Push to pardon Edward Snowden
Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 09/15/2016 - 1:14pm
The ACLU and Amnesty International have begun a "Pardon Snowden" campaign.
Two of the most prominent human rights organisations in the United States are about to launch a campaign for the presidential pardon of Edward Snowden.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International are ready to launch the "Pardon Snowden" campaign.
They are urging President Barack Obama to act before he leaves office in January 2017.
The launch this week coincides with the release of an Oliver Stone biopic about the former NSA contractor.
Just today the NY Times published an Op-Ed supporting Snowden's pardon.
Mr. Snowden’s whistle-blowing prompted reactions across the government. Courts found the government wrong to use Section 215 of the Patriot Act to justify mass phone data collection. Congress replaced that law with the USA Freedom Act, improving transparency about government surveillance and limiting government power to collect certain records. The president appointed an independent review board, which produced important reform recommendations.
That’s just in the American government. Newspapers that published Mr. Snowden’s revelations won the Pulitzer Prize. The United Nations issued resolutions on protecting digital privacy and created a mandate to promote the right to privacy. Many technology companies, facing outrage at their apparent complicity in mass surveillance, began providing end-to-end encryption by default. Three years on, the news media still refer to Mr. Snowden and his revelations every day. His actions have brought about a dramatic increase in our awareness of the risks to our privacy in the digital age — and to the many rights that depend on privacy.
Despite all that evidence, the White House is still unmoved.
“Edward Snowden is not a whistleblower. There actually is a specific process that is well-established and well-protected that allows whistleblowers to raise concerns that they have, particularly when it relates to confidential or classified information, to do so in a way that protects the national security secrets of the US,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Wednesday.
“That is not what Mr Snowden did.”
Which means the term "whistleblower" is defined by arbitrary procedure rather than deed.
Comments
The WH reaction is a double lie and people know it.
In saying that Snowden could have gone through whistleblower 'channels' is a double lie:
Lie 1. Whistleblower channels for government employees exist on paper, but anyone who tries this route gets severely punished -- see Thomas Drake, Bill Binney, et al.
Lie 2. Those hollow 'whistleblower protection' laws apply only to government employees, not contractors like Snowden.
And Snowden took some preliminary steps to take this 'through channels' by bringing his concerns to appropriate superiors, but their responses made it clear that he would be treated like Drake et al if he pursued that path. (In the same way that two Dep of State staffers took their concerns about HRC's wildcat unsecured server to the appropriate superior, who told them never to speak of that subject again.)
Everything I've written here about Snowden and the illusory 'whistleblower protections' was reported in 2013, hashed and re-hashed at that time.
according to the White House, a whistleblower must ...
voluntarily walk to his/her own execution first, and then, after dying, would be allowed to contact outside sources. Unfortunately, being dead, the actual whistleblowing becomes difficult.
Anyway, from what Earnest said, it's clear he doesn't understand what whistleblowing is. Or he's trying to redefine it.
I want him to stay far, far, away from here.
Even with a pardon, I don't think he'd be safe.
Maybe that's needlessly negative.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Not negative, realistic!
He would be another unfortunate soul to have a tragic accident, be in the wrong place at the right time or right place at the wrong time, anyway that's my opinion.
"Edward Snowden is not a whistleblower."...
and the president should be facing a war crimes tribunal....
I joined the service on my 18th birthday. Before my 19th birthday I was being court marshaled for blowing the whistle on a drug ring spanning from Germany to Lawton Ok., and beyond. Enlisted, NCO's and officers, all involved.
I followed their "specific process that is well-established " and still got court marshaled. The other people involved, nothing....swept under the rug. My only saving grace so to speak, is I got an General Discharge, under honorable conditions...fuckers, the president can kiss my ass...!
He, Snowden, deserves a pardon, hell he should have to have one, because exposing "crimes" should be a good thing, right????
(shite, edited for NCO's, not NOS...ugh)
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
Drug smuggling and the military have been a thing since NAM
They send the military into Afghanistan then wonder why the next Heroin epidemic starts up!
Obama has seemed irrationally,
almost fanatically dedicated to sealing off USG secrets from the public. His prosecutions of whistle blowers have been so overy-zealous, they've led me to wonder why an otherwise fairly moderate President would be so extremely defensive about this particular issue.
native
Obama has created secrets out of things that should not be
secrets; has ignored law protecting whistle blowers; and allowed illegal activity to be standard procedure.
I would disagree to this extent: I think Carter ran a moderate Republican administration; I think Obama is running a conservative Republican administration.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Who, what is Obama afraid of? eom
Yes, that's the question
I've been asking myself.
native
Or whose bidding is he doing.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Whose bidding?
I think we knew within a month of his taking office exactly who he was working for.
My guess
would be TPTB will never pardon Snowden because if they do wouldn't this open the door for all the other persecuted/prosecuted whistleblowers to receive the same? Release Manning and others and expunge the records of others like Drake. But no, the chicken shits will always hide behind the "national security" skirt. But now, with what we know about clinton, there is no excuse for this 2 sided justice anymore...
He seems fine with Hillary's negligent treatment of classified
info, though. He even wants her to be the next CIC.
HA! Good Luck!
"Law and Order " "Conservatives" will allow the parole of surviving Manson Family members long before they would agree to give whistleblowers like Assange, Snowden and Manning amnesty.
Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.
I doubt that either Obama
or the boys at NSA will pay any attention to the ACLU and Amnesty International's plea. The spymasters are not just miffed, they are furious, and the Prez seems to fully share in their outrage. I think Snowden will probably have to remain persona non grata for the foreseeable future. But it is a promising development that he is now being publicly and eloquently defended by both of these well-respected organizations.
native
In fact he is fortunate
to be still alive and (relatively) free. At least, he's better off than poor Julian Assange.
native
Good Luck With That
During his time in office, Obama has been reminding me more and more of the scorpion in Aesop's classic fable about the scorpion and the frog. The scorpion knows he should do the right thing, even knows that it's in his own self-interest to do the right thing, but does the heartless, evil and destructive thing just the same. Because, after all, that's who he is. That's what he does.
inactive account
Jill Stein: Pardon Snowden, now
link
Snowden movie last night & ED & Oliver Stone talked
Great event
Really capturesd the human side
A love story along with everything else
Thomas Drake was in the audience - and without him, no Snowden because showed that going up the chain does not work'\
Drake lost his house, wife, pension, huge medical bills, etc
Drake tweeted that the movie captured the relationship issue in the midst of this kind of stand
Didn't realize how outstanding Snowden was right from the start. He was in and out and around and about. His final work was offensive cyber warfare which gave him further access to documents
Today was a link to toy manufacturers using NSA tactics to spy on kids to better market them stuff
Where would we be on cyber knowledge without Ed?
Article today in Germany that they spy agency been violating the law to spy on own citizens. They have real memories of spying
Back to Thomas Drake. One of his many roles was a forensic linguist and he flew around intercepting communication from Eastern Germany
No Progressive Goals Driving Obama's Pardons
It is unfortunate, but not surprising, that Obama is so invested in pardoning drug dealers and felons, but refuses to act not only on Snowden, but also on Leonard Peltier. Hundreds of thousands have signed petitions to the White House demanding that Leonard Peltier be pardoned, but the WH won't acknowledged this international movement. Peltier, a freedom fighter who was unjustly accused of murdering FBI agents during the Wounded Knee Occupation at Pine Ridge has been the subject of many well-written studies proving the absolute injustice of his conviction. He is likely to die in prison due to untreated serious health conditions unless he is released. Obama is not concerned.
I agree that Snowden would likely meet an "untimely" death if released to the U.S., but a pardon would allow him to take up residence in some civilized country where such bravery and civic concern are valued.
New Edward Snowden Film
I'm interested in seeing the new Snowden film (just came out)
Anyone see it yet?