Snowden’s Asylum Request: ‘Unlikely I Would Receive Fair Trial or Proper Treatment Prior to Trial’

[kpete]

Excerpts via FiredogLake.

I, Edward Snowden, citizen of the United States of America, am writing to request asylum in the Republic of Ecuador because of the risk of being persecuted by the government of the United States and its agents in relation to my decision to make public serious violations on the part of the government of the United States of its Constitution, specifically of its Fourth and Fifth Amendments, and of various treaties of the United Nations that are binding on my country.

As a result of my political opinions, and my desire to exercise my freedom of speech, through which I’ve shown that the government of the United States is intercepting the majority of communications in the world, the government of the United States has publicly announced a criminal investigation against me. Also, prominent members of Congress and others in the media have accused me of being a traitor and have called for me to be jailed or executed as a result of having communicated this information to the public.

Some of the charges that have been presented against me by the Justice Department of the United States are connected to the 1917 Espionage Act, one of which includes life in prison among the possible sentences.

...

Ecuador granted asylum to the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, in relation to this investigation. My case is also very similar to that of the American soldier Bradley Manning, who made public government information through Wikileaks revealing war crimes, was arrested by the United States government and has been treated inhumanely during his time in prison. He was put in solitary confinement before his trial and the U.N. anti-torture representative judged that Mr. Manning was submitted to cruel and inhumane acts by the United States government.

The trial against Bradley Manning is ongoing now, and secret documents have been presented to the court and secret witnesses have testified.

I believe that, given these circumstances, it is unlikely that I would receive a fair trial or proper treatment prior to that trial, and face the possibility of life in prison or even death.

the rest:
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/06/24/snowdens-asylum-request-unlikely-i-would-receive-fair-trial-or-proper-treatment-prior-to-trial/

[MannyGoldstein]

1. We are now a nation that tortures

Under one president it's a tragic election result.

Under two presidents, it's who we are.

[struggle4progress]

2. 18 USC § 641

Whoever embezzles, steals, purloins, or knowingly converts to his use or the use of another, or without authority, sells, conveys or disposes of any record, voucher, money, or thing of value of the United States or of any department or agency thereof, or any property made or being made under contract for the United States or any department or agency thereof; or

Whoever receives, conceals, or retains the same with intent to convert it to his use or gain, knowing it to have been embezzled, stolen, purloined or converted —

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; but if the value of such property in the aggregate, combining amounts from all the counts for which the defendant is convicted in a single case, does not exceed the sum of $1,000, he shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both ...

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/641

[Bolo Boffin]

6. No life sentence there. Weird. n/t

[The Straight Story]

16. Well that first section sounds like it applies to about every military contractor in Iraq

Not holding my breath though since prosecution is selective in the US.

[struggle4progress]

3. 18 USC § 793(d)

... Whoever, lawfully having possession of, access to, control over, or being entrusted with any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it on demand to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it ...

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both ...

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/793

[Bolo Boffin]

7. No life sentence here either. Hmmm... n/t

[markpkessinger]

43. Here it is . . .

[font size = 4]18 USC § 794 - Gathering or delivering defense information to aid foreign government[/font]

(a)Whoever, with intent or reason to believe that it is to be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation, communicates, delivers, or transmits, or attempts to communicate, deliver, or transmit, to any foreign government, or to any faction or party or military or naval force within a foreign country, whether recognized or unrecognized by the United States, or to any representative, officer, agent, employee, subject, or citizen thereof, either directly or indirectly, any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, note, instrument, appliance, or information relating to the national defense, shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for any term of years or for life, except that the sentence of death shall not be imposed unless the jury or, if there is no jury, the court, further finds that the offense resulted in the identification by a foreign power (as defined in section 101(a) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978) of an individual acting as an agent of the United States and consequently in the death of that individual, or directly concerned nuclear weaponry, military spacecraft or satellites, early warning systems, or other means of defense or retaliation against large-scale attack; war plans; communications intelligence or cryptographic information; or any other major weapons system or major element of defense strategy.

(b)Whoever, in time of war, with intent that the same shall be communicated to the enemy, collects, records, publishes, or communicates, or attempts to elicit any information with respect to the movement, numbers, description, condition, or disposition of any of the Armed Forces, ships, aircraft, or war materials of the United States, or with respect to the plans or conduct, or supposed plans or conduct of any naval or military operations, or with respect to any works or measures undertaken for or connected with, or intended for the fortification or defense of any place, or any other information relating to the public defense, which might be useful to the enemy, shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for any term of years or for life.

< . . . >

(Emphasis added).

[Bolo Boffin]

47. Ah, good! Snowden isn't charged with that.

You had me worried there for a second.

[struggle4progress]

4. 18 USC § 798(a)(3)

... Whoever knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States or for the benefit of any foreign government to the detriment of the United States any classified information —

... concerning the communication intelligence activities of the United States or any foreign government ...

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both ...

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/798

[Bolo Boffin]

8. And again no life sentence! How about that?

Seems like Mr. Snowden is not giving Ecuador the proper information in order to evaluate his application for asylum.

[mhatrw]

15. What about Barrett Brown?

http://www.thenation.com/article/174851/strange-case-barrett-brown#axzz2Wl9m4xUD

In early December AntiSec hacked the website of a private security company called Stratfor Global Intelligence. On Christmas Eve, it released a trove of some five million internal compnay emails. AntiSec member and Chicago activist Jeremy Hammond, has pled guilty to the attack and is currently facing ten years in prison for it.The contents of the Stratfor leak were even more outrageous than those of the HBGary hack. They included discussion of opportunities for renditions and assassinations. For example, in one video, Statfor’s Vice President of Intelligence, Fred Burton, suggested taking advantage of the chaos in Libya to render Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who had been released from prison on compassionate grounds due to his terminal illness. Burton said that the case “was personal.” When someone pointed out in an email that such a move would almost certainly be illegal—“This man has already been tried, found guilty, sentenced…and served time”—another Stratfor employee responded that this was just an argument for a more efficient solution: “One more reason to just bugzap him with a hellfire. ”

When the contents of the Stratfor leak became available, Brown decided to put ProjectPM on it. A link to the Stratfor dump appeared in an Anonymous chat channel; Brown copied it and pasted it into the private chat channel for ProjectPM, bringing the dump to the attention of the editors. Brown began looking into Endgame Systems, an information security firm that seemed particularly concerned about staying in the shadows. "Please let HBGary know we don't ever want to see our name in a press release," one leaked email read. One of its products, available for a $2.5 million annual subscription, gave customers access to “zero-day exploits”—security vulnerabilities unknown to software companies—for computer systems all over the world. Business Week published a story on Endgame in 2011, reporting that “Endgame executives will bring up maps of airports, parliament buildings, and corporate offices. The executives then create a list of the computers running inside the facilities, including what software the computers run, and a menu of attacks that could work against those particular systems.” For Brown, this raised the question of whether Endgame was selling these exploits to foreign actors and whether they would be used against computer systems in the United States. Shortly thereafter, the hammer came down. ...

The Stratfor data included a number of unencrypted credit card numbers and validation codes. On this basis, the DOJ accused Brown of credit card fraud for having shared that link with the editorial board of ProjectPM. Specifically, the FBI charged him with Traffic in Stolen Authentication Features, Access Device Fraud, Aggravated Identity Theft, as well as an Obstruction of Justice charge (for being at his mother’s when the initial warrant was served) and charges stemming from his threats against the FBI agent. All told, Brown is looking at century of jail time: 105 years in federal prison if served sequentially. He has been denied bail.

Considering that the person who carried out the actual Stratfor hack had several priors and is facing a maximum of ten years, the inescapable conclusion is that the problem is not with the hack itself, but with Brown’s journalism. As Glenn Greenwald remarked in the Guardian: “it is virtually impossible to conclude that the obscenely excessive prosecution he now faces is unrelated to that journalism and his related activism.”

[struggle4progress]

21. Mr Brown is further charged with threatening a federal agent. And as identity theft associated with

the Stratfor hack seems to have produced ~$700K in unauthorized credit card charges, the threatened prosecution of Mr Brown (for his potential role in that identity theft) may not be inappropriate: his history of heroin addiction, together his own unauthorized possession of some of that credit card information, suggest both motive and opportunity

So Greenwald, as usual, is full of shizz

[mhatrw]

36. LOL. Brown posted a fucking LINK to a trove of incriminating information.

Asking for other journalists to sift through it. He had no idea it contained unencrypted credit card information and he never profited or tried to profit from this information that he no idea was contained in the thousands of incriminating documents that were available at the link he posted.

And for that one "heinous act", he now faces over 100 years in jail.

So do you think they could find some way to put Snowden away for life?

[struggle4progress]

38. Posting the link is only one of the charges. Another charge is that he himself was

in possession of some of the pilfered credit card information. And, as I noted above, yet another charge concerns his threatening a Federal agent

I have no idea whether the case will be proven

But after viewing his video, I concluded he may indeed have threatened a Federal agent

I don't have much use for Stratfor, either. But somebody illegally hacked into their computers and obtained lots of material, including credit card information which resulted in large unauthorized credit card charges. There seems to be some cause to think Mr Brown not only helped distribute that credit card information but also collected some of it for his own use. I don't see a prima facie argument for his innocence here

[mhatrw]

39. He was in possession of the trove of incriminating information. He did not steal any identities

nor commit credit card fraud with the info that he almost assuredly did not even realize he had.

None of the other charges against him (including his threats against the FBI) merit even 10 years in jail.

So my point is that if federal prosecutors can find laws to threaten putting Brown away for 100+ years, what makes you think they cannot do far worse to Snowden?

[struggle4progress]

40. Barrett Brown is Anonymous

From a tiny Uptown apartment he's organizing a worldwide collective of hackers that brought down HBGary and helped overthrow the government of Tunisia
by Tim Rogers
Published 3.23.2011
From D Magazine APR 2011

... then he mentions that he went to Preston Hollow Elementary School with George W. Bush’s twin daughters ...

He grew up comfortably in Highland Park. His father, Robert Brown, hailed from East Texas and came from a family of means. “I made a lot of money when I originally came to Dallas,” Robert says. “I eventually had $50 million in real estate holdings all across the state ...

... he read voraciously on his own, diving into Ayn Rand .. while he was still in middle school ...

... there is a third drawback to Brown’s new, more visible role in Anonymous ... Brown .. has taken to calling enemies of Anonymous and certain federal authorities (sometimes one and the same) to tell them how cool he is. Of course, that’s not what he explicitly says. He says he’s calling to help. A few weeks ago, he talked to a woman in the NSA. He says he contacted her as a courtesy, to let them know that Anonymous had a copy of Stuxnet ...

http://www.dmagazine.com/Home/D_Magazine/2011/April/How_Barrett_Brown_Helped_Overthrow_the_Government_of_Tunisia.aspx?page=2



So mebbe he's just another spoiled libertarian brat from Highland Park

[mhatrw]

42. LOL at your character assassination.

He was a heroin addict and he threatened an FBI agent on youtube. You do not need to lie to assault his character.

See the bottom of the image on page one of the very article you linked to page 2:

http://www.dmagazine.com/Home/D_Magazine/2011/April/How_Barrett_Brown_Helped_Overthrow_the_Government_of_Tunisia.aspx?page=1

Brown, in his 378-square-foot apartment. He demanded that this story mention he outgrew his Ayn Rand phase when he was 17. He said, “If you don’t put that in there, I will personally DDoS the f--- out of you.”

[struggle4progress]

44. Those who wish to become informed will find the article quite informative. YMMV

[pnwmom]

18. He's also lying about the criminal charges. He's being charged with theft of classified documents,

not having a political opinion.

[davidn3600]

23. It's under the Espionage Act

So technically it could be considered political in nature.

[pnwmom]

24. He wasn't charged with having an OPINION, political or otherwise. He was charged with theft

of classified documents, under the Espionage Act.

[davidn3600]

25. Depends on your interpretation

Some say he exposed illegal and unconstitutional covert activity by his government and is being prosecuted for doing so.

[pnwmom]

27. No, it's a matter of fact. He was charged with theft of classified documents. n/t

[reorg]

46. No, it's a matter of interpretation. Any charge under the so-called Espionage Act

is political in nature (as a professor of law has asserted today in an interview with German TV channel ARD).

But we don't need to make the ultimate decision right here and now. Neither of us has the authority to do so, not even the US Supreme Court, LOL.

If someone applies for protection against extradition or asylum, the requested state alone has to determine through its judiciary and perhaps government officials whether or not the offenses alleged are political in nature and thus exempt from extradition. Nobody else.

[leftynyc]

32. NO - Snowden and you don't

have the right to decide which laws are unconstitutional. There are only 9 people who make that decision. Remember that the next time you're in a voting booth and think there is no difference who wins an election.

[npk]

5. Does anyone doubt that our Government wouldn't torture Snowden if they the chance?

After all that is what we now do best.

[magellan]

10. Apparently some do

Look at all the law they're throwing around above. As if the law still matters.

I was in the military, and I can assure anyone reading that there's nothing in the UCMJ about keeping someone in solitary confinement in their underwear for months on end without charge. Yet it was done to Bradley Manning.

[pnwmom]

17. I do. The whole world would be watching and he wouldn't be under military control. nt

[atreides1]

28. The whole world has been watching!

It didn't mean anything in the Manning case and it hasn't done a lot of good with those being held indefinitely at GITMO with out being charged...so not a far stretch for the US to create some special category for Snowden once he's captured!

[Major Hogwash]

9. Poor, poor Master Snowden. Declared himself innocent before the trial before the charges were filed.

Honestly, Bonnie and Clyde thought they were going to get away with what they were doing for a long time, too.

[Historic NY]

11. So did the Rosenbergs.....

until they met Sparkey.

[mhatrw]

14. Fire those electric chairs up!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3086935

[kas125]

34. My power just came on after being out since yesterday evening, so I didn't see that til now.

It's brilliant!

[90-percent]

12. It's a tipping point

Snowden wants to avoid being Manning-ed by his own government.

Having the entire might of the United States getting medieval on your ass is something I'd hope to avoid, also.

-90% Jimmy

[disidoro01]

13. people here

are conveniently forgetting that Manning went over 3 years before his trial started and those 3 years were hell. It's cute how Gitmo doesn't come into when people post laws to support the belief that Snowden will be treated in accordance to the law.
While we are at it, lets look at the laws that allows for people to be held indefinitely without charges, let alone a trial. How can a person be outside the protections of both the constitution and the geneva convention?
Oh yeah, there should be no doubt that Snowden would get a fair trial.

[newfie11]

19. +1

This country is changing for the worst incredibly fast. It is scary.

[Historic NY]

20. Manning is a soldier in the US Army...

Last edited Tue Jun 25, 2013, 10:28 AM - Edit history (1)

completely different scenario. He is under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Many civilian trials go on longer with motions and pre-trial hoops the legal eagles toss out.

[davidn3600]

29. Where in the UCMJ that the government is permitted to do what they did to Manning

The American prison system, whether civilian or military, doesn't give a damn about human rights or mistreatment. Everyone who knows anything about that system knows that. Amnesty International has said that for years.

[hack89]

22. Wrong. Manning was in solitary for 9 months.

he was moved to a medium security prison in April 2011 where he Is in the general prison population and is allowed to mingle with other inmates. As far as prisons go he could have it a lot worse.

[struggle4progress]

31. No, Manning was not in solitary confinement at Quantico. The Quantico brig had a separate wing

for such detention. Like other prisoners at Quantico, Manning was in a single-occupant cell but was nevertheless able to talk with other prisoners, whicxh would not have been the case had he been held in solitary confinement

[disidoro01]

33. certainly

it could have been worse, Gitmo or a foreign prison. Neither of which is legal but still are used.

[hack89]

35. Most US prisons are worse. nt

[Bodhi BloodWave]

37. why do people so often not mention

that most of that delay was due to motions and other lawyery actions et al done by manning's own lawyer?

[disidoro01]

41. Because it isn't true

Please post that timeline if you disagree.

[Life Long Dem]

26. Torture because he would lose his internet access.

[madrchsod]

30. do`t do the crime if you can`t do the time....

he fuck`d up stuff we do`t know about and probably never will.

oh well, life goes on and nsa is still doing what they do best..data mining the world.

[gulliver]

45. The last thing he wants is a fair trial. nt