9 ms·

While we are at it, is Biden going to pardon Snowden?

phpnode 5y ago
What possible advantage would there be in doing so? Biden would gain nothing but criticism, be accused of supporting a traitor and so on. Doing the right thing is rarely politically sensible.
- ipaddr 5y ago
  Biden seems to be clearing up older issues. Reminds me of someone closing out bugs in jira without looking to see if the work has been done. I could see him closing another chapter of history.
- willcipriano 5y ago
  Honorable people do the right thing even when they personally do not benefit.
  - christophilus 5y ago
    Then the answer is no. It’s almost a tautology that career politicians are not honorable.
    - okamiueru 5y ago
      I know of a couple of very good examples in us politics.
  - beebeepka 5y ago
    Honourable? This guy sent helicopters full of swat teams to arrest a single guy - Kim Dotcom. The whole thing was super illegal and almost hilariously over the top. "Almost" because there was nothing amusing about the whole thing. It was ugly
    - busterarm 5y ago
      Honorable, no. Funny, yes. Deserved, certainly. Let's not forget that Kim Dotcom is a miserable piece of shit who rats on his friends and used his position of trust to snoop through people's data and then snitch to governments and criminals for profit. Not enough people know his real history but the guy is a pure scumbag, credit card fraud criminal and con artist masquerading as freedom-loving CEO. He's exactly the kind of person that should be thrown in a hole somewhere and not heard from again and if you knew anything about him you would do it if you could.
      - yawaworht1978 5y ago
        I knew some dodgy things about that guy, but you seem to have more information, care to share? I would be most interested to read it.
        busterarm 5y ago
        Ask his former business partners that he burned and other hackers. This isn't hidden knowledge, you just have to have been around the scene long enough. Part of why he ended up in NZ is because he literally burned everyone he could in Europe. He used to run shell boxes and brag about snooping on his customers and ratting them out to government agencies and shutting down carder rivals. He even used to boast "why would anyone trust me with their data?". This is long before Megaupload. Kim funded Megaupload largely off of his fraudulent gains on carder forums and a legitimate business that he scammed money off of.
        beebeepka 5y ago
        Well, guy is no saint but the way the whole thing was handled speaks volumes. He pissed off powerful people and illegal actions were taken getting him. Apparently that's ok
        busterarm 5y ago
        I didn't say it was okay. I just said that it was funny and that he deserved it. Kim is the kind of person that deserves to have his asshole tickled with glowing hot metal rods...but that isn't an endorsement if somebody goes and does it. It's fine to be outraged at the US & NZ governments, but it's not fine to spare the man a shred of sympathy.
  - badinker 5y ago
    Honorable people are not attracted to politics
    - pydry 5y ago
      They sometimes are but they tend to get filtered out at the lowest levels.
- account-5 5y ago
  Traitor? Was he ever a US citizen?
  - atmosx 5y ago
    Snowden yes. Are you confusing Assange with Snowden?
    - account-5 5y ago
      Yes, misread the OP and thought we were talking about wikileaks and assange as that was the article too.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
thepasswordis 5y ago
Joe Biden had an innocent father and his 7 children killed as a way of distracting from his horrible, disinterested withdrawal from Afghanistan. He has yet to acknowledge this in any way other than calling it an “mistake” via his press bureau. He has spent his life lying about his credentials, and then selling the influence he gains in the us government to foreign countries. No, I don’t think Biden will be pardoning Edward Snowden. Drone strike: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/us/politics/pentagon-drone-strike-afghanistan.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/us/politics/pentagon-dron... Disinterested: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/08/25/fact-check-biden-vacation-cut-short-talibans-afghanistan-takeover/8230461002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/08/25/fac... Joes plagiarism: https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/18/us/biden-admits-plagiarism-in-school-but-says-it-was-not-malevolent.html https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/18/us/biden-admits-plagiaris... More lying about law school credentials: https://apnews.com/article/cd977f7ff301993f7976974ba07c5495 https://apnews.com/article/cd977f7ff301993f7976974ba07c5495 Selling influence: https://news.yahoo.com/independent-source-confirms-authenticity-damning-124601909.html https://news.yahoo.com/independent-source-confirms-authentic...
- ch4s3 5y ago
  Don't forget that he wrote the bill that became the Patriot Act.
  - gbdata123 5y ago
    And the Clipper Chip: https://reason.com/2015/04/09/the-feds-want-a-back-door-into/ https://reason.com/2015/04/09/the-feds-want-a-back-door-into... "One fine day in 1991, an ambitious senator named Joe Biden introduced legislation declaring that telecommunications companies "shall ensure" that their hardware includes backdoors for government eavesdropping. Biden's proposal was followed by the introduction of the Clipper Chip by the National Security Agency (NSA) and a remarkable bill, approved by a House of Representatives committee in 1997, that would have outlawed encryption without back doors for the feds." The man is an authoritarian, him playing an absent minded nice man of advanced age and his empty SJW phrases don't change that. You can get real glimpses of the personality like him "losing patience with the unvaccinated" lately. Firmly embedded in the swamp.
jeroenhd 5y ago
As an outsider, I don't expect the American government to ever pardon people like him. Presidents come and go but they all play nicely with the military powers that remain after their terms. When presidents promise to do things the rest it the government doesn't like, those promises only get broken. Trump didn't complete his wall, Obama didn't close Guantanamo Bay, and so on. Presidents aren't kings, their actions will follow them and have consequences even after leaving office. Biden might pardon Snowden at the end of his term, but don't count on it. I haven't seen a single sign that Biden (or any American presidential candidate for that matter) would side with anyone for leaking government secrets. The government is sitting on many more juicy details that'd upset the global political balance and transparency is not in the USA's interests.
- PartiallyTyped 5y ago
  I wouldn't count on Biden administration to do anything remotely close. The whistleblower of the drone strike that killed 7 kids and 3 adults, all innocent, was convicted [1]. [1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/leaker-of-drone-secrets-gets-45-months-in-prison/ar-AAMCJ5o https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/leaker-of-drone-secrets-ge...
- appleflaxen 5y ago
  Didn't deep throat get a pardon?
  - comrh 5y ago
    Reagan did in 1981
- seaourfreed 5y ago
  Establishment Democrats hate Assange. Assange published things that hurt the Hillary / 2016 Democrat elections.
  - setpatchaddress 5y ago
    It’s not just “Establishment Democrats”. He literally acted as a stooge for the Russian government in publishing DNC emails but suppressing damaging information on Republicans.
2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago
I hope not. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/15/494157921/house-intel-panel-edward-snowden-was-no-whistleblower https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/15/494157921... > The committee unanimously voted to endorse the report, and all members signed a letter to President Obama urging him not to pardon Snowden.

What possible advantage would there be in doing so? Biden would gain nothing but criticism, be accused of supporting a traitor and so on. Doing the right thing is rarely politically sensible.

ipaddr 5y ago
Biden seems to be clearing up older issues. Reminds me of someone closing out bugs in jira without looking to see if the work has been done. I could see him closing another chapter of history.
willcipriano 5y ago
Honorable people do the right thing even when they personally do not benefit.
- christophilus 5y ago
  Then the answer is no. It’s almost a tautology that career politicians are not honorable.
  - okamiueru 5y ago
    I know of a couple of very good examples in us politics.
- beebeepka 5y ago
  Honourable? This guy sent helicopters full of swat teams to arrest a single guy - Kim Dotcom. The whole thing was super illegal and almost hilariously over the top. "Almost" because there was nothing amusing about the whole thing. It was ugly
  - busterarm 5y ago
    Honorable, no. Funny, yes. Deserved, certainly. Let's not forget that Kim Dotcom is a miserable piece of shit who rats on his friends and used his position of trust to snoop through people's data and then snitch to governments and criminals for profit. Not enough people know his real history but the guy is a pure scumbag, credit card fraud criminal and con artist masquerading as freedom-loving CEO. He's exactly the kind of person that should be thrown in a hole somewhere and not heard from again and if you knew anything about him you would do it if you could.
    - yawaworht1978 5y ago
      I knew some dodgy things about that guy, but you seem to have more information, care to share? I would be most interested to read it.
      - busterarm 5y ago
        Ask his former business partners that he burned and other hackers. This isn't hidden knowledge, you just have to have been around the scene long enough. Part of why he ended up in NZ is because he literally burned everyone he could in Europe. He used to run shell boxes and brag about snooping on his customers and ratting them out to government agencies and shutting down carder rivals. He even used to boast "why would anyone trust me with their data?". This is long before Megaupload. Kim funded Megaupload largely off of his fraudulent gains on carder forums and a legitimate business that he scammed money off of.
        beebeepka 5y ago
        Well, guy is no saint but the way the whole thing was handled speaks volumes. He pissed off powerful people and illegal actions were taken getting him. Apparently that's ok
        busterarm 5y ago
        I didn't say it was okay. I just said that it was funny and that he deserved it. Kim is the kind of person that deserves to have his asshole tickled with glowing hot metal rods...but that isn't an endorsement if somebody goes and does it. It's fine to be outraged at the US & NZ governments, but it's not fine to spare the man a shred of sympathy.
- badinker 5y ago
  Honorable people are not attracted to politics
  - pydry 5y ago
    They sometimes are but they tend to get filtered out at the lowest levels.
account-5 5y ago
Traitor? Was he ever a US citizen?
- atmosx 5y ago
  Snowden yes. Are you confusing Assange with Snowden?
  - account-5 5y ago
    Yes, misread the OP and thought we were talking about wikileaks and assange as that was the article too.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

thepasswordis 5y ago

Joe Biden had an innocent father and his 7 children killed as a way of distracting from his horrible, disinterested withdrawal from Afghanistan. He has yet to acknowledge this in any way other than calling it an “mistake” via his press bureau. He has spent his life lying about his credentials, and then selling the influence he gains in the us government to foreign countries. No, I don’t think Biden will be pardoning Edward Snowden. Drone strike: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/us/politics/pentagon-drone-strike-afghanistan.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/us/politics/pentagon-dron... Disinterested: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/08/25/fact-check-biden-vacation-cut-short-talibans-afghanistan-takeover/8230461002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/08/25/fac... Joes plagiarism: https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/18/us/biden-admits-plagiarism-in-school-but-says-it-was-not-malevolent.html https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/18/us/biden-admits-plagiaris... More lying about law school credentials: https://apnews.com/article/cd977f7ff301993f7976974ba07c5495 https://apnews.com/article/cd977f7ff301993f7976974ba07c5495 Selling influence: https://news.yahoo.com/independent-source-confirms-authenticity-damning-124601909.html https://news.yahoo.com/independent-source-confirms-authentic...

ch4s3 5y ago
Don't forget that he wrote the bill that became the Patriot Act.
- gbdata123 5y ago
  And the Clipper Chip: https://reason.com/2015/04/09/the-feds-want-a-back-door-into/ https://reason.com/2015/04/09/the-feds-want-a-back-door-into... "One fine day in 1991, an ambitious senator named Joe Biden introduced legislation declaring that telecommunications companies "shall ensure" that their hardware includes backdoors for government eavesdropping. Biden's proposal was followed by the introduction of the Clipper Chip by the National Security Agency (NSA) and a remarkable bill, approved by a House of Representatives committee in 1997, that would have outlawed encryption without back doors for the feds." The man is an authoritarian, him playing an absent minded nice man of advanced age and his empty SJW phrases don't change that. You can get real glimpses of the personality like him "losing patience with the unvaccinated" lately. Firmly embedded in the swamp.

jeroenhd 5y ago

As an outsider, I don't expect the American government to ever pardon people like him. Presidents come and go but they all play nicely with the military powers that remain after their terms. When presidents promise to do things the rest it the government doesn't like, those promises only get broken. Trump didn't complete his wall, Obama didn't close Guantanamo Bay, and so on. Presidents aren't kings, their actions will follow them and have consequences even after leaving office. Biden might pardon Snowden at the end of his term, but don't count on it. I haven't seen a single sign that Biden (or any American presidential candidate for that matter) would side with anyone for leaking government secrets. The government is sitting on many more juicy details that'd upset the global political balance and transparency is not in the USA's interests.

PartiallyTyped 5y ago
I wouldn't count on Biden administration to do anything remotely close. The whistleblower of the drone strike that killed 7 kids and 3 adults, all innocent, was convicted [1]. [1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/leaker-of-drone-secrets-gets-45-months-in-prison/ar-AAMCJ5o https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/leaker-of-drone-secrets-ge...
appleflaxen 5y ago
Didn't deep throat get a pardon?
- comrh 5y ago
  Reagan did in 1981
seaourfreed 5y ago
Establishment Democrats hate Assange. Assange published things that hurt the Hillary / 2016 Democrat elections.
- setpatchaddress 5y ago
  It’s not just “Establishment Democrats”. He literally acted as a stooge for the Russian government in publishing DNC emails but suppressing damaging information on Republicans.

2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago

I hope not. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/15/494157921/house-intel-panel-edward-snowden-was-no-whistleblower https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/15/494157921... > The committee unanimously voted to endorse the report, and all members signed a letter to President Obama urging him not to pardon Snowden.