I don't think he is a traitor, he is a whistleblower. It just so happens he blew the whistle on the NSA.
So here's my take on that, Dick Cheney had people leak information that outed undercover operatives. He walks free. What Snowden did he did because he felt Americans had the right to know. I would have fled too because it's obvious whistleblowers aren't protected in this country. The NSA is spying on us with no probable cause. They are collecting metadata on us as well and creating profiles on us with no probable cause. That isn't right and had Snowden not leaked it we would never know.
I think you are 100% right on Cheney, he commited treason and should be in prison or in front of a firing squad. With Snowden I'd really like more information, but it does look like he should be considered a whistle blower and I think the Supreme Court agrees. I don't like the way he went about it, but he looks more and more like the good guy every day while the government looks more and more like the bad guy in this case. I'd like to see a few days of live testimony in front of Congress to hear what he has to say.
Scooter Libby fell on his sword to protect Cheney, nothing we could do about that. Then Dubya commuted Libby's sentence after he was properly convicted. That is just typical Republican shenanigans going back to Ford pardoning Nixon. Well, that's what he claims, but he may also be a megalomaniac with a thirst for fame from . . . well, people like you who make him out to be some sort of hero. He could have done this through proper channels. He knew full well that he was breaking the law which had serious consequences. The entire nation was endangered. One can't simply break the law because they feel self righteous about something. Other people know classified information that they might be temped to sell or leak. They are rightfully going to hammer Snowden so that everybody understands the consequences of breaking the law. Our security depends on it. I understand, but it is irrelevant to Snowden's guilt. We have the right complain to our representatives if we don't like the laws. Snowden has the same right. The NSA needs better oversight, most people agree. The Patriot Act needs revision, most people agree. Few people imagine that they have the right to break a serious law and get away with it. And really . . . he is not a whistleblower, he is guilty of espionage. There is no whistleblower exception in the Espionage Act. The Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, does provide government workers with options. Under that law, Snowden could have raised his concerns with the Inspector General’s Office at the NSA or spoken to congressional intelligence committees. A separate federal law protects whistleblowers more generally but that only applies to sharing unclassified information, not the secret materials that Snowden had in hand. Snowden could have gone through the documents, selected fewer than the tens of thousands he leaked in order to support his allegations, and made certain they would not cause harm to national security. A real whistleblower would have selected the documents to be published, made certain that they didn’t harm security and remained in the country to face the consequences of his actions. Instead of blowing a whistle to the proper authorities so that he could be protected by the law, he leaked classified information to numerous foreign governments, some of them allies, some of them outright enemies. This is matter of treason and espionage, pure and simple. It is punishable by death or imprisonment. He won't be executed even though his spying cost the lives of some people. But if he ever returns or get extradited, he will spend the rest of his days in a Supermax federal prison. And rightfully so.
As I recall he was only convicted of lying to the FBI not the more serious crimes that were certainly committed.
I wouldn't return then, if pragmatic people like yourself think he belongs in the pen, just imagine what the government thinks of him.
It sounds like he wants to return. If he does, I believe that it underlines the suspicion that this is all about his personal notoriety. He could go right back to the top of the news cycle. Get a lot of people upset with the NSA on one side and others upset at espionage on the other and make a grand spectacle.
You really think he did all of this for notoriety? That's pretty fucking brazen and stupid to take on the NSA for notoriety.
I don't know. But it's pretty fucking stupid to commit treason and espionage for any reason whatsoever. He knew that there would be consequences.
Oh but he does belong there. I don't know if you remember 20 plus years ago there was a Marine, Clayton something or another that was convicted of having dihrea of the mouth with a Russian hooker. That cat lost his career and did time. The silly part is, the information he divulged could have been gotten from the directory on the wall of the embassy lobby. Not sure if you realize it but they don't post battle plans there. So yes, if he got ruined for that, this Snowden clown deserves to be shot.
