.
- solipsism 11y agoSo, we might have President Snowden to look forward to? Has a decent ring to it.
- jessaustin 11y agoHe's got my vote. I ignore the texts from Bernie, but I'd walk door-to-door through a snowstorm canvassing for that guy.
- jessaustin 11y agoI suspect I agree with this guy on most things, but it is a bit tone-deaf to suggest McCain should be in prison. Most people would say he has done his time. That kind of statement calls to mind McCain's famous mic-drop: "I wish I could have had the luxury, like you, of growing up and living and spending my entire life in a nice place like the First District of Arizona, but I was doing other things. As a matter of fact, when I think about it now, the place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi."
- homero 11y agoSnowden as a service, saas
- binarnosp 11y agoObama OS changelog: -- Obama 2.0 "President Barack Obama has harshly cracked down on whistle-blowers, using the World War I-era Espionage Act to punish whistle-blowers who leaked to journalists more than all previous U.S. presidential administrations combined." -- Obama 1.0 RC1 "Protect Whistleblowers: Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out" from http://change.gov/agenda/ethics_agenda/ http://change.gov/agenda/ethics_agenda/
- massemphasis 11y agoObama 1.0 is the sucker spin... Obama 2.0 is the squeeze. First they pretend to be on your side, then they pretend to help, then they extinguish.
- colejohnson66 11y agoKeep in mind Obama voted to renew the PATRIOT Act as Senator. The writing was on the wall; everyone just ignored it
- percept 11y ago"The whistle-blower himself says he has always been incredibly careful about what exactly he discloses, and to whom. “I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest,” Snowden told the Guardian. “There are all sorts of documents that would have made a big impact that I didn’t turn over.”"
- madengr 11y agoWhile whistle blowing unconstitutional surveillance on American citizens may be a service, mass dumping of info on classied programs to China and Russia is almost treason (we are not at war).
- lolidaisuki 11y agoThose programs concern all citizens of the world. Not china or russia. This was all info that should have been public anyways.
- ck2 11y agoReally hope Snowden is never foolish enough to give himself up for trial thinking he is going to get a fair hearing someday. They will make him rot like Manning until everyone forgets about them and they die in prison. Pretty sure Snowden will be snatched under Clinton, she seems to have peeve about him.
- Laaw 11y agoWhen are we bringing this guy home? I'm so sad we haven't righted this.
- criddell 11y agoUnless you are talking about bringing him home in handcuffs, I don't think anytime soon. In fact, it seems less likely today than it did a year ago.
- Laaw 11y agoPlead no contest to charges, no jail time, life on parole. He could do the talk circuit, give graduation speeches, participate in panel discussions, it'd be great.
- sfoblows 11y agoSnowden is an attention whore. I hope the Russians feed him some hot, fresh Po.