Edward Snowden A Hero or a Traitor Who Deserves a Pardon?

[Burning Man]

The collection is somewhat problematic in a free state, no doubt. What is wrong is casting the people who were implementing the policy, openly explained and applauded, as evil felons. Snowden was a "whistleblower" who believed what he was seeing was illegal and it wasn't. Place the blame where it should be: With We The People, who demanded stricter subservience after 9/11. The way to fix it is to demand our representatives change the post 9/11 laws. 

DING!

 

[Mark K]

I agree wholeheartedly with your last sentence, but the question of legality regarding the Patriot Act is far from settled. One can point to arguments from the ACLU to ... (long exhale) ... Andrew Napolitano for dissenting opinions. It should also be pointed out, if people have forgotten, that the Snowden leaks lead to some Patriot Act reforms. Here are some Senators (with the usual face-saving qualifications) essentially admitting it:

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/snowden-nsa-patriot-act_n_7485702?ri18n=true

Read it again. Most the senators say Snowden create a perception, a myth about the collection. Should it be changed? Quite likely it should. IMO it's just a matter of time before that power is abused but there is no evidence it has been abused yet. 

To the original point, should he be pardoned, I say its' complicated. I'd like to know if someone helped guide his thinking and chose his path of flight. IMO Wikileaks was compromised by Russian intell services, and maybe right from the get-go. Snowden helps sniff out that BS a pardon should be considered, but I believe it would be best if he was still punished a bit. It bugs the shit out of me that anyone could do what he did and get off scot free. He wants to be a US citizen again? Man up and do some time. If he wants to become a Russian that's fine too, but I think he would be picking the worst of two evils if he did. He plays his cards right he could be out in just a year or two here, whereupon he gets a nice big fat book deal and earns his right to free speech again. That can't happen in Russia. 

 

[Mark K]

I didn't misinterpret what was said, I just interpreted it differently.  I wrote, "With the usual face-saving qualifications."

Not that it matters, but he's on record stating that he doesn't feel like he belongs there.

 He's right. His handlers routed his flight through Moscow for a reason. The boy got snookered.  

 What keeps him in Russia is his refusal to submit to US courts. He has, for the moment, abandoned his US citizenship.  

 

[Olsonist]

Tom’s boy Snowden swears allegiance to Russia.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/02/edward-snowden-russian-citizenship/

Tom will be by shortly to say something about guns.

 

[spankoka]

I hope he is as miserable as Guy Burgess was in Russia. He has to wish he was back in Honolulu now. If the guy didn't like the ethics of his job, he should have just quit and found another job.

 

[Mark_K]

To give him the benefit of every possible doubt, it may be he has been made to work closely with Russian intelligence, like the GRU, in order to maintain his protection against the US government and has acquired knowledge which makes it so they wouldn't let him out alive anyway.

Had he sacked-up and faced the music highly likely he'd be out by now and on his second book deal. Now his kids and grandkids will have to live under an authoritarian, total surveillance state, precisely what he imagined himself to be in and thought could not tolerated.

So it goes.

 

[hobie1616]

He has to wish he was back in Honolulu now.

He's probably hangin' on a beach in Crimea and hoping the bridge doesn't get blown up again. Long term, he's trying to earn enough money to buy a tramp steamer for a one way trip to Ecuador.